Feb. 7, 1944: For many years Rachel Field worked in Paramount’s New York office as a script reader, examining the merit of all submitted material … She once remarked: “Hmf, I can do better than some of this stuff. Some day I’m going to write one and see it made into a Paramount film” … Years after, she finished her first best-seller, “All This and Heaven, Too” … The royalties and prestige were tremendous, but Rachel’s ambition was not yet fulfilled. The book was filmed by Warner’s … Last year she wrote “And Now Tomorrow” — and died shortly after — before the agent sold it … To Paramount.

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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Feb. 5, 1944: Grace Moore, who uses the Stork Club’s back door — which is what most celebs wish they could do — to avoid the starers, oglers and other celebrity-worshipers … Jean Arthur, the lovely lady in the red dress at Carnegie Hall … Michele Morgan in tweeds at Coq Rouge — eclipsing all the ladies in decolette.

We hear a midtown hotel murder has never hit the front pages. The pair registered as Mr. and Mrs. George Washington. She was found nude, dead. The Sherlocks haven’t located him yet … Bob Dunn says he knew The Paper Doll when she was An Old Bag.

From the St. Peterburg Times.
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Feb. 4, 1944: “Dear Walter,” writes Maurice Rocco, “It must be an oldie but it still gets the biggest laugh wherever gamblers gather. About the wife who (going through her groom’s pockets) found a slip of paper on which was memo’d ‘Ruth.’ She asked him: ‘What’s this mean?’

” ‘Oh,’ he oh’d, ‘that’s a horse I played today.’ Then the phone rang. She picked up the receiver.

” ‘Darling,’ said the Mrs., ‘your horse wants to talk to you.’ ”

Raymond Page read it long ago: About the diplomat from Europe, who after witnessing Congress in action the first time, observed: “Congress is strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens and then all disagree.”

From the St. Petersburg Times.
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