Variety (December 1957)

77 Wednesday, December 4, 1957 t^RIETT LITERATI •Paris-MatchV New Photo Annual } Paris-Match, top Gallic picture weekly, a sort of combo of Life: and. Look; has started an annual photo (bum tracing the year’s events via butter and text. It is called “His- ! toire D’Aujourd’hui” (Story of.To¬ day) at $6.50. Well mounted book d : splays a savvy lensing staff, and c ipped, smart tcxtlays the year’s : events out clearly, It looks -like a | good U. S. library addition; and,for i those not iri on the lingo hasr ;?ough storytelling photos; Show ]bfz comes in for its share, oc space alongside such shattering ■happenings as Hunga y, Suez and | Algeria. Photos are in color and] black and white. Humorous bits; lend tone, and best one is. of a ; group of stalwart Gallic paratroops; ers marching down the Champs- Flysees past a pic marquee reading j “Look Out Girls.” ierre Galante, husband of Olivia | Dj Hayilland. is handling this tome which will now be a yearly event. Mask. Chile's Press Tieup Hassle between labor and man-, agement has paralyzed p oduction of the Zig-Zag: publishing, empire, in Santiago, Chile. String of week¬ ly mags includes Zig-Zag, Ercilla, Topaze, Vea, Eva,, Peneca, Barra- bases, El Plnguino, Ecrari (film publication); Confidericia, Estadio, Fausto. Okey and a flock of pri¬ vately-owned periodicals such as Vision, Campeslnos, ContaCto, PaV ■r«a.. Carabineros, El Tenicnte. Strike also halted printing of the latest issue of the Santiago tele¬ phone directory. No accurate estimate of the mil¬ lions of pesos lost by one of the biggest publishing firms in Latin America and its more than- 1.000 employees as a result of the walk¬ out has been made available. crisscross tale of young pointless love, affairs, and- “Tanguy,” of Michel Castillo, about growing up in.Spain. . / . Gallimard counts on “Lcs Mari- gues Vertes” (The Green Mangos), by Madeleine AUeiris, a tale of love in Africa, and Laffont offers “La Douvc,” of Loys Masson, a talc of a dying author drying to write a personal novel'-hut.forced to resort to Commercialisin' to live. . George BelniOnt’s “Le Grand Pi-essbir” (The Big Press) is one. bn political anticipation in the “1984” syndrome; and Paul C ha- land’s “L’Avion Fou” is listed as a top aviation novel. Both are from Laffont. Georges Simenon has a; new murder tale with-. “Striptease,” and Rene Masson has a political satire With “Le Parlementaire Ver- tueux.” Plon Is hanking on a Left Bank love ta’e “La Mandarine” by Chris¬ tine De Rivoyre arid “L’Hamecon,” by Vahe Katcha, on North Africa. There, are other dark horses up for: the kudos .which are. the Academy Award aspects of the French. lit¬ erati. scene. Meanwhile foreign books are coming in: arid also the usual biographies. ter. Commercial radio and ; televi¬ sion were two more of his firsts. But his greatest accomplishment has been, iri tTie: field of atoins. for peace; The writers hav% done a lively story, though an intro by Bob Con- j sidine stepped on their gags and all but-took the play away from them. Could be a biopie. if Holly- 11 •t SCUIXY’S SCKAPBOOK ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ By Frank Scully French Literati Sweepstakes Novels are pouring out of the various publishers as the Paris lit- : erary world girds, for the big prizes—Goncourt, Femina; Reriau- dot and Interallied—which may mean extra sales up to 25,000 or 50-000 copies, the difference be¬ tween black and red ink for the year. Various . juries were given something of a respite this year for many of the hopefuls began ap¬ pearing as early as May to give them time to read arid not. crowd all the toppers into a month’s span as. has usually been the case: ' Film and legit producers are watching these sweeps, ready to pourice oh probable . winners for properties. The many losers in. the. .limelight also benefitWith greater eharices for show biz sales. Things are still, in the grapevine and rumor stage for all the prizes will not be . out until the end of November. However, leaders seem to: be Roger Vailland’s “La Loi” (The Law), published by Gallimard, about a rugged game of love and jealousy in Italy; Alfred Kerri's “Le Clown,” also Gallimard, about an itinerant funriyman and his fam¬ ily; arid Paul. Guimard r s “Rue. De Havre,*' a delicate tale about a boy. and girl who take the Same train to work every morning but never meet, Denoel publishes the latter Two more love tales are also of interest with Rene Barjavel’s “Jour : de Feu” (Day of Fire) and Marion Delbo’s “Le Soleil Etait Gai” (The Sun Was. Gay), both by Denoel. Juillard has the. bestselling Frari- coise Sagan's “Dans Un An. Dans Un Mois” (In a Year, In a Day) a 'British Theatre* With “A Picture: History of the British. Theatre” . (Macmillan; $5.95), Raymond Marider and Joe Mitchenson have added