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Show l MI j Editor's Note: While Wlnchell Is on vacation. Jack Lait is acting act-ing as guest columnist. Recriminations, Reflections Rnthless, rapacious James Caesar Petrillo seems hell-bent to wreck the nightclubs of New York, which cannot meet his latest demands de-mands and live. . . . Petrillo hasn't been getting his name in the papers pa-pers lately, and has apparently decided de-cided to see to that. ... I have long observed this egomaniac. . . . His union, though in the AFL, is autonomous auton-omous and he is its absolute duce. ... He defies economic laws as he defies the nation's laws, which he now is doing flagrantly and blatantly blat-antly and he loves it; he loves . that sensation of dictatorial arrogance: arro-gance: "Hah I'm bigger than all America. Nothing can touch Petrillo. Pet-rillo. The world can't live without music and I own the music. I have millions of dollars and don't account to anybody. My voiceless fiddlers and drummers and horn-blowers horn-blowers worship me. Congress passes a special law just against 1 me and that law I break. ... So this is a republic. ... No king. . . . What a laugh!" Meyer Davis, the society maestro, wires me a lengthy defense of James Caesar Petrillo, Pet-rillo, who, he says, "has absolutely abso-lutely no jurisdiction over proposed pro-posed raises in N. Y. nightclubs." night-clubs." He adds, "There is too much hooey about Petrillo, just because he is colorful." If that's what's the matter with Petrillo, Petril-lo, I'm color-blind. I'm also dumb. But I retain my sense of smell! The dynamic six-footer, Walter E. Smith, is in town again, third time in two weeks he's flown hither. ... "I got a nap in the plane," he tells me. "I hadn't been to bed in four days and nights." . . . Smith, whose hair is pretty white, Is only 40. But he does more things than anyone I've ever known. . . . Within With-in the year he has bought and converted con-verted a Hollywood cafe Into Tom Breneman's, run the morning breakfast broadcast there into a national sensation, had it filmed for a feature; promoted rodeos, signed Gene Autrey for five years and will publish his biography; bought a hotel and cabanas in Palm Springs; tied up "Pappy" Boyington for his book and picture rights, and has a $150,000 Warner offer of-fer on the latter; organized a company com-pany to publish a magazine devoted to western movies; incorporated a company to produce Nils T. Grandlund's picture, "Rhythm Ranch"; bought Chestertown, favorite fa-vorite in the Hambletonian, for $40,000, highest price ever paid for a trotter, to add to his large stable; founded the association which converted con-verted Santa Anita to trotting; conducts con-ducts the largest enterprise in the , West making aluminum furniture and luggage. . . . And nobody can play harder than he or work half as hard. Durocher, says Lew Parker, Acts as though he were fighting Joe Louis, not St. Louis! " Lt. Col. Gregory (Pappy) Boy-Ington's Boy-Ington's book is finished and in the hands of the busy Walter E. Smith, who seems to have about eight hands. Not only will Smith publish, but he'll do the movie himself, as an independent, perhaps as a roadshow road-show entry. Admiral Nimitz has offered of-fered Smith any fleet facilities required re-quired for the screen adaptation. The title, first time announced anywhere, any-where, is "Where Are We Now?" Even Stalin's spies don't know Margaret Truman's calls from Missouri to Washington are person-to-person and the person is Marvin Coles, counsel for the merchant marine! Gwendolyn Stone is a beautiful and talented dancer. . . . She has appeared in several west coast revue re-vue creations and in films, including includ-ing "Night and Day." ... No one seeing her would imagine that she is a deaf mute and has been since childhood. . . . She picks up rhythms with her feet, via vibrations. . She takes direction and cues by unfailing un-failing lip-reading. Santa Fe Skyway ,is carrying specialized spe-cialized cargoes, including perishables. perish-ables. ... No schedules will be made. . . . Flying personnel will be mostly veterans, 11 of whom have signed on. . . . One plane has refrigeration re-frigeration equipment, which weighs only 1 per cent of the' gross tonnage and can register 120 degrees de-grees below zero. Marie Windsor, Utah beutah, who took over Broadway via stage and radio, is an outstander in Hollywood. . . . Ben Bogeaus and Casey Robinson, who bought Hemingway's Hem-ingway's "Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" for peanuts (SU5.000 worth) are aiming at an Oscar. . . . Pat O'Brien is trying to interest movie money in a screen biography of his pal, Mayor Bill O'Dwyer, Pat to play him. (With Abbott and Costello playing the role of two other guys named LaGuardia?) |