Theaters—Radio—Music Pimday Jite Junior Star—Art—Books EIGHT PAGES. WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 24, 1939. x Merry Yule to You, and You, and Many Others A Year and Its People Give a Drama Department the Occasion For Many a Grateful Wish During Christmas Season By Jay Carmody. For another year. Merry Christmas: the New Yorker for having the same low opinion we did of plays which To Southern India for having been the birthplace of Vivien Leigh, other reviewers praised highly. (Such as “Margin for Error.”) who plays Scarlett O'Hara to the satisfaction of every one who thought To Laurette Taylor in the hope that she still will complete that no one could Scarlett O'Hara to the satisfaction of one. play any anecdote which she has started no less than 20 times to tell this depart- ment. To Vivien Leigh, practically ditto. (Miss Taylor also gives autographs, so her stories are interrupted.) To Lamour for maintaining her for another year Dorothy position Elsa Maxwell Touch Makes as this department's least favorite actress. Frolic of Little Previews. To Ann Sheridan for being just a bright, breezy and beautiful Texas girl in spite of all that oomph blah. To Louise Noonan Miller and Abe Tolkins of the Little Theater, Who * To Edmund Plohn. manager of the National, for disagreeing with have an Elsa Maxwell flair for turning a critics’ screening into a frolic— this department only about matters that were comparatively unimportant. with veal steaks. To Zanuck for with the Ritz Brothers, thus Darryl breaking exiling To Gertrude Lawrence for riding down to get the keys to the city them to a kind of so tar as the better movie screens of the Siberia, in the front seat of her Rolls Royce (it rattles) with the chauffeur. And are concerned. country for remembering to wear a hat on .that occasion! To Shirley Temple for dropping only to fifth in box-office standing To Helen Hamilton, Troika’s pretty mistress, and to Mischa, its in spite of the scripts the studio has given her within the last 12 months. military for another happy season of borscht, shaslik and To the Lunts for demonstrating in “The Taming of the Shrew" that maitre, caprici- ous Muscovite entertainment.- Olsen and Johnson are not the only masters of the “Hellzapoppin' spirit. To Gardner Moore. Maxim Lowe, Barnee, Robert and others of the Olivier Shows Critics Talent Shoreham staff for giving the warmth of hospitality to such a large piece For More Than Mere Acting. of real estate. that he To Laurence Olivier, who proved to the local drama press To "Johnny" Johnson and his aides, especially Theon, for doing the ran play the horses at Bowie with the same skill that he brought to the same around the corner where Wardman sits on the hill. of Heathcliffe in wuthering Heights." interpretation To Frank Swadley, whose Carlton is such an excellent place to meet for the of Rufus Blair as ambassador To Paramount being employer screen celebrities. to the country's film editors. And Bob Denton as the boss man of its To Madeleine Carroll for the most and local newsreel staff being intelligent gracious celebrity met at the Carlton in 1939. To Deanna Durbin for being Deanna Durbin To Anna Neagle, who was the loveliest. To Frank Capra for being one of the most sincere, unaffected people To Andrea Leeds, who had enough energy to play quiz games at who ever consistently made good pictures, and the money which de- breakfast the morning she arrived to become the belle of the President's servedly comes from making good pictures. Birthday Ball. To Carter Barron, Gene Ford, Angie Ratto. Ray Bell and others of j To George Brent's agent on the same occasion for being the stuffiest the local Locw staff who facilitated this work at all times, department's functionaire of the year. even when it did not agree down to the dotting of the last “i.” (The To Vera Zorina for the year's biggest surprise, when she got up "I" never gets into the column * capital voluntarily to speak at a Civic Theater luncheon after swearing to this of To John Payette. Frank La Falce. Dan Terrell and the staff department she would hate it all her (and its) life if it even suggested Warner's, ditto. she would speak. To Hardie Meakin. Keith's little big man. another ditto. To Rudulf (Bud) Watson for being an actor who does not mind To Sam Galanty, Columbia's Washington gallant, for the best desk even a typographical error that turns a blurb blah. set that ever landed on a drama editor's bench. To orchestra leaders who play “I Didn't Know What Time It Was” To Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times