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Show llll m mm h Old IS etc Yorkers: A Brooklyn newspaperman once enjoyed roaming through Broadway from midnight to dawn. He haunted saloons and theaters and hobnobbed with the inhabitants of the show world to gather material for yarns. He did what B'way colyumlsts are now doing. His name: Walt Whitman. Whit-man. . . . About a century ago, a New York scrivener turned out a novel that was a financial failure. As a result, he gave up writing and took a job as inspector of customs on the Gansevoort street pier. He held this job for two decades. Herman Her-man Melville never lived to see his novel become one of the great classics clas-sics "Moby. Dick." . . . One of the struggling poets in Greenwich Village Vil-lage (at the turn of the century) managed to live by scrubbing the floors of a saloon. Years later he scaled the heights and became the English poet laureate John Mase-field. Mase-field. W. C. Fields started on a bender In Hollywood and wound up with a hangover in New York. He was surprised to see John Barrymore at the Stork club. "What's the matter," asked Barrymore, "didn't you know I was in town?" "I didn't even know I was!" was the retort. Jim Crouch recalls the time Ernest Er-nest Truex played the title role in "Rip Van Winkle," and a killjoy critic gave the star only this much space: "Ernest Truex, excelled in the sleeping scene." The Press Box: The un-American activities committee announced a year ago it would investigate Fascist groups in the U.S. Nothing, a's you suspected, has happened. They can't even decide what they should do about Gerald L. K. Smith, the notorious soandso. . . . Stassen complains that Taft and Dewey are teaming up against him. The ones who really should worry are Jack Benny and Fred Allen. . . . Collier's (which points out your inaccuracies) inaccura-cies) spells Alice Faye's name "Fay." It isn't an easy mistake to make, either. Her name's been in lights for a dozen years since "Wake Up and Live" was filmed in 1936. . . . The creators of the comic strip, "Superman," settled their case out of court for over $100,000. They will introduce an idea in strips never done before. Intelligentsia: The magazine set has the giggles over the jokester who had the New Yorker's movie critic as his chump. John Mc-Carten Mc-Carten (of that mag) was summoned sum-moned to the phone the other Sabbath Sab-bath evening, told to move his radio closer to the receiver and was asked silly questions for a quiz contest, which it wasn't. Insiders In-siders (who pulled the gag) still are in stitches! At the National Press club a porter thought things never would look any cheerier until we came up with another FDR. "When Roosevelt was alive," sneered a Repub, "everyone in Washington was miserable." "I know," said our hero. "But the rest of the country was happy." Broadway Confetti: "Inside USA" has to run a year at a big biz before It pays angels a dividend. . . . We have a new kerrickter about Duffy square. He greets the pidjins by name: "Hello Pierre! Howz Beatrice? Well, Oscar! Where you been, Sammy? If it isn't Hortense!" . . . The black market ticket scandal scan-dal (at the circus) has the specs taking fewer chances. Manhattan Murals: The sign in the Delancey street delicatessen: "Patrons Who Consider Our Waiters Wait-ers Uncivil Should See the Manager." Man-ager." . . . The upside down ad in the subway trains, which has all tne chumps twistlrfg their necks. . . . The sign on the dance hall: "Most Exclusive Place in Town. Everybody Welcome." . . . The restaurant res-taurant (on the Stork club block) still being built, which has had three different owners who ran out of money. And it hasn't opened yet! "Our big danger," said a headline head-line reader, "Is from Russians who think this nation's asleep!" "Ton mean," corrected a listener, lis-tener, "from Americans who think this country's awake!" Will Rogers once had a banquet to "attend" after a "Follies" performance. per-formance. He hastened there without with-out changing his cowboy suit. One of the Snobnoxious sarcasm'd: "Why didn't your horse come?" "Because," snapped Will, "he's a lot smarter than I am!" News Item: "Stock Exchange prexy, Emll Schram, declared emphatically that Americans needn't worry about another 1929 crash." You needn't if you don't buy any stocks, he means. |