The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-22
In New York
.Rx PAUL HARRISON

New York.-Personal column:
 Noel Coward was so named be-
 cause his birth was expected on Christmas day. However, the stork
 beat Santa Claus to the chimney. First song he ever wrote was when
 he was nine and a member or
 the Chapel Royal Choir at Slap ham. England. The lyric began:
 "We're six dirty little choir boys. with really frightful minds. Bert Lahr, the comedian, is the most pessimistic fellow I've met
 starring on Broadway now, but be- lieyes maybe he ought to have gone into some other business Eddie Cantor was petrified with fright in his first appearance in his first vaudeville act at Ham merstein's Victoria. As a result, he sang in 6 nervous, staccato fashion and expected the curtain to be dropped on his neck. But the audience liked it, and Cantor inadvertently had discovered what all entertainers most desire-a distinctive style. Shelia Barrett, the mimic, Is the quickest with suave repartee ol any gal in show business Ethel MeIIUdH 18 tAV D. oA0AASOS stress. A few years ago she iit- orally shrugged herself out of q. job as a stenographer and into a night club role. Other stenog- raphers could sing, maybe, but they couldn't put over a song with their shoulders =. Jimmy Gag ney, tough guy of the screen. col- lects, antique furniture, reads po- etry, paints a little, doesn't smoke or drink. Broadway finds he hasn't changed much since the days when he was a bellhop at the Friars' club here, and later a chorus boy. Climax Meetings
 The most dramatic things that ever happened to Marc Connolly, the ,dramatist, were two meetings with Daniel Frohman. Thirty eight years ago Connolly and his father chanced into Frohman's off, flee. The producer said: Come here, little boy" and opened a little door in the wall that looked down on the busy stage of the theater. That glimpse put the theater into Conneily's blood :. Four or i've years ago he sat again | in Frohman's office, and the old man remembered. He rose and
 swung open the same trap door. "Come here. little boy" he said. George Gershwin. who writes
 musci. and Ira Gershwin, who
 writes lyrics. have been driven
 nearly mad by the recurrent
 query: Which comes first in a
 song. the words or the tune? Fact
 Is that there's no rule about 1t;
 the brothers work both ways. Incf- dentaily, Ira was the first iyricist
 to put q seven-syllabie word into
 a popular song. The word was
 day"
 Sally Rand has slept on benches | in Central Park and eaten 10-cent dinners in the Automat. Used to make her own clothes and walk 40 blocks to save a nickel. She
 went shopping the other day and
 bought herself an ermine coat for Christmas Smoothest of magi- clans is Cardini, who never says a word as he goes through his amazing sleight-of-hand routines.
 He's unhappy. though; wants to be a legitimate actor, SO that he
 can have lines to speak.
 i Romance
 Al Joison and Ruby Keeler are In town. Tn all the years both were lin New York. before their nar- irage, they hadn't met, nor had either seen the other on the stage. Jolson saw her in Chicago, pro- posed in San Francisco. He wasn't sure about the size Of her finger,
 SO bought three wedding rings be- fore they went to get married [. Two forgotten episodes in the ea- reeF of Waiter Illusions Once he played professional hockey for sib q week while trying to get a job as m actor, Wrote songs, too,
 and introduced them in vaude- vile ,,,.
 Lillian GIsh, who made so many
 pictures, never goes to the movies. Hardly ever, anyway a couple 0E years ago she saw some 0f her ola movies resruD, One Of those ntms was nIIeaFts Of the World" {, Courtney RurT, the producer, lost
 a million dollars when he was is, He was q bank, clerk and left a package of bonds and cash in aH office building, Pound it, though, Ills next biggest thrill wae, sec. 0DdIng a friend in formal duel in Poland in 1928, Nobody was hurt, but # was pretty taut drama,