and, as he ambled along, cannily plucked off heads of the grain and pocketed them. Back in America, he pondered on the best place to plant his prized grains, and settled on the marshy shorelipe of the Carolinas. CESAR escorted the two publishers to A GRAPHIC paragraph from Hallett The wild rice flourished there, and their favorite table in the Plaza Oak Abend's new book, "My Life in China": was the original lure for the myriad Room, took their order, and withdrew. "The worst part of a bombing experi­ of wild duck and other fowl that have After a quick survey of the room, to ence is that period of utter paralysis migrated to those parts ever since. check on who was lunching with which follows the concussion. For as A Manhattan jurist remarked that whom, the great men of the literary much as four minutes, if the bomb is this was just one more blessing we mart launched upon the following con­ a big one, nothing moves except swirl­ could credit to the Democrats. ... I versation : ing smoke and thick dust, and there was dining with Max Schuster one evening when he broke a tooth on a "This new paper cut is a block­ is no sound except the continued tinkle grain of wild rice. His rueful comment buster, isn't it? That fellow West of falling broken glass and the rumble was, "I've seen wild rice in my time, didn't leave out anything this time! of crumbling masonry. After about but this is certainly the wildest What did you think of him the other four minutes the wounded begin to yet!" . .. day, Joe?" moan and shriek and try to drag them­ "West doesn't know his—from his selves away; then come sounds of si­ —; that's what I think of him. Every rens and ambulances and fire engines; BROADWAY'S newest smash hit, "Mex­ one of those blank bureaucrats down and then the tempo of shocked life ican Hayride," is a perfect example in Washington has about twenty picks up with terrifying rapidity." . . . of both the virtues and the weaknesses lawyers working for him. No wonder Louis Sobol's London report: Barrett of the typical lavish musical extra­ they don't leave out anything!" Street runs into Wimpole Street; the vaganza of our time. The virtues in­ "Alfred says he's going right ahead city editor of a London paper is the clude riotously colorful costumes, a with his normal publishing program. gent who handles the financial page; slick, smooth production, beautiful If he runs out of paper in August, a little cinema on Baker Street spe­ girls, and a huge cast of attractive he says he'll close up shop and take cializes in American-made Sherlock performers, headed by my nomination a vacation for the rest of the year." Holmes pictures—for the laughs! . . . for the funniest man in America, Putnam's will publish Robert Wilder's "He's just sounding off as usual. Bobby Clark. Clark has a ten-minute new novel in April. The title is "Mr. Dudley is the guy who ought to worry. interlude as a wandering Mexican G Strings Along." ... A weird new Unless Yardley can pull another rabbit flute player that had a sophisticated edition of Hudson's "Far Away and out of a hat for him. He's been doing first-night audience holding its sides Long Ago" is bound in the unshorn it for twenty years." with laughter. The weaknesses are an skin of some repellent South American "No soap, Joe. This new order is almost unbelievable lack of original­ animal. A recipient complained: "I'm airtight. No more using other im­ ity and imagination in both the book not sure whether I'm supposed to read prints with a 'distributed by' under­ and the score. "Mexican Hayride" ob­ this book or wear it!" . . . neath! I wonder what that text book viously was not written; it was con­ outfit will do with all its paper this structed to order, and built on a well- year. Have you ever thought of buy­ ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS provided a tested plan. The producer of a big ing up another company, Joe, to get group of friends recently with a suc­ musical today does not wait until the use of their quota?" culent feast of canvasback duck and some likely property—or even the wild rice. Neil MacNeil, of The Times, "Walter, you are a genius. Will you germ of an idea—is offered to him. felt called upon to explain how wild excuse me for a moment while I rush He amasses his bankroll ("Hayride" rice was first introduced into America. down and buy out Macmillan?" is reputed to have cost $225,000) and It seems that the grain was developed "Well, there's no use getting huffy, actually signs up principals before he accidentally in the Pontine marshes Joe. I'm just exploring every possi­ knows what his show is going to be in Italy; when the local authorities bility. Maybe things will ease up when about. Then he persuades some out­ became aware of its delicious taste that Russian and Swedish pulp starts standingly successful writers, gag­ and nutritive value, they slapped a arriving. Maybe we should be patriotic men, and tunesters to closet them­ complete embargo on its exportation. and take our medicine like men!" selves in a hotel suite somewhere and Thomas Jefferson was our Minister to "That's the ticket, Walter. Mean­ patch something together on which France at the time. He was taken on while, I'm going down to Washington he can hang the talent and specialties a tour of the Italian marsh region. Wednesday and try to pull a few he has assembled. strings. Not that I expect anything The book of "Mexican Hayride" is from those blank bureaucrats. News­ witless and inane, with whole pieces paper and magazine publishers get of business lifted from "Fifty Million extra paper when they need it, you Frenchmen" and the old Columbia bet. The lugs we send down there to burlesque wheel. Cole Porter, also look after our interests don't seem obviously writing to order, contributed to know the right people." CLOSeo a pedestrian, uninspired score—a pal­ "Would you go on the Washington ^oo. pable rewrite of tunes and lyrics that committee if they asked you, Joe?" YERENTVE he did infinitely better in years gone "Who, me ? I should say not. I can't tt lANeLOKtrt, by. His "Abracadabra" number stems get my work done as it is now. This directly from "My Heart Belongs to morning they put my head accountant Daddy"; "Count Your Blessings" is in 1-A. That was all I needed!" an unblushing blueprint of similar By this time both publishers had numbers in "Panama Hattie" and ruined their appetites. They dolefully "Something for the Boys"; the hit reached for their cocktails and changed song, "I Love You," is so similar the subject to the Lonergan trial. . . . to a half dozen earlier Porter mel- 18 iTieSatunkpRmew

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''The most comprehensive analysis of "It's that trio—they want to be billed as 'John Charles Thomas.' " bridge playing

odies that one could believe he was flops for which he had written the of all time — deliberately parodying himself. One book and lyrics, with a tag at the bot­ lyric about "a boy whale and a girl tom reading, "I've done it before and A bargain at twice the price, and whale" is really embarrassing. Rodg- I can do it again!" Oscar forgot to make no mistake about it." ers, Kern, and Berlin get better and mention his very first play, a little -CLEVELAND '' better, but Lordy, what has happened number called "The Light." He was a PLAIN DEALER to Cole Porter! . . . The critics have senior at Columbia at the time. Our become so accustomed to inane lib­ fraternity was very proud of him, "Better Bridge forBetterPlayers rettos in the big musicals that they and dispatched a scout to New Haven is not a new 'system.' What now accept them as a matter of course. to report on the tryout. His telegram Goren has done is to assume that As for the public—try and get tickets arrived about midnight. It read, " 'The his reader is a good player who for any of the current musical comedy Light' will never illuminate Broad­ wants to be a better one. He has exhibits! The best orchestra seats for way." He was right, too. . . . "Okla­ therefore included in his book "Mexican Hayride" have been marked homa" will be published next month all the new wrinkles that have up to $5.50, but even that price doesn't in book form. So will "The Voice developed in bridge over the mean a thing. Speculators are getting of the Turtle" and "Over Twenty- last decade, combined then! up to ten and twelve dollars a seat One." . . . with sound elementary princi­ for this show, "Oklahoma," "Carmen ples that have made for good Jones," and "One Touch of Venus." . . . VAN CARTMELL, associate editor of bridge playing over the past two Jack Kapp, canny head of Decca Rec­ Doubleday, Doran and editor-in-chief decades, and fused the new and ords, notes a definite trend away from of the Garden City reprint line, will the old with a lot of good plain the highly sophisticated, double-en- spend two months of the year in the horse