The Washington times., 1936-03-14

We sat with Cliff OdetS and Ed
Bromberg last highland com
pared notes on our impressions of
Hollywood. .Odets, despite his
slightly crimson leanings, admits
freely he is not averSe to accept
ing the handsome sums Hollywood
producers want to throw his way,
and Bromberg, backbone of the
theater group starlings, is doing
very we'll for himself, too. His
current assignment is in "Tur-
moil' with Jean Hersholt - and
the dialectic Gregory Ratoff di-
recting in his Spluttering but eff
cient manner. .OdetS is quite the
literary hero in town but keeps
himself Shyly aloof =. Irving Ber-
lin passed by while we were in
huddle, with white-haired Jerome
Kern Gin yellow shirt and pink
tie) in tow. He introduced Kern
to OdetS. Kern seemed over
whelmed with the meeting-Odets,
not at all impressed. But after
the veteran composer had passed
on, the young playwright said:
That's really a genuine thrill
meeting Kern and Berlin-those
are really great men"
The RK-O organization well
coined Walt Disney and his
products into its fold with a
gay party at the TrOcaderO Tues
day night, with the Phil Och
man band playing wv h O's
Afraid Of the Big Bad Wolf"
and other familiar tunes identk
fled with Disney releases. e.
Alan Jones came in with Irene
Hervey-this pair has the local
paragrapherS excited with their
new romance of which this OBJ
server is skeptical and so stated
in a recent column. i. John
Steinberg happened to have
that particular copy of the col
umn and showed it to the couple
it drew a giggle from Jones,
but the Hervey girl chirped: So
boil can be wrOng-he can be
very wrong" Being stranger
in town, we can't argue with
that Ed Robinson, his big, fat
cigar cFOwding the corner of his
ample mouth, entered with Nor
man KraSna and Sylvia Sidney
and sat a table away from the
R-K-O party-RObinSOn SEEM
ing to find amusement watch
ing Director PandrO Berman
dancing.
Incidentally, something the viSi-
tor from New York discovers when
he comes out here (more so than
q visiting columnist, who is usually
treated pretty royalty in this town.
is that the same himuckamucKs
who are the acme of graclousneSS
and even humility when they're on
q brief tour of Broadway become
lofty-chapeauxed and aloof out
here. It would hand you a litter
to watch some Of these ex,Broad-
wayites who have made the grade
here put on airs. Roger Pryor,
for instance, just can't be ap-
preached, and Berman, who is a
genuine big shot in this commu-
nifty, seems to be fully aware OF
it and acts up to it On the other
hand, chaps like Clark Gable, Rob-
ert Montgomery (who, paradox
cally enuf, was an uppish young
ster when he was just playing oo-
scure roles in New York; Director
Van Dyke, w. S. Fields, Jack Oakle,
Kay Francis, Carole Lombard-to
mention a few-are as regular and
cordial and gracious as the aver"
age Broadway waiter who has been
heavily tipped.
The Joe Penners are preparing
the haSsinet One thing you
circulate around here. It's silly
for any Of us in our peculiar
cOlumnar craft to depend upon
hollywood sources for our infOr-
nation. Reading the rOmances
among the stars reported by my
conferees and then actually be-
ing present on the scene and OBJ
serving what is really going on
convinCeS you OF that
Tommy Lee, owner Of a group
oF broadcaSting stations and one
Of the wealthiest auto distribu-
tors of the West, has renewed his
courtship of June knight and
extracted a promise from her
that she will return to the Coast
and to him At the TrOca-
dero, that other night, Ruth
ChattertOn sat two tables away
from Ralph Forbes, her ex-
neither gave the other the nod
John O'Hara, having de-
serted the Dorothy Parker
menage, has gone into complete
hiding Martin Mooney, out
of "stir" and now a Warner
Brothers slave, gathered enuf
PianisimO info from fellow priS-
Oners to furnish him with au-
thentic material for his new
book, "ParOIe Board in which
he plans to expose the paroles
rack ret Our publishers, Claude
Kendall and WillOughby Sharpe,
have drifted-Kendall carrying
on alone as heretofOre-the first
tome under his imprimatur be-
ing this reporters "Six Lost
WOmen"-publicatiOn date hav-
ing been set back to April rs
free adj.
The pretty girl who followed
Joan Bennett into the Vendome
Tuesday noon and excited a buzz
among the tourists is her personal
maid, Purs1ey-who has everything