another to their excellent series of pictorial stage records. Over 500 pictures were culled from the celebrated M & M theatre collection, rapidly becoming recognized as the fore¬ most “wjprking" compilation of its sort in the world. Voluriie confines itself to. legit offerings in Britain from 1576 to the present. Historic periods highlighted .with, views of actors, playhouses and dramas in¬ clude the Elizabethan and Jacp- heari, 'Restoration arid-Queen Anne eras, Georgian, Regency, Victorian and 20th Century. Work is part of the Hulton Picture ^Series of which Sir Edward Hultoh is general edi¬ tor, arid it is dedicated With authors’ thanks, to Sir Bai’ry Jack- son; Several American, plays, and players -ih West End. versioris are depicted in latter portions of the ‘book. Rodo. GoodBiog on Rachel “I, Rachel.” by March Cost (Van¬ guard; $3.95), is a biographical novel, on the great 19th ceiitury actress. Miss Cost, formerly with the Sir Frank Benson repertory Companies in England, spent four yegjs of research and four years in writing this work; : It traces the career of Rachel Felix, the peddler’s daughter, from strolling player to her pinnacle on the French stage. Dead at. 36, Rachel achieved immortality in her profession, and became a symbol of the femme fatale of the theatre. Miss Cost, often using exact quotes, and With-' her firm knowledge of Rachel’s life and background; has performed a memorable and excit¬ ing task in 1 ‘e-creating. this tragic Palm Springs, DCc. 3. __ _ ____ Under an isolation far from splendid but nevertheless having its ad- woed* Wver*'ge’ts ’ awdy^-frdm Vantages, I have never caught the current Mike Wallace show any- . stage'. Scut. where in America:. Or, for that matter, anywhere in Europe. On our — translator tv, ABC-TV doesn’t come into Palm Springs even now. Expanded ‘Eccentrics* But the older forms of communications are not denied America’s :. In the 25 years since Dame foremost desert resort, and so when Pete Martin called on Mike Wal- . Edith. Sitwell first published her lace and tliey proceeded to take in each , other’s washing in the pages “English Eccentrics.” in . a very of the Post, We were .allowed to share the lauridromatic dialog for. 15c. ? iri f. he - D ~ As these interviews seem to be fortified by tape recordings, material witnesses and other aids to the accuracy of what was said and what was entries- “ additional ec- not saa . it - 5 a lit u e d!fficult f ot anyb J dy in the e nd to ilaim be was . A . v a misquoted. The drily information that I caught which was in quotes ciint'Maririe/^the* Carlyles, Hobtol «« when Wallace^said, “I was dome an afternoon show son Crusoe arid new slants on "lth a gurl to-whom I used to he married. My wif e s name had been George Eliot. Vanguard has just Buff Cobb—she was. Irvin S. Cobb's daughter—so our show was called brought it out in a $5 edition. •‘Mike and Buff’,” —— Pete Martin’s Lost; Generation CHATTER It may have been that Pete Martin's tape-recorder dropped one gen- NOel Coward’; “Nude With Vjo- eration, but having known both Buff Cobbs, I can assure Mike Wal¬ lin” will be published next riionth lace he was not married to Iryin S. Cobb’s daughter, hut to his grand- w D publeday. daughter. Cobb’s daughter’s name was Elizabeth. She was born ih Sa- Max\yeli C. Wheat, who previousr vanfifl h, and worked as a script. Writer in Hollywood when I first met ai 10 ^her :around 1934. Her godparents. When she became a Catholic con- Staffer wi h vert 1948 lfsted as Clare Booth Luce and Greta Palmer. She ® fees"Managing editor »as called Buff, not Elizabeth. : Turner Catledge elected, a trustee,^ Her daughter; in turn, was. billed as Buff Cobb, and I remember her of Sarah La\vrence College, Bronx- ’ at the Cafe de Paris iri Chicago where siie arid Mike Wallace did a roid- ville. N. Y,. ' ' 1 niglit gab show perched high in a corner of the bar. In fact I “perform- »» in A * Joseph, fornierly of e( p* if that isn’t trespassing on a pro’s lexicon—on their show in 1950 Holiday mag, jO;ned Ideal Publish- when the Chicago Variety office tried to kill me by booking rile into fern’s ^ .. , ,. Personal Roiriances and Movie K. Ali i, remember now of the Mike and Buff niidmght frolic was that Life; among others. I she was dressed in al all wool plaid strapless-^evening gown and was Poet-lawyer Newman Levy calls r about as stunning a thing aV I had Seen, in the wide, wide world of make s soon-due Doubleday.: biography, f believers. I remember, too, 1,was awed further by the mysteries of ffy Double Life: Adventures in. j creation, that out of such homely protoplasm as Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb Law and Letters.”, Same -firm such a'beauty could eventually emerge, bringing out Rose Franken’s “The, wi.