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Show Millionaire Says It Takes a 'Ham' To Make a Million NEW YORK - The best way to make a million dollars is to be a "ham" according to a frustrated song and dance man. He should know, because after he flopped in show business he went out and made a miilion. Walter Shirly, who mi.de $10,000.- 000 as a real estate man, says from his observations all top flight successes suc-cesses are "hans". Bernard Baruch heads his list, he says, and he does not mean it in any disrespectful sense. "The way 1 figure it, that's a compliment," he added. Shirley said the nation's elder statesman exposed his sense of the dramatic by preferring a park bench for a conference room. In politics, Shirly offers former Mayor William O'Dwyer as a con-sumate con-sumate example of what he calls the "slow smoked ham". He said, "I first met Bill when he was just thinking about running for office and I told him he ought to let his emotions show more.'' Shirley added: "He must have taken my advice. That farewell to New York city with tears coursing down his cheeks was a beauty. In the amusement world, Shirly sees Sherman Billingsley as a ham "with reverse English." "That man acts shy as a mouse, but try to take a picture in his joint without Sherman or one of his ash trays in the camera's path." In the dignified field of labor relations, re-lations, Shirley said it's practically impossible to name leaders without also mentioning hams. "It's a toss up between half a dozen, but I'll take Caesar Petrillo as my favorite." favor-ite." Shirley says he doffs his hat to Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the No 1 free style Virginia ham in military mili-tary circles. Sa s Shirley, "I know for a fact that the guy dyes his hair and then loves to get in a group picture -with a bunch of white haired hair-ed generals." No one can be a success, Shirley says, unless he has a strip of ham running through him. |