Evening star., 1951-12-09
Stage and Screen
By Joy Cormody
Drama Editor OF The Star.

A preference, for instance, for
"Show Biz" would need no de-
fense. Variety, of which one au-
thor. Abel Green, is editor, and
the other. Laurie. is columnist,
is known as "the Bible of show
business" 1t Is an amazing tab
loid weekly which appears on
Wednesday every week and covers
all branches of entertainment with
a thoroughness that is little short
of astounding.
Its enormous files provided Au-
thors Green and Laurie with a
fabulous fountain of fascinating
material, personal. fiscal, techni-
cal and otherwise. They combed
it with the eyes Of adventurous
ferrets and the material they Sc
lected as worthy of "Show Biz"
is diZzily exciting from preface
to final page.
Not the least exciting quality
Of the Green-Laurie remembrance
Of show business past is the Ian
guage in which they express it.
1t is bewitchingly shifty speech
that is used by Variety, of which
a hundred samples flash through
the mind whenever the subject
comes up. One of this depart
ment's favorites is headline,
Dick II, Is G. in D. c." Trans
lated, this means that Shake
speare's Richard II drew $4,000
at the National Theater's box
office when it was played here by
Maurice Evans. q,
So Show Biz" is written, a con-
densed bible" of so years of the
most entertaining Americans in
their most entertaining guises.
Some of the Great
Profles in Review
Zolotow's book, mo People Like
Show People," is another choice
that any one could relish. 1t is
a series of profiles of such effer-
vescent subjects as Tallulah Bank
head. Fred Allen, Jimmy Durante.
Jack Benny. Jed Harris, Oscar
Levant and Ethel Norman.
The question the author asked
himself of these was, What makes
them different from the millions
who hang on their every act, ges-
ture and word?
Finding the answer to this is q
prodigious task in analytical jour-
nalism. Zolotow brought it off in
one of the liveliest books of 1851
and one that was read by far
more than the elect of show buSi-
ness. '.
Artist Hirschfield, turned auth
or, proves himself as sharp, warm
and arresting with his typewriter
as with his drawing equipment, the
latter of which has made him q
glowing name in the theater.
Show Business Is No Business
is a piquantly revealing book,
wisely about the horde of famous,
or notorious, humans with whom
HirSchfield has delt professionally
through the decades.
The Magic Curtain" is a dull,
trite title behind which to hide an
autobiography as rich in texture
as Langner'S. The Theater Guild,
of which he is joint administrator
with Teresa Helburn, is a treasure
house of dramatic experience and
personalities. Eugene O'Neill,
Bernard Shaw, Helen Hayes, Tai
lulah Bankhead. Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fountanne. Christopher Fry,
Ethel Barrymore, Richard Rodgers
and Oscar Hammerstein. and
scores of other glittering names
have been associated with the
Guild through it's three and one
half decades.
All of these come into Langner's
gossipy account of how it has been
between the organization and
these creative humans. The reader
is taken not merely back stage
with them. but into their own
drawing rooms, out to luncheon
and into the nearest cocktail
lounges. The candid curtain is
lifted on rehearsal and recrim-
ination, of triumph and disaster
to "eveal human insights into
these people that so often are
artfully concealed in their work.
Yet. for all their revelously re-
vealing qualities, none of these