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Show L tat T . - it tl ' HIP' WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. Many years ago, this writer, quite unintentionally unintentional-ly aided in making Dr. Ben Kelt-mann Kelt-mann of Chicago the first king of the hoboes, by some Bindle Pete newspaper stories Seeks Hobo written with no Kine's Head partisan or politi- some reason or other, my name got on the hobo mailing list as a "jungle judge" or "shack" or something, and, from time to time, there comes fraternal greetings, campaign literature liter-ature or news of the order. The latest, from one "Bindle Pete," is quite violently prejudiced against Jeff Davis, the present king, and says he is to be deposed because he rode to Europe on the Queen Mary and because he has been working at Hollywood, helping coach the directors di-rectors in studies of hobo still-life. This department has been quite indifferent to the hard luck of kings in recent decades, but it would seem too bad if King Jeff Davis were dethroned. de-throned. He has been a likeable monarch, bald and genial and diligent dili-gent (perhaps that's the trouble) in the interests of his kingdom, and not making any trouble for anybody. His father, James Davis, was a journeyman of newspaper mechanical mechani-cal trades in Cincinnati, and young Jeff took to the road at the age of 13, covering more than 1,000,000 miles in his subsequent 40 years of rambling. ram-bling. He assails radicalism in the hobo brotherhood and says he will keep it 100 per cent American. He made more than 2,000 speeches on Americanism during the World war. How could a hobo ride these slick new chromium trains with the catfish cat-fish faces? King Jeff probably is working on that. WHEN she was bad, she was very, very good, and when she was good she was horrid. Not exactly, ex-actly, but, in a rough general way, that was the story Bette in of Bette Davis. Scarlett Hence, while other Marathon stars shy away from the hell-cat Scarlett O'Hara, as not their type, Bette Davis may take her on. Early in her career. Miss Davis played charming hellions with great effectiveness effec-tiveness and didn't seem to mind. She was Ruth Elizabeth Davis, a Massachusetts school girl, changing her name to "Bette" at the age of 12 in preparation for her stage career. ca-reer. She later changed her hair it is brown and her general makeup. make-up. Entrance to the theater came easily, after a course in a dramatic school. She went to Hollywood in 1932. Her first play, "Broken Dishes," brought few cheers, but, with coaching by George Arliss and better casting, she hit the up-grade. Trying a break-away from Warners War-ners in London in 1936, a ruthless British court condemned her to continued con-tinued servitude at a top salary. Sre is one of the few actresses who like unsympathetic roles and she plays them well. T TNTIL recently Franz Lehar was living in Vienna. The news that he Is rewriting "The Merry Widow" makes one wonder whether he finds . , Vienna still merry Lehar Now whether young Rewriting writers still write Merry Widow their Plays ln e cafes along the Kurftenstrasse, as he did in 1905. The world has waltzed along quite a way in the interval between the original and rewritten versions. Herr Lehar got $300,000 from his overwhelming New York success In 1907. He waltzed it all right into the stock market and bade it good-by. He returned to his native Budapest, Buda-pest, lost another lump sum of $75,-000 $75,-000 and then became a good business busi-ness man. His thirty or more operettas, operet-tas, five of which have been produced pro-duced here, have made him rich. Ho is, or was a member of the Vienna Rotary club, attending luncheons faithfully, singing club adaptations of old tunes, wearing a two-inch button with his name on it and engaging In friendly back-slapping big and gregarious, 63 years old, with his lush mustache touched with gray. Iia wng "knapsack child," as he put it, the son of a wandering musician. Ha was a child violinist. Dvorak persuaded him to lintig up his fiddle and take to composing. com-posing. fi ContolMatrrt Now Fo:turc. WNU Service. |