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Show Si fell yij &V?ri La A f i- w''u-" -- Thawts While Yawning: Ho, ho, have a switch: Japan now is offering to sell us steel scrap! ... What's all that to-doodle about Miss Truman's name? Margaret's her middle name, anyhow. Her real first name is Mary. . . . Some nasty person said this colyumist used to be a British booster but "what does he do for England now?" He still pays his taxes! . . . Kirna Moor, who has a honey of a blues voice, was Miss Istanbul of '37 when she was only 12. . . . The Cincy Enquirer wit observes that a man who found a valuable pearl in his oysters in a night club almost broke even. The Wall St. Journal occasionally occa-sionally seasons its stodgy financial fi-nancial folderol with zany puns like this: "Once upon a time there was a little bee and it was very happy because it got a bumble from heaven!" (Onow-lookahere.) (Onow-lookahere.) The Show Shops: Critic George Jean Nathan probably doesn't even suspect that in Houston, Tex., it's against the law to sleep in a theater. thea-ter. . . . Ted Saucier is conferring with MGM on a proposed sequel to his "Weekend at the Waldorf." It ranks among the first 10 screen immortals im-mortals as a top money-maker. . . . "Annie Get Your Merman" is this kind of humdinger: It opened during dur-ing the 1945-M6 season but topped all the 1947-'48 moneymakers. . . . The first variety show on television has showmen worked up into a pitch of breathlessness that mebbe vaude can have a big revival via the new medium. Wouldn't that be the irony of the ages? It Vaude came out of the Tomb and slew its murderer, the Talkies? S. Jay Kaufman, a colyuming pioneer pio-neer along Broadway two decades ego, recalls when he met Herbert Hoover, just defeated for re-election. The ex-President told about Cal Cool-idge, Cool-idge, who inaugurated the idea of seeing see-ing anyone who wished to see him one hour a week. Mr. Hoover tried the plan but not happily. When he next sate Coolidge he asked "Silent Cal" how he could see so many persons in an hour, while he (Hoover) could see so few. "B ecaus e," dead panned Cal, "YOU answer back!" The Airistocrats: One of the liveliest live-liest summer fiestas is "Hollywood Showcase." Mickey Rooney's quicksilver quick-silver nonsense darts from chuckle to chuckle. . . . The give-away radio ra-dio shows are shelling out a mint weekly but the dreadful sameness (of the formats) puts most of them in the dime-a-dozen category. . . . CBS's "Adventures in Science" is enlightening as well as entertaining entertain-ing a rare wedding. . . . Robert Shaw's choral group (replacing Chawlee McCarthy) is a refreshing relief from most summer subs. This tuneful half hour deserves to hang around when the leaves fall. "I was happy when I read Betty Grable was the highest paid woman last year," says Jackie Elinson. "It's nice, for a change, to see an actress make all that money without once suing her husband." Several book firms have folded recently. Big ones are doing okay but the small fry can't take it. . . . Irwin Shaw refused to let firms, reviewers, re-viewers, et al, see the galleys of his next novel. He rates it better than best-seller, "The Naked and the Dead." . . . The book trade has labelled Kathleen Winsor's new untitled opus "Mrs. Kinsey's Report." Re-port." (Won't be unveiled until a year hence). . . . Charles Lindbergh's Lind-bergh's new book, "Of Flight and Life" (Scribner's), is due soon. His last was "We" in 1927. . . . Bernard Ber-nard Baruch spurned $5,000 to do a mag piece giving advice to the President of the U. S. Oh, No! Dept.: Gold-tipped shoes are the newest thing for men in the loose-wrist set. . . . Chums hear Bobo Rockefeller is writing a novel. . . . Dor olAy Lawlor, the gal who got all that free space claiming she would marry any man for $10,000. has decided to cash in on the publicity and take some night club bookings. Starts in a Long island joynt. . . . The permanent ad dress of Mike and Anne (of Rumania) is Ouchy, Switzerland. Times Square Ticker: If you see Ethel Merman wearing a hat, it's the only one she owns. And mighty pretty, too. . . . The late Evelyn Walsh MacLean's fabulous Dusen-berg, Dusen-berg, which cost her $38,000 (plus lots more for accessories), is now a local cab. The owner paid 3Gs for it at an auction. . . . News services might check with playwright play-wright S. Kingsley. One of the Dead End Kids (who played Milty in Kingsley's hit) has become a skilled surgeon. ... J. P. Morgan's ex-chauffeur is now at Bar Harbor Har-bor with his wife. The millionaire bequeathed him an estate in the fashionable sector and enough coin to loaf the rest of his life. There's a new play about Hollywood making the rounds. The foreword says: "All the characters in this play are purely pure-ly phony and so are their originals!" |