Evening star., 1940-04-13

pack IN the boy Jay Csrmody.
hood of zanuck, a boyhood spent in
Wahoo, Nebr. AS a broth of a lad
on the plains of that plain looking
State, Zanuck was ravenous always
for coconut pie. He simply could
not get enough of it. In boy fashion,
he resolved that if he ever became
successful the one thing with which
he would surround himself was a
sufficiency of his favorite dessert.
Well. Zanuck did become successful
as every one, including the income
tax people. knows. Today he has a
huge plant for the manufacture of
art, private polo field and all the
equipment that goes with it, a lux
urious home. and the like. But in
this tangled web of his current exist
ence, the line that leads straight
back to his boyhood is that which
begins with the pastry chef and the
coconut custard pie.
1t not only humanizes Zanuck,
which he may or may not need, but
1t also results in coconut custard
pie which is virtually unequaled in
the annals of overindulgence. OBJ
viously the recipe is one built around
the chiefs order to the chef "and
don't spare the eggs" It is rich and
tasty, and there is nothing we would
rather do than bring barrel of it to
Washington if manufacturers Of
luggage had only produced a pie
barrel.
No naughty caterer to the hungry
rich ever was more proud of his
pie, pastries generally, than Zanuck.
And why not? Did he not send his
pastry chef to Paris for a stay of
several months in order that he
might acquire that final polish
which lifts man from a chef to a
genius? The answer to that ques-
ton is that he did. The result is
enough to justify a man in longing
to retire to some quiet nook and
spend the rest of his days eating
the pie which Zanuck dreamed in his
youth and achieved in middle age.
X X y
The subject Of pie naturally evokes
an interest in the type which is
used for hitting actresses in > the
face, specifically the face OF Alice
Faye. No one ever thought to check
on whether there has been an i'm
provement in the pies of today over
those which convulsed the Republic
in the days of plain slapstick COM
edy. The opinion is, however, that
there has been an improvement in
that the pies must be of a consist
ency which will keep them from fall
ing apart, yet light enough not to be
destructive when contracting 1--WE
finally found a use for that word)
their targets.
There are the further points in
connection with the assumed ad-
vance in pie making that they must
be suitable for Technicolor, and that
they are thrown greater distances.
In other words, even if they sound
sardonic, the art of the chef has
had to keep pace with the science
of picture making.
Postscripts to pie: On the set of
-Four Sons" not a single son was
IN evidence. =. But Eugenie Leon
tovich was Miss Leontovich.
much better known on the stage,
including that of Steve Cochran's
Olney Theater, sort of found her
self kidnapped by the movies. . :.
AS kind of lark she took a screen
test behind the back of Husband
Gregory Ratoff. .. It turned out
grand, and here is Miss Leontovich
IN the movies. Ratoff is pleased,
for a film contract is a grand thing
for keeping a wife at home, most
especially a wife who has a hanker-
ing to go on and on with a stage
career. AS the mother of the
-Four Sons" in the picture Miss
Leontovlch has to look considerably
older than any one in the East
ever saw her look. {. But it washes
of at night, and the climate out
here gives her an even younger
appearance than when you saw her
last Even so, she probably will
be back on the stage some time
soon. -. The cinema simply can't
steal every one away from the
theater.
We would have seen Shirley Tenn