| Show ALONG BROADWAY WITH WINCHELL Jf Counsel of Famed Critic Is Reviewed by Columnist By WALTER WINCHELL The passing of Percy Hammond depressed this who leaned heavily on him longer than a decade for guidance and counsel Mr Hammond who was 63 but so much younger than that when he was vas among us cubs was the first of the first- first to encourage this upstart It was at a premiere in 1924 after the first act fell on a play at the Maxine Elliott theater on Thirty-ninth Thirty street and we were a week young at atthe atthe atthe the business of reporting plays To a newcomer the first crowd isn't always affable We Ve a half a block fr from m the lobby to keep from beIng being be- be beI I ing po poisoned by them Mr Hammond approached Have you a match please he asked we said lighting his and happy to have met him that way He said Youre Winchell arent aren't you you Well dont don't try so hard to make good take it easier casler And then he said that when people who wrote pieces for the paper thought their stuff was good- good there were always people who ho would think it was only pretty good And when you thought your stuff was only pretty good good peo peo people pie would say it was rotten The bunch called him Percy I always called hl hint him My friend Mr Ir Hammond amm nd wrote the most scholarly of all show reporters He frequently frequently frequently fre fre- fre- fre baffled actors by his learned raps and drove press agen agents crazy when they tried to twist his polished Insults into a quote for their ads Mr Hammond's Hammonds Hammonds Hammond's Hammonds Hammond's Ham Ham- monds mond's lines will wUl be quoted for decades One of his most famous was the punch in his report re report report re- re re- re port of a musical when he was a Chicago devastator He wo wound nd up his slam by saying I find I have knocked everything but the chorus chorus chorus cho cho- rus girls' girls knees and there God anticipated me Still SUU an- an was other one he ad Jibbed on the curbstone ne Fresh from froin Chicago Mr Hammond was covering a ashow ashow sho show when he was approached by the pieces piece's press agent whom he detested Well said the ballyhoo bal bal- bal bal- you getting to like New York any better Or do you still stUl got get lonesome for Chi Never was Mr MiS Hammonds Hammond's dea deadly ly so acutely as to tonight to- to night Once Mae Mac West Vest publicly threatened threatened threat threat- ened to horsewhip him He had a lot Jot of fun with that controversy con con- George White barred him for disliking one of his his' re re- re In his playful moods which were frequent he enjoyed crediting F F. P P. A. A or one of his confreres with some banal line This way The The news spread d like wildfire as F. F P. P A. A would say I never saw him smile or heard him laugh during a show On th the pavement between acts nets however r his laughter was WM the lustiest when a wag sprung a gag gag he hadn't heard before He was not a wisecracker although he once sald he envied the etter ones He Ho despised filth to and fought it In the drama pages J y Earl Eal Carroll barred him hirn for tor his attacks on obscenity Carroll attempted to fight back hack by buying big space on Mr Hammonds Hammond's p page ge Of Ot a notorious woman in one one of f Carrolls Carroll's enterprises Mr Hammond Hammond Hammond Ham Ham- mond wrote It SIt is strange Indeed in indeed In- In deed to see in a 3 3 house At a recent premiere as too man many manof of them shouldn't be called Mr Hammond who had to leave by 11 o'clock to make a n midnight deadline p put t on n his hat at as he be walked up the aisle Look at that Percy Hammond Hammo d. d groaned a spectator wearing his hU hat Inthe in inthe inthe the theater Oh squelched a a col col- col- col He probably wants to show his contempt for the audience audience audience au au- au- au as well as th the show Some of the reasons Mr Hammond Hammond Ham Ham- mond o d gave gave for a a dramatic critic enjoying his job were If he likes the the entertainment he is 15 enjoying yng it beneath his gelid in mask ask k and i Ithe It If he doesn't doesn he is happy in contemplating con contemplating con con- n- n revenge I like to togo togo togo go to o. o the theater because the women in it arc are s so attractive and the men so otherwise To be really honest hone t however I admit admi that I like to go to the theater because 1 I am m overpaid for or doln doing 4 y so In the last five years ears he le hated it IL Before h he migrated to New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Worn Chicago Mr Hammond Hammond Hammond Ham Ham- mond was the toughest of ot the drama defenders It It had to be bea a riot they sa say before he would give a patty cake Therefore when the World war war started and the word got around the editorial I department that Hammond was going to see the war as a correspondent correspondent corre corre- an actor exclaimed Heavens What if he doesn't like it t 1 i One lOne of or th the grandest pieces h hever he ever wrote was on the first night regulars He pretended to rhapsodize z over ver the phoney setup and swung into the gee whiz school of reporting to rave over the wits wit the bon and other glamorous figures always seen there there and and then mentioned by ay name a whole crowd of nonentities nonentities nonen nonen- and bores in short the reg reg- ulars It was weeks before the kidded tumbled to the fact that he was snickering at them and more weeks before they were recovered enough to take an any solid soUd food For me he waS woi was the north star of ot Broadway |