— . r ; Antic Years,” her eighth “Claudia” ) ... > vhen Kipling Called Cobb A Liar Sticking with Cobb for a moment, he, too, when he graduated from the old New York World, was on a grind similar to Pete Martin’s and . for the. sarnie, but greatly altered Saturday Evening Post. He, too, got in jams as to whethefc he w r as quoting or. misquoting people. In fact, Riidyard Kipling slapped his'flapping.'ears down and left the word “liar!” floating above the Atlantic like a sputnik that didn't know which Way to; go. What seemed to have nettled Pete Marti in bis session with tele¬ vision’s self-styled devil’s advocate was that. Wallace had a legman who promised riot to ask anything about Pete’s abrasions with Arthur God- frey, for whom Peter did a three .part “as told to” series for the Post. .. Apparently this was one of those great enterprises that produce great at 22. Ed\yard C. Aswell haswrit-1 headaches arid Godfrey’s editing of Martin left him burning like a ten a fore\va**d. .. . {Lindbergh light But Martin did confess to Wallace that the series ^ Houghton .Mifflin drafted Austin jumped the. Post's circulation, and pre-publication copies sold for $1 Gliiey as manager of the iuve de- | ^ cop y. [ partment. with^Marv Sdva Cos- j He confessed also that it annoyed iiim for people to ask him what icSriof be refill thought of the celebs he. wrote about Wallace said, “And it’s the genero\ CxpanriOri th?W I your conclusion that the person who asks you that is calling you a liar?” genius. Rodd. KATHERINE HEPBURN'S cornplete career is described and. ana* l.vzed in the December issue of FILMS LN REVIEW, ’together with" an index of all her pictures, and illustrations from 22 of them.'The December issue also contains the reasons - why Jerry W.ald and Mark Robson approve of tbe. Production Code; an article on how TV is using clips, from newsreels and old feature films to make a. kind of. visual history; a fuU report on the. recent .Eastman: awards for acting, direction and camera work in films of 1926-30: Plus FILMS IN REVIEW’S regular departments—absolutely hon-- rev i®ws of current movies; of the turns made expressly for TV, of books about movies, of recorded .filmusic; sophisticated movie gossip;' a movie quizz- for eggheads; and the most interesting and historically valuable letters department published by any movie magazine in the world. FREE ' . »I* 'J'. 111 *jnd th» Decembar issoa fi-e* 1?.*! 1 'T!? 0 . ,ub *crlba for ona ya«r. v,! “” ,n 'Si TT - ,N REVIEW. 31 Union Square, New York City 3 New Doubleday-Anchor Edition. . Doubleday-Anclior is a new hard-cover imprint by that liotise which will publish Edmund. Wil¬ son’s “The American . Earthquake: Documentary of the Jazz Age, the Great Depressiori,. arid the New Deal”, late next month. Under same imprint, “The. Art of Travel,” by Henry James, culled from the American novel- ist’s five travel books, long out of print,, will be published in March; edited bv Morton Dauwen Zabel. M A Henry Adams Reader.” edited and with an introduction by Eliza¬ beth Stevenson is another D.ouble- day-Anchor anthology due in . Feb¬ ruary. . ’Miracle Mail of Japan* Ed -Uhlan, prez of Exposition Press, and Dana -Thoma$_ of Bar-, ron’s, • have done a good job biog- ing Matsutaro Shoriki tinder the billing of “Miracle Man of Japan.” (Banner; 50c)l A. top cop after he graduated from college, Shoriki climbed to become publisher of Yomiuri vvhen it was 50- years -• old and showing its age. and raised it to top daily of Japan. He intro¬ duced; pro baseball to Japan and even imported Babe Ruth .one win- Lavlshly lllustrstsd — 100% Topic*! 'CONTINENTAL FILM REVIEW* , TH* ONLY^ MONTHLY OiP ITS KIND »» « 4 MONTHS 1 DOLLAR 40 — AIR MAIL 7 DOLLARS 75 H MONTHS 3 DOLLARS HL— AIR MAIL 9 DOLLARS .45 EURAF Rvblichinf C*. Ltd: 71 Stck« Newington Rd^ London .N. 14 novel. Jackjlyan, former NBC publicist in Chicago and now circulation manager of Montana State Uriiv. Press; has designed two editions of a Montana classic.. “Vigilante Days and Ways,” by N.. ;P. Langford, which the Press reissuing. Thomas Wolfe’s “Look Homeward An cel” has sparked Dnubleday’s publication next year of an here-. tofO r e unnublished plav. “Welcome to Our City,” which WoKe wrote monnet division. . . Nathan Leonold Jr. calls his biography “Life Plus 99 Years,” due late in February off the- Dou¬ bleday press. In a lighter vein, from the same: house and the same time, wvill come Corey Ford’s humor ' collection, “Has Anbody Seen Me Lately?” No>Work Continued from: page 1 ; Rap have been heroin addicts.” Ham¬ mond stated that lie knew of many musicians who have ’‘kicked” the hCroin habit; a statement which, ran counter to other testimony be¬ fore the committee that not i single , case is known of a cured heroin addict. Hammond, testified that while the: narcotic. problem was limited to only a small minority of musi¬ cians, the