May 15, 1941: Harry Bedford-Jones, “one of America’s most prolific writers” (and no, I’ve never heard of him either,) is filling in for Lee Shippey, who is recovering from surgery.

Nobody lives in Texas anymore. They've all come to Venezuela, says Tom Treanor, who is on a press junket sponsored by U.S. oil companies.

Dorothy ("Citizen Kane") Comingore, after furnishing a new home, must move out because of her hay fever, Jimmie Fidler says.

May 14, 1941: Harold Lamb fills in for Lee Shippey, who is recovering from surgery.

Tom Treanor files a report from Caripe, Venezuela, where he manages to find a cold beer kept in a refrigerator that runs on kerosene.

Guy who never forgets to say thanks for a favor: Clark Gable, Jimmie Fidler says.

May 13, 1941: Rudolf Hess, the Nazis’ No. 2 deputy, bails out  of his Messerschmitt over Scotland. He will commit suicide in Spandau prison in 1987.

Ralph Bellamy fills in for Lee Shippey, who is recovering from surgery.

Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II for The Times, visits an oil field in Venezuela and says the employee facilities  built by Standard Oil are cheap and dreary.

ON THE CONTRARY DEPT. (The boldface type is mine): From a Hollywood daily: “George Raft and Edward G. Robinson, after feuding for days, went at each other with blood in their eyes. Marlene Dietrich separated them,” Jimmie Fidler says. 

May 10, 1941: Times Managing Editor L.D. Hotchkiss has a long piece against using material that is off the record. He says: “The moment any speaker or person being interviewed announces ‘this is off the record,’ the press should pick up its collective hat and walk out.”
 
Lee Shippey, who does seven columns a week and writes books in his spare time, muses about about laziness. No, really.

NO BELLS TO: Twentieth Century-Fox for dropping Modelovely Bunny Hartley from contract on the heels of her suicide attempt. It would have been more generous to have given her a chance to regain lost perspective, Jimmie Fidler says.