Evening star., 1938-12-05

category quite removed from Mr..
Merediths recent stage roles. He
has come into some big opportuni-
ties since he played the duck in
Alice in Wonderland" Among
them have been Milo in winter
set" Van Dorm in High Tor" and
Stephen Minch in THE Star
Wagon" Those were pretty vital
characters of the last three years
on the American drama scene. They
gave Mr.. Meredith a chance to cry
musically in the wilderness of mans
beWilderment. which is the scene of
Maxwell Anderson's plays.
For all this department knows the
experience may have qualified him
to play the most brilliant, clownish
college boy in movie history. Or
maybe it did not. At any rate that
is what he has been playing, which
answers the letter writer's question
and gets the column this far along.
And that brings us to the case of
Abner Bibermann. Few persons ex-
cept probably a few relatives and
intimate friends ever heard of Alb
ner Bibermann, but his is an inter-
esting case in its way.
Mr.. Bibermann is an actor, a
thing that seems interesting at
this moment because destiny or fate
created Ben Hecht as a playwright
to completely Illustrate Mr.. Biber-
mann. Unwittingly Hecht is the
most perfect stymie ever laid for
a player. Somehow or other
Bibermann always gets into his
movies or plays and just as in
variably ends up as a face on the
cutting-roOm floor, or in the case of
plays fellow who turns out at the
last minute not to be the type.
First time the two got together
was way back in the days of Soak
the Rich" Bibermann was all set
to go fast and big) when just before
the play was produced, it was de-
cided to eliminate the part al
together. Hecht concluded that the
young man should have another
chance, this time in ITO Quito and
Back" He was to play the general;
was to have played it, that is, right
up to the point where the Theater
Guild bought the play and told
Bibermann he was too young for the
part.
The third time the two got to-
gether, which should have been the
charm, was when Bibermann was
the punch drunk fighter in Moth
ing Sacred" the film comedy star
ring F'redric March and Caro,e Lom-
bard. In the editing of the picture,
it was agreed that a punch drunk
fighter was one of the things easily
dispensed with. The Selznick janitol
eventually swept Bibermann off the
cutting room floor and that was
that.
Destiny in the shape of Hecht gets
its fourth crack at Bibermann in
"Gunga DIM the new R-K-O pic
ture. Hecht wrote the script. Biber-
mann played an important part in
1t. The studio insists the part will
remain In the picture. The actor
does not know. He has begun to
be superstitious.
Mrs. Henry Morgenthau heads the
list OF patronesses for tonight's bene-
mt performance of Pins and Need
les" at the National Theater. Re-
ceipts will go to the educational fund
OF the National Womens Trade
Union League Gordon Hitten-
mark and Art Brown will be CO.
masters of ceremonies at the bene-
mt shows to be staged Thursday and
Friday at Sidney Lusts Boro The
ater in Bethesda . There will
be lots of fancy trimmings, orches-
tras, hoodlights, etc. Prof. Man,
lock" anti-terrorist picture was
screened this morning at the Rialto,
where 1t will be shown starting next
Sunday :. With Paul Kain's OPEN
ing and Wardman's Metronome
room, and the Raleigh Pail Malls
terrapin and turkey dinner both
scheduled, Thursday night should
be one of the weeks busiest and
best Add things we want to
hear: "Ol' Man River" sung by Vladi-
mir Diloff, Troikas basso THE
Eternal Mask" and "The Adventures
OF Chico" about both of which this
department has sung paeans, are the
current cinema festival attractions
at the Little Theater