sense. His is a happy for­ tendrish lyrics of the Cole Porter-Lor- Pacific Coast area hereafter, lining mula." enz Hart vintage toward the simpler, up likely properties for the Doubleday -RICHARD L. SIMON, more universal rhymes that are typi­ Saturday Review of Literature. fied by Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics line. He is in San Francisco now, and for "Oklahoma." Kapp says Broadway will be in Hollywood on March 6. Cart- producers will find this out as soon as mell has been with Doubleday for ten THE PLAY OF THE CARDS the current bonanza spends itself. years, during which time he has com­ While it's on, literally anything goes. piled an enviable record as editor, an­ The current phenomenon in sheet- thologist, and diplomat. No mean ac­ music circles, for instance, is that tor into the bargain. Van will fit into Better Bridge Wordsworthian ballad, "Mairzy Doats the Hollywood scene like Humphrey and Dozy Doats." It has sold some­ Bogart, whom he vaguely resembles. thing like 600,000 copies in three • . . Which brings to mind a story weeks, and is heard oftener on the about a housewife who asked a little BetterPlayers radio than static. . . grocery boy his name. "Humphrey," answered the boy, and added that the BY CHARLES H. GOREN last name was Bogart. "Humphrey Winner of the McKeimey Tro­ HAMMERSTEIN, who authored "Carmen Bogart, eh?" said the housewife. Jones" as well as "Oklahoma," is en­ phy, and co-winner of 5 National "That's a pretty well known name." championships in 194i. joying the greatest season he ever "It darn well ought to be," the boy has known. In his "ad" for the an­ agreed. "I've been delivering groceries At your bookseller's • $2.95 niversary number of Variety, how­ in this neighborhood for four years!" DOUBiEDAY, DORAN ever, he playfully listed five colossal BENNETT CERF.

FEBRUARY 19, 1944 19

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MY LOVE MUST WAIT. By Ernestine checked the book in exhaustive detail Hill. New York: Doubleday, Dor an —that would take too much time—but & Co. 1944. 410 pp. $2.75. I know that Mrs. Hill should have qualified her assertion to cover devia­ Reviewed by C. HARTLEY GKATTAN tions from fact like the first meeting of Flinders and Sir Joseph Banks, the RS. HILL'S book is a life of relations between Flinders and Bass Matthew Flinders, the Eng­ before their voyage to Australia to­ M lish explorer who did more gether, the circumstances surrounding than any other individual to trace and the finding of the strayed cattle, the chart the coast line of Australia, in so-called Barrington Prologue, and so FIRST AID the form of a novel. Flinders died in on, not to mention the allegedly ver­ TO BUSY PEOPLE 1814 at the age of forty, but his short batim reports of conversations and the life was crowded with adventure and equally constant ascriptions of emo­ WRITERS • SPEAKERS spiced by romance. He sailed with Wil­ tional reactions and mental processes. TEACHERS • LIBRARIANS liam Bligh on his second and success­ I suspect that Mrs. Hill was constantly STUDENTS • CLERGYMEN ful voyage to carry the breadfruit torn between a desire to report the EXECUTIVES • ETC. tree from Tahiti to the West Indies, facts scrupulously and an equally powerful desire to write a good novel, To keep you well-informed and he went out to Australia with Captain Hunter, the second governor, fought to the disadvantage of the finished up-to-date, you need the French off Brest, returned to Aus­ job. tralia to carry out his major explora­ Yet the trick she essayed can be FACTS-ON-FILE tions, spent over six years a captive World News Digest successfully turned. There lately came of the French at Isle de France (Mau­ from Australia a novel which admir­ Would you like to condense 100 hours ritius we call it today) and, when re­ ably illustrates how well it can be of weekly reading into 30 minutes, with­ leased, spent his few remaining years done, Eleanor Dark's "The Timeless out missing a single important fact or in poverty in London writing his clas­ Land." Compare the two books, and event? Do you wish to have every ma­ sic report, "A Voyage to Terra Aus- jor subject and news event at your ponder why one succeeds and the finger-tips—condensed, sorted, filed and tralis," the first bound copy of which other is only so-so, and you will, I indexed for ready reference? FACTS reached his home the day before he think, come up with the conclusion ON FILE does it