Word: playing
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Critics' Circle gathered last week to vote this year's award, Broadway knew the choice lay between Robert E. Sherwood's eloquent Abe Lincoln in Illinois (the favorite), Lillian Hellman's biting The Little Foxes. So violent was the partisanship on both sides that neither play could muster the twelve out of 15 votes necessary to win. After ten fruitless, disputatious ballots,* a weary Critics' Circle decided to make no award. Final score: The Little Foxes, 6 votes; Abe Lincoln in Illinois, 5; Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon, 2; William Saroyan...
Tall, dashing John Anderson (Journal & American) is Broadway's supreme critic of bad plays, with a great gift for wise cracking down on them. ("[Jeremiah] may be entered ... as prophet and loss"; "Twenty years is a long time, except be tween wars.") Anderson was No. 1 Hellza-poppin-hater. Though murderous with fanciness and fake, he is sometimes too clever and cynical at the expense of a serious play...
Near the end of the semifinal round occurred an incident characteristic of tournament bridge, which is played with fierce attention to technicalities like a small boys' baseball game. In a nip-&-tuck match, A. Mitchell Barnes of the Vanderbilt team, playing a five-heart doubled contract, led a heart from dummy, pondered whether to finesse. Impatient with Mr. Barnes's slow play, Opponent Robert McPherran said: "It makes no difference." Mr. Barnes thereupon deduced that Mr. McPherran had two hearts instead of three, eventually went down 500 points instead of 300. Mr. Barnes protested that he had been...
Dark Victory (Warner Bros.-First National), if it were an automobile, would be a Rolls-Royce with a Brewster body and the very best trimmings. Though not up to Wuthering Heights (TIME, April 17), it is one of the best star vehicles Hollywood has produced this year. As a play, it was not a success when Tallulah Bankhead took it to Broadway four years ago. Refashioned by Screenwriter Casey Robinson to fit Bette Davis, Warners' most talented and ambitious star, it gives her a chance to do a good job and puts her well up in line...
...Europe he found that all the major nations except Russia belonged to the International Bureau of Expositions. When the Bureau decided on only a limited participation in the fair, President Whalen blandly returned to Manhattan, presently announced that Russia would build a $4,000,000 pavilion. Unwilling to play second fiddle in any swing session of propaganda, the other nations promptly upped their appropriations. In the event of war or peace this might be money well spent on improving public relations, attracting tourists or increasing exports...