OCR Text |
Show Ballad for Americans: If you could buy a spot where you could see How Nature had been lavish lav-ish in its art, If you could buy a place where Liberty Is ever dearest to the human hu-man heart . . . If you could buy the road to happiness With little homes that bordered bor-dered on the lane, It would not take a fool a second sec-ond guess To know that you would buy and buy again; If you could buy contentment through the years And love that grows from fine and decent things, If you could buy an armistice from tears And all the grief and woe tVinr. hattle brines Oh, if you could, how quickly youd respond, And yet, what else is bought with every bond? DON WAHN The Magic Lanterns: James Cag-ney Cag-ney blew in with "Johnny Come Lately," his debut as an impresario, and he needn't worry about quitting a good job. He is breezy and tough as the tramp reporter who Page Ones the town's stuffier goniffs into being better boys. Grace George and Ed McNamara are part of the assets . . . Robert Donat, who is paid off in sighs where Sinatra collects col-lects shrieks, comes back in "The Adventures of Tartu," which is a stylish dish. He plays a British officer of-ficer risking his precious neck in Czechoslovakia. The best place to view the tale is from the edge of your seat as if you had any choice. Valerie Hobson is the girl . . . Abbott Ab-bott and Costello go in for Winter sports in "Hit the Ice," and being the kind of comics they are, you know what they hit it with . . . Pola Negri, who was strictly a sad-faced sufferer in her heyday, comes back in a frilly item called "Hi Diddle Diddle," with Martha Scott, Adolphe Menjou and June Havoc. You'll laugh how much being up to you .. . . Richard Dix vs. Jesse James is the theme of "The Kansan." This rambunctious Western, full of shoot-in' shoot-in' irons, straight whiskey and a trace of jive, is generally satisfactory. satisfac-tory. Mid town Vignette: She is the young wife of a British naval officer of-ficer . . . We overheard her talking with a stranger at the fountain of a midtown drug store . . . While she fed her baby a malted . . . "They i sent me over here to visit him a little while," she said. "He had r never seen the baby" . . . She was a soap-and-water type of girl very little makeup, and pretty . . . The stranger asked about clothing rationing ra-tioning in England ... "I don't mind," she answered, "I've been wearing this skirt and blouse for two years every day" ... As she started start-ed to go, the stranger pressed a ten-spot into her hand . . . "Buy something for the baby," he said, "and yourself" . . . "Oh, thank you very much," was the reply, "now I may get a new blouse." Manhattan Mural: It was in the Stork Club Sunday evening ... A youthful sailor without a rating or campaign ribbon was dancing with his little old mother ... We have never seen such a lovely portrait in all our sinful years ... No other couple on the floor seemed to be enjoying en-joying themselves as much as this boy and his proud mother . . . She simply beamed and so did the rest OI US laiVUig it cu ,n -- -o side . . . "Gosh," said a fellow, whose chest is crowded with decorations, decora-tions, "that sailor makes everybody in here look silly!" . . . The speaker was Lt Bill Crawford, a grand guy himself, soon returning to tie Pacific, Pacif-ic, where he helped bomb to splinters splin-ters so many Jap ships. Street Scenery: The gal cab driver driv-er at Madison and 40th manicuring her nails . . . The "A" cars slinking along side streets like rum-runners The new messenger gals at the Stock Exchange with NYSE embroidered em-broidered on their jackets and some of them very nyse . . . The optician's shop cn Madison Avenue, which describes its orb-glasses as giving patrons "Specs-Appeal" . . . I The dog department in a store which .jnrii,DE a rinp smn as ShamDooch. Sounds in the Night: At the Stork: "He's carrying the torch for himself' him-self' ... At La Conga: "Mussolini , is no longer lying low just lying" ! . . . Louise's Monte Carlo: "He has a head like a doorknob any gal can turn it" ... At Leone's: "What he doesn't know is certainly going to hurt him" ... At the Mayan: "Absence "Ab-sence makes the heart go wander." Broadway Wiscguy: That p'.r.tcr slogan should be changed from I "Your Country Needs You" to "You j Need Your Country!" |