A Question for Mr. Sherwood,
Back on His Regular Job
By Jay Carmody
An open letter to Robert E. Sherwood.
Dear Bob: You are a man who knows something I would like to
know. Of course, there are a lot of humans who know a lot of such
things but I do not know them well enough to ask questions. With you
It is different.
Not to be blunt about it—no one ever filled a column coming out
with a direct question—this query has been building up for a couple
of years.
You’ve forgotten, but the last time we talked more than In pass
mg was m ucrooer, it was
long distance, Washington to Con
necticut. We talked around the
Idea that you were taking a two
year sabbatical from playwriting.
How much you sounded like a dedi
cated man when you said:
"See you in a couple of years after
I finish the Hopkins book.”
We met again, after that, for a
couple of minutes between acts
when Olivier and the Old Vic Play
ers were doing "Uncle Vanya” one
night in the spring of 1947. Wasn’t
that a crowded lobby, and how could
any one seeing the Old Vic—even
doing Chekhov—talk about any
thing else?
I had this question, the one I
am coming to, in mind that night
but even my sense of the appropri
ate kept me from asking it.
The morning mall suggests that
mv waiting is at an end.
In it, I found a note from Lynn
Fa mol with an inclosure of several
pages torn from Collier’s containing
the first Installment of “The Secret
Papers of Harry Hopkins.” Appar
ently Lynn did not trust me to find
it on. the newsstand for myself.
Funny thing is that he was right.
I guess I have been waiting for the
book for so long that I stopped look
ing for it.
Were getting close to the ques
tion now. In fact, we are right on
top of it.
What I want to know is how a
writer who has spent his profes
sional life dealing strictly with his
own ideas comes through a two
year ordeal of living with those
of another man? And Harry
Hopkins, of all men! A wartime
HopKins!
I was staggered when you first
mentioned that you had become
involved in anything so overwhelm
ing. I could understand a lot of
writing humans undertaking such
a project, journalistic types accus
tomed to the appalling process of
sifting, ordering, organizing and
that sort of thing. Or fellows with
a flair for dashing off history in
narrative form.
It. was not that I doubted your
ability to do a brilliant job, but
franklv, it seemed quixotic and a
little foolish of you to undertake it.
After all, you have been creating
out of your own materials for a
lot of vears. You had escaped the
grubbing and the drudgery, the
field-hand phase of being a writing
man. No one ever thought of you
as the Ivory tower sort, but we all
admired what we thought was a
kind of Olympian calm you had
achieved living in a world of your
own ideas, the ones out of which
you made plays.
However, you went back on a
colossal scale to the old thing, and
what I want to know is whether
you think it was worth it? Not
monetarily. That does not count,
I mean, rather, does it seem now
to have been the most satisfying
way of spending those two years?
I hear you are writing a play
Where and When
Current Theater Attractions
and Time of Showing
Stage.
National — "Harvey”; 2:30 and
8 :30 pm.
Screen.
Ambassador—"The Mating of Mil
lie"; 1:15, 3:20, 5:25, 7:30 and 9:45
p.m.
Capitol—"The Iron Curtain”; 11
am.. 1:45, 5:25. 7:15 and 10 p.m.
Stage shows: 12:50, 3:35, 6:20 and
9 p.m.
Columbia—"Mark of Zorro"; 11:40
a m., 1:40, 3:15, 5:45, 7:45 and 9:45
p.m.
Dupont—"The Mill on tne noss ;
1, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20 and 10:15 p.m.
Hippodrome—"Fanny"; 2, 4, 6:05,
8:05 and 10:10 p.m.
Kelth’a—"Berlin Express"; 11:45
a m- 1:45, 3:45, 5:45, 7:45 and 9:45
p.m.
Little—"Die Fledermaus”; 11:25
am., 1:30, 3:30, 5:35, 7:40 and 9:45
p.m.
Metropolitan—"In Old Los An
geles’: 11:25 a.m., 1:30, 3:30, 5:35,
7:40 Rnd 9:45 p.m.