economic conditions ior tooters was dangerously frustrat¬ ing and disillusioning.' For the 30 r OOO.membeFS of Local 802, AFM, in N. Y., there are only 3,000 steady, jobs. Facilities to aid in the treatment of addicted, musicians, are being supported by the American Jim Festival. Harimiond stated that the chances of’ cure are good if the proper: psychiatric help and employment' opportunities are present. ‘Commandments’ ; Continued from page It was here that Wallace jumped the gun and asked Martin, what he really thought of Arthur Godfrey, a subject which was supposedly off limits. Martin said there was a photographer with him when Wallace’s leg¬ man questioned him before the ty interview itself. “How naive can you get?” asked the photographer. -Tli bet a question about Godfrey will be one' of the first he’ll ask you.” When the question was thrown at Martin by Wallace, Pete said to hlmself, "Somebody on this show is dishonest. I don’t know if it’s. Wallace or his legman, or both.” Wallace said later nobody was authorized to chop off . areas of in- quiry for him. But added, “We scrupulously honor any promises we make.” Martin, still thought it was a dodge. UNIVAC Ideal Reporter Both parties seemed to glorify their interviews as free of emotion, feeling or. bias. Univac seemed to be their ideal inquiring reporter. Considering how much editorial opinion and slanting has entered Current journalism, it seems these two boys were straining pretty hard to reach; a detachment which died with Chekhov and probably wasn’t too good for people even in his time. Journalists who wear their pants off from sitting on the fence may enjoy nice, neutral death notices, but since obviously, much of the material they are being fed is more slanted than liries of; force in outer space, they are actually passing on prop¬ aganda as news if they, don’t evaluate by some fairly absolute ethical standards or throw out the slanted prose altogether. Martin borrowed a Shavian crack-which I once included in a life of Shaw; to the effect that no man is good enough or bad enough to Write the Avhole truth about himself. I think that’s true. But it Can’t be de¬ nied, that: several have tried it. Shaw .himself couldn’t write about; politics, sex or religion, the three subjects he claimed bad 2 priority above all others, without clothing-, them in “latinity” as he called it. And he never could have believed, if he had lived to this day, that a person, like Mary Margaret McBride being interviewed on television, would say, “I never found the right inanito marry, but I contemplated having a baby with an Italian with whom I was in love ” .. Moreover; he could never have believed that the Saturday Evening Post would repeat the confession in a publication that prided itself on being for the whole family. The confession Of Elsa Maxwell on the same program topped even j this, though Elsa’s was a general indictment of cafe society and (heir .{adulteries/.which she didn’t think was the Worst crime in the world, Chacun A Son Gout Of course, all this is a matter of . taste and even if the various par¬ ties involved in this electronic shock treatment had started out with iriipeccable standards/ it would be too much to expect that after rub- his . lips and observe his facial bing shoulders w ith so. much Vulgarity some, of it wouldn’t rub off on muscles; Prior to the performance, the deaf parishioners . will receive a picture story of- -the film which details the sequence of . scenes and cites the historical backgrPund. ReV. Gerhold has been reliearsihg them. Wallace said that put of 250 interviews the FCC never called him to the carpet for violating good, taste, and it is true the Government agericy told the L.A.-cops to sue if Mickey Cohen, under Wallace’s prodding, libeled Chief Parker. I orice suggested to a group of name authors, all of whom seemed __....____ to have been privy to at least,one. terrific but unprintable Hollywood his stint so that he is aware where ’ story, that each write his Story, then seal them and place them mr a the action is self explanatory and [time capsule, to he buried for a hundred years. By then all parties in- where the dialog needs interpreta-! volved Avould have passed On to whatever destination they had laid out tiori, | for. tliemseives in this life and the grandchildren of the authors could Accordiul to officials of the [read a Boccaccio of.Hollywood more McCoy than McCoy. Adams Ti>/atre,. : the special ar-! But . the trouble was they were all pros and hone of them could see rarigemen*4 for the deaf will in no | himself burying fiis best story for a hundred years and even then .no way confl^'t width others seeing: payoff. Is It possible that the . Wallace school of self-expression can the filni. > ; brainwash passing notables to do this by and to themselves?