The Washington herald., 1920-04-08
New York City
By o. o. MeIntyre

4
New York, April 7.--As one Of
those monocled Englishmen who
gather at the Players in the late af-
ternoon to read the London Times
would say. there is bit of touch
and-go in the life or Florenz Zief-
feld-that rare collector of pulchri-
tude to charm the tired business
man.
Ziegfeld lives in a castle at Has
tings -on-the- Hudson. He motors to
New York and reaches his office on
| the ninth floor of the New Amster-
dam Theater building on West For
| ty-second street at o'clock each
morning. He Is there in his artis-
tic studio office until s when he mo-
tors back again.
1 had occasion to visit Ziegfeld
! the other afternoon and spent an
hour with him watching the whir
I of the great theatrical machinery
/ he controls. His outer Office or
waiting room is continually packed
with the smartest dressed and best
looking girls to be found almost
anywhere.
Some come every day hoping to
be admitted to the inner sanctum.
But one may not see Megfeld with
out an appointment. A prim young
lady. in horn-rimmed glasses, who
| is the soul of efficiency prevents
| that. Some are persistent and use
all sorts Of schemes to see him
thinking that they will completely
dazzle him with their beauty.
One sent in word while I was
there that she had a letter from
Ziegfeld's brother in Paris. Zieg-
field smiled. He has no brother in
Paris. But he is forced to see
scores of people a day. Frank
Crowninshield. the editor of Vanity
Fair, and w. T. Benda, the artist,
with some unique flexible masks
were the first visitors.
While he talked to them he was
Interrupted to answer q long dis
| tance phone call from his mother
who calls him every afternoon
from her home in Chicago. 1t was
| a pretty bit of sentiment. Later,
he lifted a receiver from a phone
on his desk which is directly con.
nected with his home at Hastings
and he talked for a few moments
to his wife, Billie Burke, and he ad.
ded a few words of baby talk for
the precocious little daughter of 4.
Then came a stage director, who
was given a few crisp instructions
| Then some ladies of the stage and
some gentlemen, too, and while he
! talked to them he would push a
buzzer. call a stenographer. and die
tate few short notes to customers
| road managers and others in his
employ All the while he kept the
| equanimity that has calmed hyster-
| ical outbreaks of principals at many
| rehearsals.
And, o. yes, before 1 left he was
| talking to one of his caretakers
about one of the herd of deer which
had escaped from the deer pen. II
one would care to quip, one might
say Mr.. Zeigfeld has his dears and
deer all about him.
Another foolish, silly book is get
ting nationwide advertising by be-
ing suppressed. 1t was called STORY
! of a Lover" and it was written by
! a certain unconventional young fe-
male scribbler in Greenwich Village.
The police swooped down upon the
publishers and hailed them to court.
One paragraph which was marked
by the police contains the word
"belly'-right out in print like that.
The book is not even naughty or
clever. 1t is merely neurasenthetc
and silly
1t is whispered that few of the
mysterious crimes that have been
committed around New York recent
| ly are the work of French Apaches.
who, since the war. have been seep-
ing into the underworld haunts here.
A frightful bugaboo-the Apache.
Yet some of the old-time detectives
say that they have less nerve than
any class. They will murder. but
only when the victim is entirely
helpless. SHOW fight and the
Apaches will run to cover" they de-
clare