The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-10-01
In New York
By PAUL HARRISON

| 7 New York.--odds and ends: During one of those strange inter- ludes which now and then occur at parties, the talk turned whimsical And a minor member of Mayor La- EGuardia's cabinet opined that 1t was about time we changed the name of the United States.
 United tSates'," he said, ''is just an unimaginative, structural term. We need something more descriptive, and with a swing to 1t. Like 'Neurasthenia'."
 At the same party found my self chatting with the working wife of 8 not-yery-successful play wright. She was very much dis turbed about something, and final- ly came out with it. I'm the sec- retary to the head of q manufac- turing concern" she said. "Yes- terday the big bosses. six of them, met at luncheon to decide whether they'd cut wages or reduce the of flee staff. Today I came across the bill for the luncheon. It was $72."
 Parties Forecast Boom
 From there.I went into further forebodings of hard times, only to | be brought up sharply by half dozen invitations to other parties. Parties of various sorts, especially, literary ''teas," are every column ist's sure index of recovery. Dur | ing any given period the number of receptions at which the press l is invited to meet the authors of new books and new projects is as significant as the figures on bank clearings and foreign exchange. | There were scarcely any in 1892, a I few in 1883. This year there are invitations every day: Cocktails, to 2 D. m. Do come"
 | Lecturers are arriving by the ship-load. That's another good sign, reminiscent of our days of careless prodigality. Explorers and popular-scientists. cultists of vari- ous sorts, lady travellers and ex- 1 ponents of free lov eand birth control. Some of them come down the gangplanks in weird costumes donned just before tn eship-news Quarantine. Others think up start ling statements calculated to bring the press clamoring for inter views. Competitors getting so tough the minor prophets can't win any notice short of forecast ing the imminent end of the world. or the Judaization of Ger many.
 Vodka Makes Its Debut
 Speaking of parties, I got around to one given by Amtorg, the Rus sian trading corporation. It wasn't so proletarian as you might ex- pect. They had rented one of the smaller bathrooms of the Waldorf Astoria, hired some strolling rnin- strels, moved in regiment of iackeys, and opened enough jars
 of caviar to discourage all the
 All this was in celebration of
 the American debut of Russian l vodka, and was calculated to help make lot of New Workers vodka unconscious. A number of bar tenders had been borrowed from the swankier drinkeries about town, and these fellows engaged in a vodka a-cocktail-mixing con- test. Comrade Mae Murray, Com
 rade James Barton, zComrade Les ter Allen and some other stage and screen people were the judges. Comrade Morris Gest breexed in,
 looking for Comrade Karl K.
 Kitchen, and was appointed a judge before he knew what it was
 all about. I'm not sure that he
 ever found out.
 Flyers Feted
 Then there was the cocktail
 party given for Salvatore Martino
 and Robert Kuhn, who are sitting l around Floyd Bennett Field wait ing for the weatherman to tell them to start a nonstop flight to Rome. His reception, however, took place at Sardi's restaurant, retreat of the Broadway crowd, land largely was attended by Broad
 way people. Mfr Kuhn and Mir
 Martino are from Brooklyn, never
 had been in Sardis, and scarcely
 ever had seen Broadway, except
 from the skies.
 | The Main stem will be seeing a lot of them, though, if they come
 back with the $25,0O0 prize and contracts for stage appearances.
 Brave lads, daring to go from one
 hazardous feat to the most tn-
 certain profession in the world show business.