and Wollcott Gibbs of in a tempo which indicates they know what waltz time is. To the child who felt so sorry for its late-working critic father that one night it put out his bedroom slippers. (One night out of 365.) To Western High School's Drama Club for being such a good Customer Not Always Right, audience, and such a quizzical one, for a drama and movie reviewer who does not relish the idea ot speaking to any kind of audience. A good He’s Close one is a God-send, however. But This Year Saroyan's “Different” Play Reviewer Finds People Are Liking Makes Audiences Like It. To William Saroyan for giving a different kind of play, “The Time Those Plays They Should Like of Your Life.’’ to people who clamor for a different kind of play. And making them like it! Account LAURELS ON As Broadway Takes To Bill and Kay Hill, who introduced this department to Somerset THEIR BROWS—Bette Davis the best actress. Robert Donat the best actor and Frank Capra the best director, is the verdict of the committee stars who looked over the Maugham, who, in turn, provided the year's most pleasant evening of of film past year. Jeffrey Lynn (up in the corner) is the star critic whose score By Ira Walfert. topped all the others. conversation. (We almost said "shop talk," but he works for a far NEW YORK. different kind of shop.) The customers haven't been making fools of themselves theater's To Father Gilbert V. Hartke, head of Catholic U. s drama customers depart- this year Nothing irritates a reviewer so much as to find the ment, for the most ambitious amateur dramatic undertaking we en- turning sucker on him and paying out money to see the things he told them Stars Turn Critics to Hand Out Laurels for the Year 1939 countered, the musical biography of George M. Cohan. they hadn't ought to. But your reviewer is only mildly irritated this year. To Oscar Doob. Loews New York Of the 10 attractions most in demand at the ticket brokers, only one isn't publicist, for the most dramatic Vote Goes to Bette Davis, Robert Donat, Frank Capra and Mr. worth the price charged. matinee of the year, the Notre Dame-Army game. ‘Goodbye Chips’ According to current information, the 10 shows most in demand for To Wendy Hiller for her portrait of Eliza Doolittle in “Pygmalion,” In Annual Poll of Cinema Personalities’ Favorites ~ Christmas are: * which gave an entirely new meaning to the phrase "elfin charm.” "Du Was a cember 10. 1939—as seen the1 1. Md. (78 >. Barry Lady. “Du Barry Was a Lady.” is a dirty To Robert Sherwood, whose best writing of the year was not “Abe By Harold Heffernan. by “Goodbye. Chips" feature nuisance in theaters. Eve: “Too Many Girls." boys and girls who act in Hollywood 2. “Mr. Smith Goes to elimination of joke dressed up beautifully, and "Too Lincoln in Illinois," but a letter to this department. (Can't we have HOLLYWOOD. : Washing- though bargain bills ta new edi- motion You must remem- ton" (77). would "Hellzapoppin" fairly Many Girls" and "Streets of Paris" an opinion of our own?) Hail the victors of 1939! pictures. throw thousands of their fel- tion i. ber. the movie actors are great movie 3. “Pygmalion" (64). low actors out of work, are routine, meaning acceptable, ar- To the, people who have not sung "Jingle Bells” on the radio The North American Newspaper they "The Man Who Came to Dinner.” fans. They don’t merely act in 4. “Wuthering Heights”- (44). whacked down the duals a rangements of pretty girls that are this Christmas. Alliance's second annual “stars turn pic- by count see 5. “Ninotchka" (43). “Life With Father." vice versa. “Hell- critics" tures: they go to scores of other of 72 to 17. Significantly, only the like melodies and To of survey has been completed “Streets of Paris." Napoleon Napoleon 'ecially to George, who make the pictures in which their 6-7. “Dark Victory" (42). stars and featured zapoppin," as you must have heard and the winners established. colleagues players who ap- place a favorite detour on the \...y Chevy Chase. 6-7. “Love Affair” (42). “Skylark.'1 time unless have appear. So they're all pretty Well pear steadily in “B" pictures cast by this you spent Just as they did one year Story.” To the nameless individual, who wishes every one would us ago, equipped to vote on who's who and 8. “Babes in Arms" (37). votes in favor of double “Philadelphia the last 20 years under a pillow, is give bills. For when the idea of the actors’ own 9. (34). “Key Largo." combina- champagne, because we do not like champagn and turn it over to him what's what in the film business.