The Washington times., 1936-06-26
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
BY Louis SObOI-
Casual Comment!


trend is to sneer at the flag and,
indeed, If the flag were just that
bit of cloth with stars and stripes
in three colors that you hang to a
flagpole or drape across the plat
form, nobody would give a hang,
but since even the most uninspired
and unimaginative among us re-
gard it as a symbol of pretty
swell, liberal sort of country (par-
ticularly when you compare it
with a few other countries across
the sea-, why not give the good
old rag a certain amount of decent
treatment? My peeve is directed
at the abuse of the symbol.
Over on Eighth Avenue recent
Iy, to advertise the drop in the
price of a certain I erchant'S
stock Of trousers, there was
huge American flag in the win
dow, across which was blasted
in white paint the thrilling news
that "SOandSO'S Pants Are
Down." and that very day this
was right after Decoration Day.
you might have picked up the
newspaper and read where in
small town upstate, a puppy had
wandered into the cemetery, be-
came attracted to a little flag
over the grave of a soldier, had
clamped its jaws around it and
carried it proudly out. WhereOn
the gentle inhabitants shot him!
Some astute psychologist will
probably come out any day now
with an explanation of the vari-
Gus word-crazes, hand-wavingS,
ETC., sweeping the country. Col
umns like this, unfortunately,
have helped in the development of
the goofy paStimes. Out on the
coast, as we once reported, high
Salaried writer's. and directors
spend hours playing a little So
called "word-checkers" game not
unlike anagrams. Most papers
still carry the crossword puzzle
boxes. The epidemic of handles
continues unabated. Recently, We
discussed and ran samples OF
something called a "Body-Song"
game CEye'S a-Muggin" etc.
which Fred Waring tells me he
introduced over the air more than
a year ago. Another game en-
ploys popular names and works
something like this: "Why was
Anna Held?". "Who wove Fay
Webb?". who prays at Shirley
Temple?" What has Irene
Dunn and why did Francis Led
erer?" docs Phil Cook? Then
why call Phil Baker" {. . "Rochelle's
Hudson gave Lew Ayres until
Harry Warner that JAMS Pierce
gave Franchot Tone?"
There are other variations. One
brought to my attention by Dick
Himber, for instance, is tagged
KNOCK Knock" You bang on a
table and say KNOCK Knock" and
somebody says, who's there?"
You say "Fritz." -. Fritz who?"
-. "Fritz Apple Blossom Time in
Normandy Or you say "Lamby"
."Lamby who?". "Lamby Call
You Sweetheart!". Or Cohen"
."Cohen who?". Cohen jump
in the lake"
A lesson to all of us of lesser
talent lies in a few lines from
Bill COrum'S cOl'm-SOmething
we ought to paste over our
typewriters and memories:
"ThiS column does not quarrel
in print with fellow newspaper
men. For one thing, it has
too much pride OF craft to do
that. For another, its con-
ductOr has too much pride in
this column" AS an offender
in the past, We blush with
shame. There'l be no repeti-
tiOn in this department of
similar Offenses in the future.
Most Of us noticed the short,
Stocky chap wearing dark glasses
as he danced on the floor of
the Riviera. The mystery was
solved, when a captain came
over and whispered in awed
tones: That's a first cousin of
Clark Gable!"
These are happy days for
authors. Thus John T. McIn-
tyre of Philadelphia wins a
prize of $4,000 with his novel,
"StepS Going Down." which is
just the beginning, for there
will be royalties on the sales
of the book and the cinema
people are already negotiating
for its purchase. William
ShakeSpeare'S total profits from
"ROmeO and Juliet" are said
to have been under $1,5OO. E.
Too bad, he picked the wrong
century-tOday, he could have
collected perhaps $4,000 to
100000 for the script from the
movie firm which has just COM
Mated the nictIlrizatiOn