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Show PHI n I f" """'' U I L j '-- ii'L I Notes of a Newspaper Man: This, they tell you, happened at the Big 3 conference. . . . One evening eve-ning after dinner Roosevelt. Churchill Church-ill and Stalin started speculating on what nationality they'd prefer to be if they couldn't be their own. . . Churchill said: "If I couldn't be British I'd want to be American." . . . Roosevelt said: "If I wasn't American, I'd be British." . . . Stalin said: "If I wasn't Russian I'd be ashamed of myself!" During the recent run of the Theater Thea-ter Guild's "Embezzled Heaven," the star, Ethel Barrymore, was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. pneu-monia. She was placed In an oxygen oxy-gen tent . . . President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were among the many who sent posies and telegrams, tele-grams, and for a few weeks everyone every-one despaired of her pulling through. . . . Finally, the worst was over and the star was permitted to sit up in bed and answer the phone. . . . The first caller was the Guild's Theresa Helburn. "Hello," she cheerily said, "how's your cold?" The other night a Hungarian playwright play-wright was told an actor had arrived from Hungary. . . . "Do you know him?" he was asked. "Know him?" was the retort. "He's my best friend. I hate him!" Our recent paragraphs about misplaced commas brought the one about the London Dally Mall, which has a reputation for making mak-ing fewest errors. ... All sorts of editorial supervision was employedbonuses em-ployedbonuses were offered the staff to maintain the highest standards, etc. But the Mail was still less than perfect Finally, the editor summoned the staff and announced: "Hereafter, "Here-after, the first copy will be printed print-ed on special stock and sent to the King of England." Editorial blunders dropped 90 per cent. A Texan In London was trying to Impress some Britishers with the size of his home state. "Do you know," he said, "that In Texas you can hop on a railroad car at 8 in the morning and still be in Texas after riding 24 hours?" "We." replied a Britisher, "have trains like that in England, too." It happened at the premiere of "One Man Show." . . . The curtain was up and a woman was making a big to-do as she got into her seat, huffing and puffing. . , . Seated near her was George Luddy, the Indian-born Indian-born author. ... He polished her off neatly by audibly remarking: "Don't worry about her. She's so used to the second balcony that sitting In the orchestra tonight has given her the shakes." The exciting stories from Manila Ma-nila Included the one about an American radio reporter whe was freed after three year as a Jap prisoner. He was forced off the air one day as the Japs entered the city. The tther morning, said the papers, hi resumed re-sumed broadcasting this way: "As I was saying when I was so rudely Interrupted" De Valera of Eire was arrested arrest-ed while speaking at a street meeting several years ago. When he was freed years later, his first statement was: "As I waa aaylng when I was so rudely rude-ly Interrupted" Margalo Glllmore, the actress, was anxious to become a nurse's aide but found she didn't have enough stamina tor the work being frightened by the sight of blood, etc. So she compromised by becoming a Grey Lady (one who reads to the convalescent servicemen, etc.) , . . Margalo was telling Carolyn Burke about her duties. . . . "Just what is a Grey Lady?" asked Carolyn. . . . "A Grey Lady In my case," said Margalo, "is a yellow nurse's aide." There was the time the late Alex Woollcott was the victim of a typesetter's type-setter's error. . . . The critic once referred to a famous rccitallst as "a popular dieuse." It came out: "Popular disease." When critic Rascoe covered the new play, "Hope for the Best." he was no little flattered that the principal prin-cipal comedy line (used intermittently intermit-tently throughout the three acts) was something he wrote many years ago It was: "Something no wife can ever understand, no matter If she lives with the man for 25 years, is that a writer Is working when he Is staring star-ing out of the window." A group of newspapermen were gabbing about the current college stories the basketball scandal and the race discrimination report on dental cotlcges. One of the scribes said: "No matter what kind of a college yarn I write, I never have to worry about my punch-line." . . "Howcum?" asked a chronic-how cumer. "I Just write." said the first news paper man, " 'Nicholas Murray But Ur, President of Columbia Univer slty, could not be reached tor com menf " i |