The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-02

emke my assignments in stride. I've got 60 now, after years In the business, that I give Q nonchalant, poker-faced o. K. to any assign. ment, whether it is to cover ping pong match, an egg rolling contest, m industrial dispute, political con- ventlon, or even e war. I've come to expect the unexpected. What I mean is, editors can't surprise me any more.
 So today, when they gave me the assignment to "do e Broadway cole umn for Wlnchell," I merely said Q. K".
 Now, I've been in the stork Club less than a dozen times in my life and Tommy Manville and the best~ looking Powers model In town could be mooing and cooling and wouldn't see it as an item. If I saw MT. Many Bucks, the millionaire, run ming a fever over a sweet young cuties pie in Jack Dempsey's bis~ tro, I'd never think of referring to the incident as a "heartillery bar- rage" It would be jake with me. Get them have their fun.
 But, Broadway novice that am, I submit a good reporter can come up with a Broadway column with out missing a beat on his portable.
 Employing the old reliable repor- torial technique, reckoned I'd bet ter get the lowdown from a real, honest-to-goodness Broadway col umnist. MT. Winchell, the daddy of them all, being unavailable, I took the line of least resistance and set up an interview with the only girl Broadway columnist m New York, Dorothy Kilgallen, who has been writing "The Voice of Broadway" for four years, thank you.
 This wasn't hard. Daughter talks or Pappa spanks"
 -. No, dear, I'm not trying to find out any journalistic or mili- tary secrets Come on, Givel DOROTHY TAKES OVER
 So from now on Dorothy Kil- gallen is doing the talking and the Old Man the reporting:
 Trick No. 1, Pappy, in writing a Broadway column is to steer clear of libel. It's all right to say you saw the brokers wife having tea with Tallulah Bankhead in the Col ony. But if you see said brokers wife holding hands with handsome gigolo at Leon & Eddie's, just throw her 'you-better-watch-yourself smile and keep the incident in your memory book. She may give you the real item some day.
 "Try not to hurt any ones feel ings. But don't take any back talk when you really have the facts. If you do inadvertently offend some sensitive soul, don't let it get you down. Time takes care of every thing.
 Eve discovered that people who read Broadway columns like to read NAMES-big names and lots of them. But they also like to read about the little girl who went on and sang for the crowd in gaudy bistro just after the word came JlldO llCk SNCStilCdIb | AAeO NACd db SCc.
 They like heartthrob tales about little people Cinderella stories the story of the overnight star. People who ride subways like to be made to feel that celebrities are really just like themsel es, away from the spotlight. Often, they are.
 Most Broadway columnists tell interviewers that they breakfast when most citizens dine, and go to bed at dawn when the rest of the city is wakening. I'm almost always in bed by a. n., and l don't think I miss anything by retiring that early. I've never seen a Broadway story-or even an item break after a. m. Nor do I sleep until dusk. I'm up often at g a. m., always by noon.
 "T am not a table hopper. (Those little signs on the tbale atthe Stork Club don't mean me) Sometimes friends drop over to my table and tell me things. But I don't circu- late to theirs. I don't think 1t makes a pretty picture to go around gath ering items from other peoples tables, as if they were crumbs.
 .."I get my items by telephone, by wire from Hollywood, by letter from London. I get them from hatcheck girls, stage doormen, famous screen stars, society girls-this is my chief source - my personal friends. I've found that people are rather pleased and proud to give news note to a Broadway columnist-it gives them a vicarious thrill to see it in print a day or two later.
 T have Q good number of 'squawks' as a result of items car ried. But they never came when or whence I expected them. Items l personally considered rather daring (though true) were accepted with equanimity by their subjects, who continued to speak to me and re- trained from missing as I passed by. But seemingly harmless lines which I wrote without any thought of comeback brought explosions and explanations of violent indignation.