Plavhouse—"The Search”; 11:15
a.m., 1:20, 3:20, 5:25, 7:30 and 9:35
p.m.
Palace—“Duel in the Sun"; 11:05
a m., 1:40, 4:15, 6:50 and 9:30 p.m.
Pix—"What a Blonde!"; 2:10, 4:30.
6:50 and 9:15 p.m.
Trans-Lux — News and shorts.
Continuous from 10:15 a.m.
Warner—"The Matin* of Millie";
11:25 a.m., 1:30, 3:35, 5:45, 7:50 and
10 p.m,
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this summer to have it ready for
fall production. Are you happier
at that? Do plays seem easy to
write, easier perhaps?
The question, as questions do,
breaks up into several.
But, I don’t expect an early an
swer—or early answers. Take ’ Our
time, but some day when you have
an idle moment, tell me how it was.
* * * *
Peace will come over another
small corner of the world on Satur
day. The comer is the one occupied
by Bernard Lust of the Hippodrome
Theater and those moviegoers who
were incensed that the picture "The
Tawny Pipit" did not remain at that
house longer.
Peace will come with the return
of “The Tawny Pipit” to the Hippo
drome this week.
According to Lust, the Hippo
drome's phone ha» done nothing
but ring since the picture disap
peared a fortnight ago. Each call
brought the same expression of
dudgeon that the picture was not
held longer. Eventually they
reached a number that dictated the
rebooking of the English comedy.
The Hippodrome's red-faced
manager thinks the public should
share a small bit of the blame for
the relatively short first lun of
“The Tawny Pipit." It stayed away,
in great numbers during the first two
days of the screenplay’s run, during
which time the management simply
booked in a successor and could do
nothing about the subsequent mo
mentum of "The Tawny Pipit."
It will stay this time as long as
there are customers who want to
see it—providing they don’t again
pull the trick of thinking it will
be there forever.
It is a strange business, this one
of operating a motion picture
theater.
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PRESENTS
THREE GRAND OPERAS
with
Martha Lipton—Mary Henderson—Elda Ercole
of the Metropolitan Opera Company
June 16th Carmen
June 17th Cavalleria & Pagliacci
June 18th Madame Butterfly
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Strangers,
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Marie Robert
OBERON • RYAN
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KORVIN - LUKAS,
Hollywood:
It'll Be Stewart
In ''Harvey/'
Not Bing
By Sheilah Graham
Rex Harrison has refused to star
in "The Gay Pursuit” because he
says it’s a woman’s picture. He was
supposed to have made it with Gene
Tierney, who refused to star with
Rex in "Unfaithfully Yours” be
cause it was a man s picture!
Jimmy Stewart is the not-too
dark horse coming up the stretch
to beat Bing Crosby for the top
irole in "Harvey.” “I had lunch with
Mr. (John) Beck,” Jimmy explains,
hand he told me that he starts
preparations on the 'Harvey” pro
duction in a month.” What Jimmy
doesn’t add is that Crosby suddenly
decided to withdraw from the pic
ture. And with Bing out, Stewart
is very much in.
Howard Hughes won’t be active
at RKO for another month. Then
he will move his entire personnel—
including Jane Russell and Jack
Beutel—from his present offices to
the RKO lot.
Ray Milland is out of the run
ning for "The Heiress,” with Olivia
de Havilland, because the powers
that-be do not think he has enough
sex appeal for the part!
Sonja Henie tells me that her
4-year-old nephew approached her
at lunch yesterday and demanded,
“Is it true that you’re loaded with
money?” It’s true, sonny!
* * * *
Charlie Chaplin is moaning that
the lack of American interest in
"Monsfeur Verdoux” will cost him
$1,000,000! I don’t know how he
figures this because the picture
cost him only $500,000. Now, .how
ever, it is more than likely that he
will revert to his original plan of
making his next movie in England.
Mrs. Glenn Ford—Eleanor Powell
—spikes the story that she is re
turning to pictures. "Look,” said
Eleanor to an inquiring reporter,
"I have a 3-year-old son who takes
up all my time.”
