Evening star., 1941-12-31


year, Meet the People" 1t opened
five months.
Now they've written. directed.
punched and dragged a new hit into
being, called They Can't Get You
Down" It drew rave reviews here
It's clocked for New York in early
spring.
You don't know the three names?
But you probably remember Cor
ney's depression song hit, Brother,
Can You Spare a Dime?";; you've
probably sung Eliscu's Without q
Song" and danced to his "Carioca";;
you probably saw a recent movie
Myers helped write. "Destry Rides
Again"
They all did right we'll on Broad
way In the '20s. But six years ago
they wended their way. individually,
to Hollywood Paramount really
started the curious trio by signing
Gorney and Myers to write Col
lege Holiday" The two met, and
sentimental Gorney worried i'm
mediately about puckish Myers eat
ing habits. Myers ate too much.
Gorney signed Myers to eat every
lunch with him for two weeks Myers
needed supervision. At the end Of
two weeks Gorney had put on 10
pounds.
Wrote and Got Rich.
They found out they'd nearly met
IS years before. Myers was knock
Ing Sweet Heart Time" into shape
for the New York footlights. Cor
ney had written song for 1t. Myers
tried to scratch the song, but he
didn't succeed. Gorney says now If
that song had been dumped over
board he'd have taken to the bread
line.
Myers got cold chills when he
heard that and said he'd be good
about the food. So they wrote Col
lege Holiday" and both lost 10
pounds.
They kept on writing movies and
getting nicely rich. Then they met
Enscu and he and Gorney found
they had q common hankering to
write q stage show again. Myers
said they were Crazy, but he'd come
to the meeting.
The show ("Meet the People~
took form so fast that it never was
| really written. Eliscu. who directed
1t, complains he was often up against
it, yelling. "Well, what's the line?
For heavens sake, doesn't any one
| remember?" Several times the line
was supplied by a young painter,
| working on the sets.
Opening night the painter was in
the chorus. Gorney, Myers and
Eliscu were mildly surprised. They
| all thought one of the others had
hired him. He'd hired himself,
Angus Hopkins. He turned out one
Of the best.
Confident This Time.
They put together Meet the
People" by the hopeful method of
nicking friends here and there for
s25 gifts. It took $3.50 for the
scenery and s4oo for costumes. They
got it.
But this fall they had little more
confidence. They put They Can't
Get You Down" in auditioning state
| and then invited several of Holly
woods richest celebrities to see it,.
They planned to get 81 900 each from
20 people. But New York had an
ear cooked Jack Kirkland (pro-
ducer of Tobacco RoadO heard
about the parlor seance and flew
out. He offered the whole $4,000.
That threw the three musketeerS
into a dither Their show was
moving too fast for them. They'd
invited another Broadway big-wig,
Dwight Deere Wiman, to see it the
next day. He did and he, too, wanted
to put up the whole $4,000. So
now he and Kirkland are dividing
the honors.
It's a curious musical. 1t starts
where others stop-that is, on the
finale where the lovers are going to
live happily ever after. But there's
a kibitzer in a box VINO yells it's
baloney-tell what really happens.
So They Can't Get You Down" gives