OCR Text |
Show Lint From a Blue Sere Suit: Mr. 1. Hoffman (the New York branch of the Hollywood Reporter) recalled the most costly comma in U. S. history. . . . Many years ago a tariff bill listed articles that were to be admitted free. One item was "all foreign fruit-plants." . . But a careless clerk replaced the hyphen with a comma. ... It caused oranges, or-anges, lemons, bananas, grapes and other imported fruits to be admitted admit-ted to the U. S. free of duty. . . . It cost the government an estimated esti-mated million dollars plus. A concrete example of journalistic journalis-tic jiu-jitsu (being thrown for the count) was the story which said that Dick Merrill, the famed transatlantic transatlan-tic flier, had broken another recordflying rec-ordflying from Seattle to Washington Wash-ington in six hours and three minutes. . . . The story was wired from the Capital by one of the news services. . . . One night later we grabbed Dick's paw and shook it hard as we congratulated him. . . . 'I don't know what it's about," he said. "I just came in from Africa. How could such a story that never happened get started?" The terrible crash of the old China Clipper at Trinidad reminded us of the flight we made from Natal to the U. S. . . . The Boeing circled over Port of Spain for more than an hour waiting, we learned, for the man in charge of the field lights to wake up and turn them on. . . . The law there at the time, it appears, prohibited pro-hibited plane landings at night. . . . When the China Clipper crashed it was the first time Trinidad permitted permit-ted planes to land at night. , The author of "Argentine Diary" (Ray Josephs) has an exciting report re-port in Cosmopolitan. It is the first full-length article on Evita (Little Eva) Duarte, the girl "behind the Colonels' clique in Argentina." . . . We wrote about her activities here last June the first story to appear in the U. S. about her influence in Argentina. . . . Little Eva, we said, a one-time playboys' gal-pal, worked herself up, colonel by colonel, to a top spot in the leading Fascist regime re-gime in the Americas. . . Josephs' Cosmo piece is called "Under Cover Cov-er Girl," and you'll know why when you read it. . . . His story, he tells us, was inspired by the item here about her, and that is why the editors edi-tors bought it. . . . Two major movie studios are interested, too, reports the author. . . . Thus a columnar item has bloomed. Things like this are making Sec'y of State tinius a very respected re-spected gent around Washington. . . . The other day he invited Sec'y of Interior Ickes and his staff to meet with the State . Dep't at a private dinner. . . . Mr. Ickes was asked to make ( a complete criticism of the State Dep't. . . . The idea was to achieve better teamwork. . . . Ickes let them have a blistering attack, and plenty of State Dep't ears sizzled. . . . But the confab achieved its unique purpose. ... It put the State1 Dep't lads on friendly, human relations with the Ickes bunch for the first time in a dozen years. Add fine screerf playing: Mark Daniels in the "Winged Victory" hit. ... In mid-December the col'm predicted pre-dicted that another strike would break out at Wright's in rew Jersey. Jer-sey. The workers there wish it emphasized that they won't strike and intend to vote for the continuation continua-tion of the no-strike pledge. A Broadway playgirl was tipped to a sure-thing four days .before Tropical Park shuttered. She plunged on the horse for a $10,000 killing. . . . But the bookie, with no future in racetrack gambling, welshed to the coast. Her boy friend happens to be one of the East's toughest sportsmen. Not a new way of committing suicide, at all. A Gilmore hatcheck gal got a $100 tip from a fellow, who returned two hours later and said it .was a mistake,1 mis-take,1 demanding it back. He gave her $1 instead. Not a bad tip, at that. . . . Havana is "dead" practically prac-tically no tourists. But Cuba has great prosperity, wages are higher than ever. The Cuban capital is guarded by machine gunners, ditto the Presidential Palace. . . . Groaned one wealthy Cuban planter: "You people insist on giving our people milk and ice cream! They hate it!" . . . Isn't it true you are richer than ever?" he was asked. . . . "No," he said, "I used to make $500,000 a month. Now it takes three months to make that!" Cole Porter says of all the songs he's composed, his pet is "Love for Sale." which radio banned because of its poetry and which, consequently, conse-quently, was never "done to death" by the song-pluggers. . . . The Re-pubs Re-pubs are describing Mr. Churchill as "England"s revenge for the Boston Tea Party!" . A legless mendicant mendi-cant features this placard: "4F in the Draft But 1A in Blood Dona-turns!" Dona-turns!" . Phil Brito's description of a ph. my: "He is bothered more by your success than by bis own failure." |