OCR Text |
Show i Memos of a Newspaperman: Time echoed the oddity-in-the-1 news about the soldier overseas who was hit by a shell fragment whicti j contained the number on his own I dog-tag . . . The newspapers fell for it, too, a week earlier when a ! Canadian Press dispatch said an RCAF batman was named as the 1 one it actually happened to in Nor-i Nor-i mandy . . . The report stated that i his name was George McMillan of I Nova Scotia. The number on the I fragment was 26750 the number on I his identity card . . . The Herald I Tribune carried it, too, a week after ! it published an article (Aug. 13th) ; in its magazine section titled: ; "Lucky Shot" by Gen. Patton's wife. She said it happened in the last warl Lou Holtz and some others were reminiscing about Ziegfeld and how the master-showman always "had i class" even when he couldn't afford it. I There was the time, frixample, j when Ziegfeld was in Hollywood aft-j aft-j er squandering another fortune on a ! failure in New York. He wired his. j old friend Ed Wynn ... "I know I I owe you $65,000," It said, "but I need $7,500 desperately. Will yo help me out again?" j Wynn instructed his bankers to j rush Ziegfeld the $7,500 . . . Zieg-l Zieg-l feld used it to return to N. Y. in ' a private Pullman! Max Herzberg, who collected a j bookful of anecdotes which he christened: chris-tened: "Insults," considers this his favorite. . . . Once Disraeli and Gladstone collided verbally in the House and as Gladstone came out after adjournment he was still shaking shak-ing with rage. ... He glimpsed Disraeli chatting with other members mem-bers and he shouted: "Sir, you will come to your end either on the gallows gal-lows or by some terrible plague!" Disraeli adjusted his monocle and softly intoned: "I should say, Mr. ' Gladstone, that depends upon whether wheth-er I embrace your principles or your mistress. The G-Men follow through on every ev-ery tip, of course. . . . You never en tell. . . . Several of them were assigned to a real hot one last week. ... A woman, reported the informant, inform-ant, had many signs in her bathroom reading: "Good morning, Mein Fuehrer." . . . "Heil Hitler!" and "What have you done today to improve im-prove the Master Race?" . . . FBI agents, disguised as plumbers, investigated in-vestigated and confirmed the tip. . . . "You bet I put them up!" she boasted. "But I'm not a Nazi!" . . . It took hours before they broke her down. . . . She was fed up with her husband's dictatorial attitude, and he had stopped speaking to her. . . . She hoped to insult him by comparing com-paring him with Hitler! Add capsule criticisms that will live: Don Herold's: "The dogs in Uncle Tom's Cabin' are poorly supported sup-ported by the cast." . . . Robert Benchley: " 'Perfectly Scandalous' was one of those plays in which all of the actors unfortunately enunciated enunci-ated very clearly." . . . Anon: "The trouble with Katharine Hepburn Hep-burn In 'The Lake' is that she didn't throw herself into it enough." Notes of an Innocent Bystander: The Magazines: Newsweek's gQod word-wedding. Its drama critic, describing de-scribing a singer portraying a ham my actress, wrote: "She plays the role of a Mae Westphalian prima donna. . . . The same mag reminds re-minds Russian-baiters that the Soviet So-viet casualties are almost five times greater than the U. S. and British combined. . . . "Seventeen," a new mag for the junior-miss set, has a refreshing slant. . . . Earl Wilson is represented in Everybody's Digest, Di-gest, a mag with zing. . . . Pic rolls out the silver lining for scientists who insist civilization can attain Utopia. Meanwhile we'll be ctent with the closest thing to it-.Tieri-ca. . . . American Mercury's circulation circu-lation is climbing steadily and for good reason. It makes sense. . . . John Roy Carlson, the "Under Cover" Cov-er" author, does another excellent job in The Woman magazine. ... In a few weeks the same mag offers his "Daughters of Dissension and Defeat," De-feat," which undresses the various phony "Mother Patriotic Clubs." Navy Sec'y Forrestal got a huge howl at the Waldorf dinner in his honor with this: "There are two wars. We are winning the first one and we are going to win the second. But there are too many experts! That reminds me of the expert engineer en-gineer who knew what it was all about. You know what an expert is. He's a mechanic away from home!" ' Capt. J. Farra, 51, has been in the Army 35 years. . .He was asked to fill out another questionnaire. The first question was: "Civilian occupation?" occupa-tion?" ... To which Farrar jotted down: "Child!" ... In Indianapolis a man was nabbed climbing over the wall qt the Indiana women's prison. The police" learned he was the prison engineer and had forgotten his keys. ... A certain prima donna complained com-plained to a newspaper man that she was getting nervous and irritable and just didn't want to see people. "Give a concert," he suggested. |