The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-09-07
 FOR NOVEL
 DEVELOPS
Career of NeWspaperman Who Turns to Writing
 Plays Is All That
By GEORGE TUCKER

NEW YORK, Sept. You look ing for material for real-life novel? I'll tell you what. You walk down Broadway till you come to that the atre which says Nancy Carroll in I Must Love Someone'--a New Play by Jack Kirkland Then you do some digging into the amusement files of the newspapers, and some talking to actors and producers around town and you1l have it.
 It's there all right-plenty of TO- nance, plenty of glamor, plenty of bitterness and fist fights and public face slappings, and critical jeers, and an equal amount of success and failure That's enough meat for good story. And it's all con- tained in that marquee legend that floods into light every day at dusk on Broadway.
 q Must Love Someone" is Jack Kirklands third play on Broadway, and Kirkland, an x-newspaperman i is now married to his third wife. But starring in the play is Nancy Carroll, who was Jacks first wife
 Before he got around to writing q Must Love Someone" he adapted Tobacco Road" which sometime ! next November will eclipse "Abie's Irish Rose" and all the other long run plays in Broadway history It is in it's sixth year now, and still going strong.
 But "A hours after it opened re- sentful and rebellious Kirkland d wouldn't have given a dirty hanky | for it's chances. The critics were flaying it. The Puirty League were calling it vile names. That was six years ago. Nobody knows how much money it has earned, but it has been a play or destiny for more people than you can remember. It brought Sam Byrd in to prominence and earned him enough money to dis 1 continue acting and became a pro- ducer in his own right It made stars of Henry Hull, James Batron, James Bell, and Eddie Carr It gave Kirkland enough money to abandon his career as a reporter and became playwright-producer.
 Road companies began spreading across the continent, welcomed in some cities, barred in others. Sally Rand, the fan dancer, always in- sisted that the play "sickened me" every time she saw it, which prompted some people to wonder why she went back to see it so often. Chicago banned 1t until judge gave the producers a green light.
 Then Kirkland wrote "Tortilla Flat an abrupt and dismal fail- ure. The critics were so outspoken against it that Kirkland, meeting one of them in restaurant, prompt ly indulged in a knockdown, drag out brawl Then he left Broadway never to return" but he came back with T Must Love Someone,' which immediately was labeled the vul- garest of the vulgar. Kirkland promptly made use of this public ity, calling attention in his ads to the fact that it was he bawdiest show on Rroa dwav
 When Tobacco Road" first op- ened the bankers controlling the theater where it was stationed read the sour reviews and urged them to move. "Tortilla Flat" wasn't open long enough to have anybody try to oust it. But I Must Love Some one" has not escaped It has been involved in litigation, the outcome of which is pending.
 Plainly, ex-reporter Kirkland can never be accused of leading a dull life. He may be kicked around in print, and occasionally in the late hour restaurants, but he has fun, and he makes money.