Evening star., 1943-11-14
Talent Scout
Continued From First PageD

Washingtonians as l.. Foster Smith.
AS Smith, he came and conquered
rank understatement; as Smith he
departed quietly last Sunday after
noon, leaving some exceedingly deep
impressions and a few shirts ana
things.
His mistake apparently was the
thought that man who could make
such a deep dent on the Capital of
the Nation in such few days would
not be missed.
1t is hard to put your finger on
Just what it was about Mr.. Smith
that made it so easy for him to win
friends and influence people. There
Is theory that the 81" in front
of the Foster" did it. His more
realistic Washington friends, though,
say he was simply a right guy"
Whatever it was, no one recently
has attracted so much attention in
a brief 10 days. A check yesterday
in an effort to trace Mr.. Smiths
extensive path produced startling
results.
Very Well Known. /
Almost anybody you got on the
other end of the wire would partici-
pate in the following conversations
We're just calling to see if you
happen to know anything about this |
felloW-er, Smith, is his last name |
The first name is-let's see :"
"Oh, you mean Foster Smith"
Eyes, that's it. Do you know
him?"
ooh, yes. He was in here A fine |
gentleman. Very friendly
OF course, Mr.. Smith has fallen
somewhat in esteem in the eyes of
the Statler Hotel management. The
Statler apparently took it on the
chin more than any one else. Ac-
cording to hotel official, Mr..
Smith checked in on October 27-I
about five days before he made his
first contact with members of the
Sons O. Fun" show which opened
at the National Theater on Novem-
ber /.
Much Still Unknown.
Just what he did during that time,
no one seems to know. but it's obvi-
Gus he was not exactly idle. The
police believe most of his ramifica-
tions as talent scout" never will
be brought to light because of the
shyness of the victims.
Anyway, on November /. when the
"Sons O. Fun" cast were pitching
that tent sin which some of them
slept for night or two, Mr.. Smith
appeared.
He seemed like such an ingratiat-
ing and affable guy" Ole Olsen, one
of the stars of the show, said. II
really feel a little sorry for him
It's too bad he didn't use his talents
in better way. He would have
made good public relations man.
when he moved in on us that
first day, he seemed perfectly plau-
sible. Right in front of members of
the cast, he called the National
Capital Parks Police and asked for
permission to shoot some film near
the Washington Monument Then
he made call to the local Warner
Bros Office.
THAT was good enough for the
people in the cast. Nobody sus-
pected anything"
Chorines Dismayed.
10 RI,
the debated hopes of the chorus
girls who had been offered $25-a-day
parts in the movie. A few of them
invested in new dresses on the |
strength of the contracts they were
to sign.
The man Mr.. Smith picked out
as his special comrade was Lionel
Kaye, who plays the part of the auc-
tioneer in the show.
Poor Lionel" Ole Olsen said. He
Is usually very frugal fellow. He
doesn't throw his money around and |
he stays at the less expensive ho-
tells. But Smith offered him a part
in the movie at fabulous salary.
So Lionel moved over to the Statler,
spent more money than he's used
to, bought his wife some new clothes,
They were great pals-Lionel and
Foster"
But Mr. Hayes wife had no re-
erets. "Phoney or no phoney,o she
said, Il had the most wonderful
four days in my life"
The park police and Warner
Brothers representatives deny they
ever heard from any L. Foster Smith,
The only thing local Warner
Brothers officials knew was that thev
were getting lot of calls about the
report that Bette Davis was coming
to town. Miss Davis was one of
the actresses mentioned by Smith
as stars in the film.
Both studio officials and park
police concluded Smith must have
pulled a fast one when he pretended