The Wilmington morning star., 1940-03-26
Man bout

By George tucker

NEW YORK, March 25.-Mr. Ell
lott Nugent, famed Ohio State uni
versity alumnus, old classmate of
Tim Thurber, old friend of Bob
Benchley, ex.news reporter, actor,
film director, co-author of "The
Male Animal''-a Broadway hit
Law beloved and pillowed in his
wife's boudoir at $40 East seth
street, an aura Of henignancy play
ing about his thin, blond head.
A number of things had %conspired
to bring about this salubrious state
state of contentment: (a) he had a
Sigh. cold; G) he had just read in
the papers that he and his wife,
the former Norma Lee, were debat-
ing a divorce; and (c), the comedy
which he and Thurber had co.writ-
ten on trains and in west coast no
tells and on ships passing through
the Panama Canal had just been sold
to the movies for $150,000.
That's a lot of money, $4,000
That's a funny thing to debate, a
divorce. That's a good excuse to
take a rest, a cold.
Let's debate that divorce first.
Norma and 1 We're f%lattered," MI
gent confessed, because nobody
ever said that about us before.
We've been married IA years, we've
raised three kids, and for years
we've lived in Hollywood. But no
body ever rumored that the MI
u..+o bod ,ffft, yNa,d about "ado I'm
our minds that we were nobodies,
because almost everybody who is
important gets rumored about. But
now that we have finally arrived
we're very pleased, and we hope all
our friends read it, too"
Now the play. When you co-write
the ideas of someone else. You work
them around until they take form.
Jim had an idea to start with
which sounded pretty good to me,
and I had a few ideas, too, and we
finally got together. We talked it
over and sketched the thing out
last February, but it wasn't until
IlluCii ldICI llldI We SOl ooNI ~
work. You can't co-write a comedy
when one of you is in New York and
the other is in Hollywood. Finally
Thurber and his wife came out and
we got going.
We wrote, different parts, and
then re-wrote each others stuff.
Some of it he wrote on trains to
n nd f,.op, No" VorH' Coroo Of II I
wrote on the coast. Jim ever took a
lot of notes and wrote some of it on
the ship coming back through the
Panama Canal. That's the way it
was. All the pieces seemed to fit.
Then We tried it out On the coast"
@: But can you tell anything
about a coast tryout-whether it
will go across in New York;"
A: Sometimes you can, and we
were pretty confident that we had
a good property. We thought if we
had a good cast that we'd do all
right, but of course no one ear an
ticipate a smash hit, or even dream
that you can sell the movies for
$3.50, 900. Pretty good, Ell"
When Nugent is feeling pretty
satisfied he accompanies his re-
marks with a quick, sly sort Of gee
Unhappy wink. This wink takes the
place of a smile, because Nugent is
no cheshire cat. He doesn't grin
too much. This wink is just his way
Of expressing exuberance.
After reading this over I find that
I haven't explained that cold. 1t
wasn't a cold, actually. Nugent just
Thought he might get a cold, and as
it was an off day. with no matinee,
and as his own quarters were occu-
pied by Herbert s.. Duffy, a pal of
old Columbus, O., days, who is
house-guesting this week, he decid.
ed to seek out a quiet comfortable
haven where he could relax and en-
joy the sunlight streaming in
through the south windows.
So he chose the boudoir of Mrs.
Nugent, all reports of imminent
separation and divorce notwith-
standing.