for you by means of a died, but being already unconscious, that success is granted to the novelist weekly 8-page digest that covers world he did not see it. Between his first and news in capsule form, stripped of ver­ who sees life through a complex tem­ biage, opinion, and comment. second trips to Australia he married, perament and who therefore imparts but was separated from his wife far FACTS ON FILE Saves you Hours of to his work the very qualities Mr. Reading Time, Improves Your Fund of longer than he was with her. She lived Allen insists are basic to first-rate Knowledge, Gives you all the News of on until 1852. His only child, Ann, historical novels, while yet not dis­ the World including World War II, born in 1812, married William Petrie torting the facts to any crippling ex­ National and Foreign Affairs, Latin and became the mother of W. M. tent. Mrs. Hill doesn't particularly America, Finance, Business, Arts, Sci­ Flinders Petrie, the famous Egypt­ ence, Education, Religion, Sports, Obit­ distort her facts—^her lapses from uaries, etc., in handy reference form. ologist. strict historical grace are more an­ Authoritative, concise, easy to read. A straight biography of Flinders noying than fatal—but she definitely With FACTS ON FILE you can discard makes a great and thrilling story. It performs on a lower interpretative your clippings, notes, and stacks of level than Mrs. Dark. magifeines. Acclaimed a "MIRACLE OF is a "life" that really needs no bush. CONDENSATION" FACTS ON FILE But Mrs. Hill has cast her study as a I'm afraid I'm making Mrs. Hill's is endorsed by prominent leaders in all novel, and so it must be judged. walks of life as invaluable for quickly book carry a heavy freight of com­ locating facts, checking dates, figures, In the February Atlantic Hervey ment, but running through it two speeches, and names. Busy executives, Allen has an ingenious and, in gen­ years after my first reading, at a time speakers, governments, schools, libraries, when Mr. Allen's essay was fresh in business firms subscribe to FACTS ON eral, sound apology and rationale for FILE as the ONLY publication of its the historical novel which I hope is mind, is my provocation. Perhaps I kind in America. Each weekly Digest widely read in these days when the should ask Mrs. Hill's pardon for heap­ comes to you with a Cumulative Index genre is flourishing. But in my opinion ing this burden on her book and tell that keepss FACTS ON FILE up-to-date the reader the reaction of an Aus­ automatically. Mr. Allen's reasoning does not apply to a Actionized biography which, I am tralian lady of taste. "I thoroughly SPECIAL $1.00 OFFER! afraid, appeals to me as almost ex­ enjoyed the book," she said. "In school TRY FACTS ON FILE for 5 weeks foy only $1.00 (value $2.50). Regular subscribers at actly what Mr. Allen says the his­ Flinders was merely a name in a dull $25.00 a year receive a handsome loose-leaf history book and the country he saw DE LUXE BUCKRAM BINDER FREE OF torical novel is not: "A kind of mule­ CHARGE. (Size 9I/I x n'/i in.) Holds a like animal begotten by the ass of a succession of meaningless place- year's supply of Digests and Indexes. names. Now he is a living man and Send the coupon below with only $1.00 for fiction of the brood mare of fact, and special 5-weeks' trial, which includes latest the country real." But I still think a Quarterly Index FREE OF CHARGE. hence a sterile monster." For by choosing an actual figure of the past, good straight biography would have accomplished the same end and have about whom the essential facts can " "FACTS" "ON" '•" "FILE" been vastly preferable, even if it was be ascertained fairly readily, the nov­ "THE NEWS of the WORLD in CAPSULE FORM" merely a modernization of Sir Ernest elist cramps himself in just the fash­ 516 Fifth Avenue, New York 18, N. Y. Scott's monumental "Life of Matthew ( ) I enclose $1.00 for Special 5-weeks' trial ion that Mr. Allen argues he should Flinders" (1914), which Mrs. Hill truly service to FACTS ON FILE, which entitles me not. Mrs. Hill asserts in a Foreword to latest 22-page Quarterly Index FREE. calls "a storehouse of information." Name prepared especially for the American edition—the book first appeared in Addrexs Australia ia 1941—"In no case have SR I played with history." I have not BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS

20 'the Saturday Rmew

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