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Show hi iyji4J iri Man About Town: Memos of a Midnigbter: Show biz is returning to normal. Good backers back-ers are getting as hard to find as hit plays. . . . Dolores Costello (former film star) keeps a print of "Sea Wolf" in a film tin can in her home. It starred her ex-husband, John Barrymore. She uses it as a door stop. . . . Margaret Case Harriman, a writer (y'welcome, M'am) has a tricky assignment. Doing a series of author-closeups for Rinehart, the tome publisher. Sent to book reviewers re-viewers only. Her second is on Wal-ter Wal-ter Karig, author of "Zotz." (Zotz zo? Well, well!) ... So you wanna write for radio? A recent survey revealed re-vealed the average paycheck for radio writers is $43.12 per week. The War Must Be Over Dept.: The Japan Art company at 56th and Madison has this meek sign in the window: "We give lessons les-sons in Chinese flower arrang tag." The Hooper-Doopers: Peppered with O. Levant's sassy gagging (and Jolson's paprika vocallure), Al's new Thursday nighter crackles good. . . . Those amiable wisecrack-pots, wisecrack-pots, Abbott & Costello, never will win prizes for their subtlety but their boisterous belly-whoppers are hilarious. . . . Fred Waring's smooth melodic sessions provide perfect background music for day-dreaming. . . . Jack Benny, Bob Hope,-i Fibber and Molly, Allen and the other leading clowns continue to hog the top brackets over at Mr. Hooper's Hoop-er's place. By Way of Variety: Show man Max Gordon (his big hit right now is "Born Yesterday") tells the show folks' Bible tha when the late George M. Cohan was asked If he thought radio would kill show biz, George re-, re-, plied: "Don't worry about the radio. The only thing that will keep an American in a home is a dame." The Stage Door: Joan Crawford knitting furiously in tempo with her gum-chewing at a private preview of her newest film, "Daisy Kenyon," and putting a columnist's hand to her thumping heart. Imagine, , the Academy award winner nervous after all these seasons. . . . Under the terms dissolving the team of Renee and Tony DeMarco, she was prohibited from taking another partner for five years. The period is almost up, but she has done so well as a single act she'll continue that way. . . . 7,500 people are reported laid off in the movie biz during a single week. Only three films are being made now at MGM a new low at that hit factory. New York Novelette: Two years ago a Broadway actor, Kirk Douglas, came to Hollywood to screen test for Hal Wallis. . . . Years before Kirk was a waiter in the Schragt's near 82nd street and Broadway, patronized by a model. . . . They became friends. . . . When Douglas finally got a walk-on role in a show, she was in Row A to cheer him on. : . . She did that in all his flops. . . . The model got to Hollywood first, however, and clicked' big. . . . At her first coast party she cornered producer Hal Wallis and "sold him" on her friend back East. . . . Wallis put him in "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers." Douglas won rave reviews. . . . This won him the leads in "I Walk Alone," "Out of the Past" and "Mourning Becomes Be-comes Electra." Kirk now gets $65,000 per flicker. . . . Oh, yes. . . . The model-actress model-actress who "agented" the whole thing was the girl who looks- like a girl Lauren Bacall. The Intelligentsia: J. Brooks Atkinson, At-kinson, the N. Y. Times critic, is the only reviewer (we ever heard of) who reads his own proof (before and after it is on the galley), after which he stands alongside the make-up man to catch typos. . . . Tip to ambitious bluesingers: There's a ballad by W. H. Auden (in his Collected Poems volume) written writ-ten to the tune of "St. James' Infirmary." In-firmary." The marriage of the wordage of a world-famous writer to a low-down blues should cause a seansation. . . . Thomas Hewes' new book, "Decentralize for Liberty," will be released soon. An important book. The author worked on his central cen-tral thesis 14 years. Hitler's old hip-wiggling set indiscreetly in-discreetly is moving back to the Bad Weisse (Bavaria), where former Queen Roehm was knocked off by Adolf in the Hotel Hanselbauer. . . . Nazi swishes simply adore those Tyrolean short pants. The Press Box: We still wince every time we think of the 25 million mil-lion dollars (in Nazi gold loot theft-ed theft-ed from other nations) that the U. S. just allocated to Italy, which helped Hitler steal it. But that's power politics poli-tics when you electioneer for allies. al-lies. . . . The Russians shriek "warmonger" "war-monger" and "bar" when American Ameri-can newspaper men warn of the threat of another war. But two years ago (in February) a Russian leader warned of the possibility of World War III. His name: Vishin-sky. Vishin-sky. . . . Tokyo Rose wants to come back here to live. Why not let her book passage on any of the floating hearses returning our Pacific war dead? |