Evening star., 1941-03-23
BY IRA WOLFERT.
North American Newspa per Alliance.


North American Newspaper Alliance.
NEW YORK, March 22.-A jury OF
Ia plain folks who count their
change before they pocket it is
acquiring an education along clas-
sical lines from the $400 900 in
come tax fraud case against Joseph
M. Schenck, chairman of the board
Of 20th Century Fox films,
Their minds have been set to
watering over tasty bits of informa-
ton they probably never will have
any use for in their private lives
unless they become Hollywood mag
mates.
For instance. they have learned
that 1t costs $4,000 a year to run
q $1,000 900 yacht-even when you
buy the yacht at a bargain for
100000. This is a most elusive
piece of knowledge that will be set
down nowhere else, for whenever
yacht owner is asked what the
sock is for playing with boat, he
replies, IF you have to figure it
out, then you can't afford it,"
Girl Dancer Expensive.
They have learned, too, that you
can take Doris Duke, the worlds
richest woman, to lunch for IS cents.
To set up a girl dancer in the
right kind of furnishings costs ST.
1891. Gold-plating your dinner
ware costs 1854 If you entertain
In Hollywood, where makeup is
lavish, and swimming, tennising
and perspiring over gambling losses
are frequent, you have to count on
your guests using II towels day,
each.
Even If you pay $1,000 a month
to rent a house las Gloria Swan
son once paid for Mr.. Schenck's
house in Bayside, Long Island you
can have the same kind of trou-
bles as in a $40 house. The heat
ing plant in the Schenck house, ac-
cording to Miss Swanson, was so
defective that she had to wear her
fur coat to dinner, and finally had
to give up living there.
If you hire one of those fancy |
cooks you must figure on her reno
waiting your provisions closet at
great expense to provide herself
with the condiments and spices, etc.
suitable to her temperament. This
happened to Mr.. Schenck three
times in one month. To hire a
private barber hicks the bankroll
$40 a week.
Hollywood Poker Stakes High.
The jury also found out about
those Hollywood poker games. This
has been a dark subject for MANY
years. The tongues of gossip have
licked it till it shone, but while the
subject shone yet it gave no light.
Now the facts are in. A year of
table stakes stud in such talented
company as Constance Bennett,
Charles Boyer, Daryl Zanuck,
Myrna 10y, the Marx brothers, ETC..
will see $228,000 pass in and out of
your pocket. Although that might
well be maximum loss, it wasn't in
Mr.. Schenck's case. He won s97 900
and put out Sl3l 900, making a net
loss on the year of $4,000
Well, that's the lace on the inside
story of movie magnates life.
According to Mr.. Schenck's friends
and even his extraordinarily few
enemies, while the story as told
thus far Is true, it is not the truth.
1t lacks the heart, they say. It's
like telling how a fellow goes out
to some other fellow and saws, |
Shoot anybody who comes along"
without mentioning that he's a
general fighting a war.
For the point about Mr.. Schenck
mentioned by every one who knows
him is that the most valuable asset |
he rents to the company who hires
him is his personality and the life |
1t makes him lead Although he has |
nothing against the life he leads |
1t is also true that it helps him |
earn the $4,000 a week or better. he |
has been making for the last 20
years. That seems to be the kind of |
business he is in. He didn't make |
the business, but he appears to have
been made for it.
Born on Christmas Day.
Mr.. Schenck started out doing |
business in the ordinary way of a |
poor boy with an itch to get ahead. |
He was born in Russia on Christ |
mas Day So years ago and came |
to the United States when he was |
10 years old. He took all kinds of |
Jobs and went to school at night |
and finally became a pharmacist. |
along with his brother, Nicholas. |
Nicholas remained the business
man of the family, but Joe had |
special talents that fitted him for
the entertainment world. In the
first place, he made friends. He has
a simple rule about that. Dale
Carnegie may not approve of it.
but it has worked for Joe.
Il don't care what people do or
were or are or will be-" he SAYS.
IF I like them, they're okay with
me"
Secondly, he never has been sue
cessful in making a distinction be-
tween his business and social life.
He does business with the people he
likes and treats them as friends
and goes out with friends.
Took Pay Cut to Aid Friend.
There are numerous stories to
indicate that this is true-long be-
fore the story of the 100000 deal
with Billie Bioff, the convicted pam
derer, racketeer and labor leader
was put on the record or the facts
of his friendship with Al and Louis
Werthe1mer, pair of Detroit
sharpers who now describe them
selves as unemployed gamblers"
The Wertheimers moved into Mr..
Schenck's 20-room mansion in Hol-
lywood while the master was away
and turned it into gambling house,
which eventually was raided. AL
though it's hardly believable, it
seems to be true that it was done
without Mr.. SchenckS permission,
All < S$or0nfu106I