The Washington times., 1937-08-31
KELLEYGRAMS

revived and rake in the money,
though they are antiques with
out vestige of sound.
PRESS AGENT SCORES
What do New York press
agents talk about when they get
together? Well, I was in a
midst of a group at the Savoy
Plaza last week and, over the
Pilsener and Martins, they de-
bated whether the two girls
found under Robert Taylor's bed
before the departure of the
Berengaria were planted there
by the alert Metro-G oldwyn-
Mayer publicity department.
All agreed that if the young
ladies were not directed to this
sheltered nook, from which they
emerged just as the reporters
and photographers arrived, they
should have been, inasmuch as
they made every front page of
the evening papers, inside on
the New York Times.
What made the faint odor Of
fried mackerel cling to the stunt
was that the two girls, photo
graphed for the press, were
different in the various late
editions.
Were the city editors and the
ship news reporters gulled?
They don't think so. They didn't
stop to figure out whether what
was happening had been staged.
They just knew there was good
copy, something away from the
conventional departure story.
AS for the press agents-all
Broadway veterans-they agreed
that Robert Taylor's New York
chaperones had pinned Old Man
Opportunities shoulders to the
mat, with the Fourth Estate,
as referee, conceding the victory.
BEST SHOW IN N. Y.
Best show I saw while away
from this desk was 1.-THE
Women" You will be seeing
it at the National Theater be-
fore Christmas, and Nat Dorf-
man assures me it will carry
the New York cast.
THE Women" is a cynical,
savage and bitter attack on the
sex. Playwright Clare Booth pre-
tends to set down what forty or
more women say about each
other in the beauty parlor, in
the fitting rooms of the swanky
shops, over the bridge tables, at
the cocktail lounges, even when
they are soaping themselves in
the bathtub.
Now, I happen to be one of
those who think no woman
breathing today's fresh air
could ever be as catty, or swing
such an acid dagger as the young
matron that Ilka Chase por-
trays. She is a little tattle, a
sleek hellcat with a propensity
for injecting everything with her
poison tongue. She takes a
SadiStic delight in helping to
break up happy home with
her Scandalmongering, and
when she winds up in the third
act getting a swift kick in her
Southern exposure. you feel that
the punishment hardly fits the
crime.
There are other women, of
course, but only Margalo Gill
more gets the sweet and charm.
ing role. What do the women
fight about? Why, can't you
guess? Then men, naturally.
The conversation in Clare
Booths play is smart and
Snappy. So many cracks that
may make sensitive cheeks red,
Producer Max Gordon will have
to spray his play literally with
formaldehyde before he submits
it to the Will Hays office for
the screen.
Grandma was never like that.
Neither was Mamma. But so
many theater-goers recognize
contemporary neighbors in the
Silk-slipped kittens with the
sharp claws there must be truth
in the dramatic picture.
One more word. Cecil B. De
Mile likes to take his camera
into the bath room. Max Cor
don goes him one better. Betty
Lawford, immersed up to here in
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