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Show H i l.. .;..r-Li -J Innocent Bystander: The Cinemagicians: Fred Mac-Murray Mac-Murray lights the fuse for a surefire-cracker christened "Smoky." The outdoor de luxer has Mother Nature as Fred's leading lady. . . . "The Searching Wind" went from footlights to kleig lights and remains re-mains a provocative humdinger. It ( digs beneath the surface of current Issues and comes up with a dramatic dra-matic gusher. Sylvia Sidney heads the trouper-dupers. . . . "Diary of a Chambermaid" is an adult boy-girl opus, highlighted by keen character studies and crisp dialogue that has plenty of spin on its phrases. Paillette Paill-ette Goddard keeps it twirling. . . . "The Hoodlum Saint" offers a sprightly meller gifted with Bill ' Powell's urbane pretending and Esther Es-ther Williams' natural hipnotic gift, j The Press Box: Thomas B. Sher- man in the St. Louis P-D spanks W. Lippmann and other tall-domed thinkers for using the annoying word combination "know-how." We don't like it either, know-how. . . . William S. Hart's passing received appropriate adieulogies, one editorial editori-al concluding: "There will never be another Bill Hart. The background is faded and the type is dated, but the memory is still green and fresh." Quotation Marksmanship: T. Fuller: Ful-ler: If you'd have a hen lay, you must bear with her cackling. . . . Old Russian Adage: Wounds heal but harsh words stay in the heart and mind. . . . J. Baker: The guests were all having an uncorking good time. . . . J. Elinson: He's always corning a phrase. . . . Ida James: I hope the atom test isn't the Bikin-Ing Bikin-Ing of the End. . . . J. Gart: The British seem to be more interested in getting the Grand Mufti to Palestine than The Hundred Grand who belong there. . . . J. Cannon: Louis is a credit to his race. The human race, of course. . . . E. Cuneo: I would gladly change the Drchids I deserve for the scallions I don't. . . . G. J. Nathan: Men go to the theater to forget; women, to remember. Jimmy Gardiner, the play-producer, told this at Leone's the other night. During the war he was visited visit-ed by a wealthy neighbor from Texas, Tex-as, an aging woman who had an overpowering yen for the perfect string of pearls. Gardiner recommended recom-mended Cartier's. . . . There she was served by a young clerk who mistook her unprepossessing ap- pearance for poverty and showed her the lowest-priced strings. . . . She demanded better ones until the store's stock was exhausted and Dnly the vault remained. She insisted in-sisted on going into it. . . . The clerk pulled out their finest pearls and showed them to her. It was just what she was looking for. She asked how much. . . . "The price," said the clerk haughtily, "is $500,000." . . . "I'll take it," said the woman, opening her purse and extracting a half-million dollars in cash! . . . The clerk keeled over with t. heart attack. Norman Granz recently produced a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. It sold out. . . . Norman was once engaged en-gaged to a Southern society gal named Virginia. He was so in love with Virginia that he christened the theme song of the concert: "Love You Virginia Blues." . . . But, alas, Virginia, who never hung around back stage before, changed fellers from Norman to a hot jazz man In the crew. . . . She returned his ring. . . . And now, sohelpus, as the curtain comes down on each concert an announcer introduces the newly titled theme song, to wit: "Drop Dead Virginia Blues." j Torrid temperatures turning the town into a stone and steel Sahara. . . . Flimsy gowns clinging to trim torsos as though they loved them. . . . Weary salesmen scurrying into the foyers of Broadway's air-cooled movie places. . . . The silken rustle of luxury in swanky spots, where the ladies are chin-deep in ermine. . . . Sidewalk cafes in the Gramercy Park sector and in the 40s and 50s between 5th and the AoftheA. The most attractive is the one outside the St. Moritz Hotel. When the monster mon-ster motors of the buses stop growling growl-ing at 59th you can hear the tinkle of the Cafe de la Paix ice cubes. The geyser of chatter and giggles in ice-cream places the teenager's Stork Club. . . . The sweltering cabbie cab-bie who groans: "In this weather just breathing is hard work!" . . . Tenement youngsters using sea-bit-I ten docks as their personal diving boards. Footlights and Spotlights: There was a bib and tucker event in the hayloft circuit last week. Tallulah ; Bankhead zoomed into the Green-! Green-! wich (Conn.) Playhouse with Noel j Coward's "Private Lives." The play's romantic rough-housing is admirably suited to the star's cyclonic cy-clonic personality, 'and she kept the comedy pin-wheeling across the stage. Several Broadway aislc-perchers aislc-perchers enjoyed her triumph critic crit-ic Vernon Rice ejaculating: "Tallulah, "Tallu-lah, the magnificent; Tallulah, the wonderful! " |