John Payne wishes some one
would tell him some of the secrets
in the mind of his estranged wife,
Gloria de Haven. "If only I knew
what she wants,” he told me som
berly on the “Larceny” set. "The
separation was her idea. I’m ready
to go back—but no patchwork job.
It would have to be on a souhd
IN OUTDOOR DRAMA—Peggy
Cummins is importantly cast
in "Green Grass of Wyoming,”
new Technicolor film, sched
uled for arrival tomorrow on
the Capitol screen.
basis. But Gloria can't make up
her mind.” Meanwhile, after John’s
stock stint with Joan Caulflield in
"The Voice of the Turtle,” he will
come back to Hollywood to star for
Edward Small in "The Dark Page.”
June Allyson, armed with 30,000
seasickness tablets, Is taking to the
ocean with Dick Powell on Agent
Phil Berg’s new $250,000 yacht.
June’s like me — one look at a
waving wave and • • •
Helen Hayes hasn’t said "No” to
Mervyn Le Roy’s “name-your-own
priee” offer for her to play Marmee
in his "Little Women” production.
I wish she would say “Yes.” We
could use her brand of acting here.
* * * *
Dennis Morgan at the annual
Warner party was kidding Gordon
McCrea about the fit of his tuxedo.
amusements! 7
"Yours isn’t so hot either," said Gor
don and he looked at the label of
Morgan’s coat and found the name
“Jack Carson.” Dennis had bor
rowed it from the studio wardrobe!
Talking of Jack Carson, he came
through like a trouper doing a scene
with Doris Day and Chili Williams,
his two ex-girl friends—while watch
ing on the sidelines of “My Dream
Is Yours” was Pat Neal, his present
girl.
Deanna Durbin and Howard Dull
look like a twosome for “The West
ern Story.” I watched Howard, the
Sam Spade of the air waves, making
a test with Deanna for the picture.
This boy is good.
Joan Fontaine is keeping her
fingers crossed that her “Gotta Stay
Happy” won’t take too long now to
complete. “We are going a bit longer
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"^THrYEATsTRIZE"
cinema!” -r^r
"To so# it is a debt every movie-goer owes himself ...
The greatest love story ever told on the screen I" odds
Joy Carmody in The Star. "A cause for rejoicing ... a
triumph!" says Richard L. Coe in
The Post. "A tremendously mov
ing film!" says Tom Donnelly in
Tht News.
M-O-M prtfflH
MONTGOMERY CLIFT
ALINE MacMAHON
JARMILA NOVOTNA
"The SEARCH"
KNftU C0«nr atf m uwt
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k-^5^ BIG WEEK/
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Ejtis DANA ANDREWS GENE TIERNEY “THE IRON CURTWI*
Today Or Stage—DAVE APOLLON and oHiws
Starts TOMORROW . . . Opto 10:45 1
>, »J. ..'GARY COOPER • PAULETTE GODDARD I
“UNCONQUERED” 1
Color by TECHNICOLOR
Ends T>diy • TYRONE POWER in “THE MARK OF ZORRO"
than we thought,” she tells me or
the set. "I have another month oi
shooting Because we decided it would
be better for me not to rush.” Hei
baby is expected in October.
Victor Mature is going social id
a big way at Laguna Beach. He it
now attending many society func
tions and is even wearing socks that
match. It just goes to prove that
love can work miracles!
Eddie Cantor, who devotes most
of his time to helping people, hat
been named campaign chairman for
the Cancer Prevention Society,
which now plans to build a special
■■
GEORGE BRENT *AWN HALE
JEFFREY LYNN»DICK Fl
| Warner Bros. F NEAR 10th
METROPOLITAN
Last Tims Tiriay
"OLP LOS ANGELES**
--
ising memorial hospital and re
search center in Los Angeles.
Perry Como has sent for his wife
and children and he will make
California his home from now on.
Peter Lawford took ofT for a gay
vacation in Texas but is craning
back with his hand in splints. He
injured it when a gun misfired.
Pete’s name has not been linked
with any girl, in print, for one whole
fortnight.
(Released br North American Newspaper
Alliance. Inc.)
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