Evening star., 1938-01-31

here and there, was not the greatest
on earth, 1t at least was one of the
longest and most exciting. BY the
time the gold plate breakfast came
up at the Carlton at 2:30 yesterday
morning, the play was going strong,
but with only about half a cast. Miss
Janet Gaynor and the Fredric
Marchs Che i'll, but brave about it
alD had elected to forfeit the $25
worth Of quail, glimpse Of Lucius
Beebe and the most perfect house
party spirit that ever bobbed up at
that hour Of the morning anywhere
west of Singapore. Wherever he
went when he died, Petronious, Nero's
old master of ceremonies, must have
looked on with tardy but powerful
conviction that, after all. he was
an amateur compared with Andrew
r. Kelley. Carter Barron, Hardie
Meakin and their corps of shock
troops.
It might have been just an eclipse
Of the sun at pm instead of the
logical dead of night, to Judge by
the crowd wearing out the sidewalks
and virtually the whole inside of the
hotel trying to get one last glimpse
Of celebrity before came the dawn.
Our statistical department has not
yet compiled the final figures. but
tho aggregate loss Of sleep obviously
ran into tens of millions of man
woman-and-child hours.
The wear and tear on the celebri-
ties, near-celebrities and those who
never got near the celebrities was
something almost too shuddery to
contemplate. Even Zorina and Flea
nor Powell, youngest and presumably
in the best condition of the lot be-
cause they are dancers, were begin
ming to give evidence that stars, too
are mortal. Only Ray Bolger, among
all the stars, actually seemed to
grow stronger as the dawn came
hippity- hopping down K street AS
long as there was piper to play,
Mr.. Bolger was ready to dance. But
the piper finally wore out, the last
flower dropped, the last collar wilted,
and suddenly where there had been
SO much activity, there was moth
ing but the dim cold deadness of
another morning.
And, paraphrasing Ernest Hem
mingway, Harry Macarthur turned
and walked slowly away from the
hotel through the mist.
X r X
RY FAR the greatest thrill Of the
evening for the celebrities. who
suddenly seemed like bunch of de-
lighted children, instead Of the idols
they had been at the chain OF hotels,
was the White House visit They
had, and took, their second chance
to meet President Roosevelt The
visit. constituting 50-minute break
in the dizzy dash from hotel to hotel
and theater to theater, was an inspired
recess And the crowd of formally
dressed but thoroughly relaxing guests
constituted an impressive testimonial
of gratitude to the Republic for hav-
ing provided such nice haven to es-
cape from fans Carter Barron,
who must know everybody in the
world, introduced the visitors to the
Chief Executive And never missed
. name The hotel tour next year
ought to have an added feature, a
competition to determine the finest
smelling kitchen in Washington :.
Using back entrances, which the fans
also were using (smart people,, the
celebrities whitfield more food probably
than ever before in their lives
This department, which went along
for the ride, currently is trying to
decide the question between the Shore
ham and the Raleigh Both smelled
swell The Mayflower, for the
Gaynor party. at least, was the quick
est hotel to get in and out of
The party made the Willard three
times (twice for repairs), and with
out . single jarring incident I'd.
Wardman wins the honor Of having
the fan who looked steadily at Miss
0aynor for 81 minutes apparently