Evening star., 1942-06-07

machinegun In the World War, was
running a bookshop in Manhattan
about 20 years ago. One day Wooll-
colt came in with Edna Ferber .Q
wanted to buy Edna a copy OF
Little WoinenO-and since then
Woollcott and Hennessy have made
quite team.
In che big living room Of the
house that 10 built, the squire him.
self is seated before a fagstoned
fireplace which is topped by wood
pastoral.
Uncle Tck-Tock" Woollcott-he
also answers to "Puss," "Wookie,"
''Ducky Dee" and "Old Love Lips
is playing honeymoon bridge with
another guest and looking pretty
grouchy-dt develops that he is 80
bucks in the red at this moment.
You wonder if the man with the
horn-rimmed specs and the owl
face will greet you with one of his
famed dust-offs-"Hello, repulsive!"
or Il find you're beginning to dis
gust mellow about getting the hell
out Of here?"-but it seems those
are reserved for extra-special
friends.
Instead, he flicks some cigarette
ashes off his polka-dot dressing
gown, and asks you what you'll have
to drink-and he'll take the same.
Joe disappears and returns with a
tall Tom Collins for you, but Wooll-
cntt, the one-time impressario Of
"the Thanatopais Inside Straight
Club" of his New York newspaper
ing days, rates only orange juice.
His liquor ration since his break
down has been a straight Irish
whisky before dinner and glass Of
burgundy or pfalzer with his meal.
Woollcott is fit to be tied about
being laid on the shelf for repairs"
temporarily. It's one of the few
times he's been out of circulation
since he started shufhing for him.
self at the age of IA, on a career
that has seen him in such lesser
publiciZed jobs as bank clerk, cam
ming factory operative, waiter and
janitor.
Il have at various times been q
man with hoe and a man with a
Napkin" he relates.
Sometimes a Softie.
Woollcott gave up his newspaper
job in New York to enlist for the
First World War and he started in
base hospital. Later he served as
reporter for the AEF newspaper,
the Stars and Stripes.
In his book-lined study he sits in
a red plush chair that was used in
The Man Who Came to Dinner"
and looks nostalgically at the por-
traits of stars of years ago-Mrs.
Fiske, Maude Adams, Elsie Ferguson
and many others. And over his bed
there's three-sheet poster printed
in Russian announcing an appear
ance of Harpo.
On the table beside his bed rests
mystery story-a tasty little thing
entitled Blood on Her Shoe" by
the author of Who Killed Aunt
Maggie?" Woollcott says he has to
keep shopping around for good pros
poets for President Roosevelt's mys-
terry shelf, for which he is special
counselor"
A native New Jerseyite, who has
spent most of his life in New York,
Woolcott now sports a bit of PENN
sylvania color in the form of a
broad-brimmed black hat that once
belonged to Pennsylvania Dutch
man.
But he says he's a Vermonter by
choice.
This is due, historically, to his
pride in the fact that two of his
ancestors fought with Gen. Starke at
the Battle of Bennington. And, be-
sides, being no slouch himself at
understatement, Woollcott likes the
Vermont humor as shown in one of
his favorite stories about a chauf-
feur who lost his way in Green
Mountains:
Il want to go to Dorest," said the
chauffeur to group of natives
hanging around a country store.
We'll, we've no objection" one
reDlied