Mafia Troubles

The enigma was revived recently when E.R. Hagemann, UCLA English prof, wrote a biographical essay on him.

 In it he stated he had to "patch together a chaotic melange of facts, guesses, legends, myths and downright unadorned lies."

It is unknown whether Traven, if that is his name, which he had denied, is alive or dead. It is uncertain whether he was born in America or elsewhere.

He could have been the "Hal Croves" who frequented the set during the filming of the John Huston picture in Mexico, but no one is sure.

"He courted obscurity as another might court fame," Hagemann wrote.

The book was published in Berlin in 1927 as "Der Schats der Sierra Madre" after being translated from English. In 1934 it was published in London as a translation from the German.

Another of Traven's books, "Die Weisse
Rose," was translated from English but never published in English. In
all he wrote 15 books which were translated into 21 languages.

Take it away, Perry Mason.

::

 TELEGRAM
from Joe M. Marshall, San Fernando: "I am manager of a large dry wall
construction company. We use seven pickup trucks in our operation. My
superintendent, Gene Caldwell, dislikes driving the orange pickup. Says
it attracts bees. Is this possible?"

So of Gene has been aggravating those poor bees with that orange pickup again, what do you know!

::

THAT peripatetic publicist Al Hix reports from Rome, where he is plugging the film "Jovanka,"
that when a snack bar was opened recently in the Colosseum the Rome
Daily American headlined the story, "Feeding Christians Instead of
Eating Them in Colosseum."

::

FOOTNOTES — John McPortland's book, "The Kingdom of Johnny Cool," completed before he died last year, is out in paperback. His widow, Eleanor, who lives in Monterey,
was in L.A. this week for meetings on a possible movie sale … Use of
the suffix "wise" reached its nadir Thursday, in the opinion of Doris
Hellman. Jerry Doggett, broadcasting the Dodger game, said, "Podres has been in complete control of this game, pitchingwise."