Word: svengalis
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Miss Gordon played the wife of a celebrated, swinish, Svengali-ish actor who has trained her to be his servile leading lady. Despite his mistreatment of her as both wife and actress, she remains loyal to him. After his florid death, she remains loyal to his memory. He had prophesied that she could not act without him, and in duty bound she goes steadily downhill-till about four minutes before the final curtain...
...Cures" & Quacks. Did Freud give up hypnotism too soon? Authors Wolfe and Rosenthal, sure that he did, report hypnotic effects that make Svengali* look like a tyro. They claim that hypnotism has cured numerous cases of psychoneurosis, made childbirth painless and alcoholics sober. They reassure prospective patients by saying that no one can be forced to act against his moral principles while in a trance (e.g., a girl cannot be hypnotically seduced if she does not want to be; if she does, the authors add gravely, "hypnosis is an unnecessarily involved and roundabout route...
...discipline and inadequate rehearsing." But nothing had gone awry with the orchestra, only with the soloists. Dutch journalist Henri van Eysden had an explanation. The astonishing amnesia of two soloists in one evening could be explained only by the kind of foul play that Novelist Du Maurier put Svengali up to in Trilby. It was all the fault of a Dutch building contractor who practiced hypnosis and mental telepathy as a hobby, he said. The contractor had laid a bet that he could wreck a concert by tele-hypnosis...
...Hollywood last week, the President's daughter also met the press. Her omnipresent teacher, Mrs. Margaret Strickler, a bosomy, flop-hatted kind of Madame Svengali, was hovering near by. When reporters asked Margaret about one selection on her program, La Fauvette avec ses Petits from Grétry's Zémire et Azor, Mrs. Strickler muscled in: "Galli-Curci was the only other one I've heard sing it. I might say that her voice was very similar, too." Margaret laughed it off: "That will be enough of that...
...gather . . . that I was portrayed as a sort of bush-league Svengali, who hypnotized Senator Vandenberg. ... I suppose I should write Mr. Wallace a little mash note and, coincidentally, congratulate you on having such a remarkable young man on your staff. . . . Honestly, I didn't save the Republic; it must have been some other reporter. ... I have never written any of the Senator's speeches or any part of them...