Evening star., 1942-03-08
First He Selects the Te and Then He Writes the Song
It's Method That Has the Unpredae Well
He Can't Recall OFF Hand MANY He
By Wide World News.

Sy "iuS Woliu rcNe
NEW YORK.
Cole Porter is probably the only
Broadway and Hollywood song
writer who ever escorted a wooden
lady all the way around the world.
A solid, unprepossessing figure Of
shameless bulges and curves, she was
a constant enchantment to the COM
poser and the toast of every port.
She wore dresses of exotic colors and
design. The ships company attend
ed her in doldrums and in high
winds. The stewards adored her and
she all but sat at the captains table
In a final burst of triumph she
came back to New York to the baf-
flement of two of Broadway's clev-
crest pranksters, Howard Lindsay,
the father OF Life With Father" I"
and Russell Grouse, Lindsays COL
laborator in the show and in the
joke.
"Cole was making a round-the-
world trip on the Franconia," Grouse
said the other day. Moss Hart was
going with him to write the book for
a new show-it was Jubilee, pro-
duced in 1935-and Cole was to do
the music. Monty Woolley, who was
then stage director, was with them.
We wanted to give Cole something
when he sailed and after searching
around we found this hideous sculp-
tured figure
They had it Grated and delivered
to Porter's stateroom and had a
good laugh whenever they thought
of it. But Porter was delighted.
Instead of tossing the lady over
board when the ship cleared Am
brose Channel, he had her dressed
and for the rest of the voyage gave
her extravagant parties.
Still Unpredictable.
This was not the only occasion on
which Porter astonished his friends
or had a little joke of his own. Once,
Grouse and Lindsay, who wrote the
books for Anything Goes" and Red
Hot and Blue" with lyrics and music
by Porter, fretted and worried more
than a week for him to return from
California. When he finally showed
I'D he explained that he had broken
the trip by driving up to Calender,
Ontario, to see the Dionne quln-
tuplets.
Today, at so, he is rich, independ-
ent, but as hard-working and unpre-
dictable as ever.
He never loafs between the writing
of shows and, since travel by ship is
now virtually out of the question,
he is studying Spanish and learning
how to become stenographer. HIS
shorthand and tipping lessons keep
him occupied for hours IN his suite
on the 4lst floor of the Waldorf
Astoria Towers, where he has been
staying with secretary and valet.
The idea of a song writer OF
Porter's eminence studying short
hand and tipping would seem absurd
in almost any case. But Porter ex-
plains that he already knows French
and Italian and would like to know
Spanish and that the tipping and
shorthand keep him busy whenever
he isn't reading or listening to the
phonograph or going to the theater,
the opera or to concerts.
He always stays at the Waldorf
Astoria Towers when he is in New
York. 1t is very convenient, for
one thing, he says, because nearby
music shop stores his library OF 5000
phonograph records for him when
he is out of town and the Waldorf
people store his furniture and his
paintings.
Has Duplicate Record Library.
Whenever he comes to town from
his home in WilliamstoWn, Mass, or
from California or elsewhere, he
simply goes to the Waldorf and finds
everything set up, even to the grand
piano he hires from the Steinway
people.
The paintings include one by
Maurice Utrillo and another by Jean
Hugo, one by Paul Cadmus, who
aroused official Navy ire few years
ago by his painting, Shore Leave"
and canvas by Guy Nichols. noted
for his snowy landscapes and red