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Show Lights of New York by L. L. STEVBNSON Veteran: Among sightseers that filled an elevator rising rapidly toward the tower of the Empire State building were an aviator and an infantryman in-fantryman evidently strangers to j one another though they both wore the uniform of one of the Allied Na- tions. As the car neared th 80th floor, the first stop, the soldier in- j formed the aviator the change in air pressure was giving him a violent , headache. The aviator looked at I him superiorly and declared: "You I should feel it at 35,000 feet." j The soldier reddened and after a moment of silence, started to lift his t cap with a maimed hand. "I was 1 shot in the " he began. The aviator stopped him but not before a great scalp sear had been exposed. "I'm sorry," said the aviator. "I'm always talking out of turn." Then they grinned at one another. And that was evidently the beginning begin-ning of a real friendship. When we left an hour later, they were still at the table at which they had eaten luncheon together. HoHywood: The organizational maze in Hollywood that doesn't always al-ways allow even the producer to : know what is going oh, is well illustrated il-lustrated by a Goldwyn story told by Louis Kaufman, violinist, in New York for a Town Hall engagement. Kaufman had been handling all the i violin solos produced in films at the United Artists hence the head of the music department was greatly amused when he received a telephone tele-phone call from Mr. G. himself, who said: "Mamoulian stopped in to see me and said he had heard a recital given by Louis Kaufman last night. We ought to have that man in our department see about it will you?" "Look, Mr. Goldwyn," returntd the department head patiently, "Kaufman has been working for you for the last two years." Service: While Eddie and Lucille Roberts were doing their clever telepathy tel-epathy act at the Rainbow Room, they conceived an idea for a radio program to be known as "What's on your mind." They peddled their show from agency to agency and j were auditioned by a half dozen prospective sponsors. But rt tkers. The other day one of the sponsors who had heard their audition, dreaded dread-ed that he wanted to kay the ltw and put it on the air immediately. It was the big chance, en that would make them known all orer the nation, na-tion, for which they had keen waiting. wait-ing. But they turned it down. The reason was that last month they had signed with USO-Camp Shows, Inc., for a tour of southern army camps and expect at any day to be assigned as-signed to overseas entertainment duty. They consider entertaining American soldiers more Important than personal ambition. Excess: Speaking of overseas entertainment, en-tertainment, Romo Vincent comes into mind since all during the run of the George Abbot musical, "Beat the Band," in which he starred, he pestered the producer with requests for a leave of absence so he could go to England to entertain the AEF. With the recent closing of the show, Vincent was sure his chance had come so he called Pan-American j Airways daily to see if he could make a reservation. The answer was always no. Exasperated, the 300-pound comedian finally demanded: demand-ed: "Just when do you think you will have room for me?" And back came the reply: "Just as soon as we have two reservations open." At least, that was the way, it was told to me. Pull: When Johnny Long and his orchestra accompanied Abbott and Costello on a bond selling tour during dur-ing the summer the comedians -and the band leader became fast friends. The other day, Long was signed by Universal Pictures. An hour after he had written his name on the dotted dot-ted line, a wire came from Abbott and Costello informing him that he would make his screen debut in their forthcoming comedy, "Oh, Doctor!" Moral: Hitch your bond wagon to a star. End Piece: Jack Haley was a I witness and an auditor at this hap-1 pening at 50th street and 6th avenue: ave-nue: A woman driver stopped for a red light. When it changed to green, she waited until it again j turned red. When the light turned green for a second time and she showed no signs of going on her way, a policeman walked over and asked politely: "What's the matter, mat-ter, lady, ain't we got no colors to suit you?" Bell Syndicate WNU Featurei. |