The Washington times., 1936-08-15
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
BY Louis SObOI-
Casual Comment!

of this column In long, crisp
letter, couched in gentle terms
but indiSputably conveying his
bitter disappointment and dis
illusionment with the one column
ist who, he always felt, wanted
to be fair, Mr.. Vallee explains q
great many things which have
been misconStrued by this de
partment-and those of contem
porares- concluding: Don't ask
me for my friendship if you hao
ever thought Of doing so. 1t is
not a case of being too human
and erring on your part. that
article shows a deliberate hostll
ity toward me, and l accept II
as SUCH"
Earlier in his letter. Mr..
Va!Iee insists: "YOu have had
your fun and your say, and in
the minds Of those who, like
myself, have interpreted that
reference to mean that 1 was
the churI, am, indeed, q heel
II would not blame them from
writing letters of indignation
to my sponsors. Il would not
blame them for kissing me in
INV personal appearances. nor
would / blame them for stay
ing away when / appear in per
SON, thus affecting my hveli-
hood which 1 guard just as
iealOusly as you do your own"
The whole tone of the letter i'm
plies that the star is deeply hurt,
and that this department has gone
out of it's way to jeer at him ::
This is far from the truth, and
whether Mr.. Vallee believes it or
not, we have at all times had a
great deal of respect for him, his
defiance of the skeptics, his per-
sonal pluck and his sincerity =.
When he makes a foolish state
mentor statement which ap-
pears foolish to this observer-or
when he does something which in
spires criticism, we have not heSt
tated to express that criticism.
On the other hand, if Mr.. Vallee
will look through his scrapbook, he
will discover that the pieces in his
favor which have appeared here
far outbalance the few paragraphs
and scattering lines in which he
has been jeered at or attacked.
Nor do I agree with him that vic
TINS of columnar attack have no
way to retaliate but. must suffer
or be accused of not being able to
take it,. This column has always
been open to the other side. And
if Mr.. Vallee will grant me the
permission, I am willing to print
his letter in its entirety. / do
not do so at this time because it
is my impression that many of the
statements in it are intended for
me personally and not for the
public -.
Mr., Arnold Gingrich, editor
of Esquire, also is puzzled. In
a wire from Chicago, he pro-
tests: Cant understand curl
Gus ethical code by which it is
OK to reveal name of victim
while tenderly protecting name
of cuIprit" Mr.. Gingrich re-
ferS to the recent paragraph
here in which we pointed out
that a story in the May issue
of Esquire had previously ap-
peared in College HumOr in
1882. We did not reveal the
name of the author at the
time. However, since the au-
thor has himself written from
Cleveland, it need not be kept
secret any longer. The name
which appeared on the gifted"
Esquire piece was Jed Kiley,
who writes by way of explana-
ton land scOrn): "Thank you
SO much for the publicity. We
writer's must stick together. e.
It's too bad, however, that your
little contributor doesn't follow
the movies as carefully as he
does the magazines If he had
done so he might have recOg-
nized the Eternal Triangle in
a One-reeler made by Warner
BrOs.-First National at least a
year before College HumOr's
alleged printing. / happened
to see the picture rights in
1880 in its identical Esquire
form. / changed the title be-
cause of the poor picture the
studio produced.
81 must admit that it was news
to me that College Humor had
published it. I was in Europe
during most of 1881. My recOI-
lection is that 1 submitted it to
them along with several other
stories at the time of my depar-
ture and my only dread now is
that it might have actually been
purchased by them. However.
the fact that it was published
anonymously seems to work
against that theory. Have writ
ten III. N. Swanson, who was the
editor at that time, for his Opin-
ion. You know, in one way, it's
quite a compliment to be called
a plagiarist. One doesn't steal
trash, does one? But then how
would you know? I am sure
no one ever accused you of that"
Thus, in fairness to the caustic
Mr.. Kiley, we must assume that
he was quite unaware that his
story had been accepted or pub
lished in College Humor previous