Daily News from New York, New York • 51

"swiliiid ctttiieiem By LESLIE EDGLEY (Copyright 1944 by New. Co. Inc.) fTliriS one is about Joe Selby. The boys on top never bother JL about Joe except in election year and wartime. Which gives him away a plain and solid citizen.

In the old days, as a stagehand Principal Characters in By ED SULLIVAN Water Under the Bridge A short time ago, I related the Washington gossip that OWI's illustrious playwright, Robert E. Sherwood, would analyze the political strength of Gen. MacArthur, on a trip to MacArthur's headquarters So a cynical reader with a long memory, and an old file of Life magazines, sends me in some 1926 motion picture reviews that Mr. Sherwood penned and adds this caustic note: C2 "Solid Citizen" JOE SELBY, Broadway stage hand, slow of speech, but fast with his fists. OXNARD, Broadway show girl, who regretted one of his characteristics, but appreciated the other.

"She said she didn't want to trouble you, Sergeant. The waiting room's at the end of the hall." He found himself going through a familiar routine smoking cig-aret after cigaret, pacing the room, blotting the sweat from his forehead. If they hurt her! That was what had him sweating. She was too small to have a baby something might go wrong. And yet she'd wanted it.

He knew that, her letters notwithstanding. Now he wished he'd told her he wanted it, too. He wished he'd called her darling or sweet or beloved. Trouble was, he'd never learned small talk. He only said what he thought.

Now he knew he was really thinking for the first time, knowing he had to tell her he loved in good standing, when Joe landed a hit, he was in the money all season. Which happened 1 1 months atro with the musical, the Arm." Late one night, after an "Off the Arm" benefit, he ran into a lush getting gay with a biddy at the end of Shubert Alley. He hung one on the souse's jaw and took the babe by the arm. She was trembling. He steered her into the Astor drug store.

"Have a coke," he said. "You'll feel better." When she looked at him under -5 P. V. The smile slowly left her face. "Don't you like children, Joe?" "It's no planet for kids," he said.

"Why supply the apemen with can Hope that Sherwood's political prophecies are better long-range guesses than these 1926 reviews." Enclosed is Sherwood's review of "The Old Army Game," in which he wrote: "Crazy humor like W. C. Fields offers doesn't photograph well. It suffers when subjected to the ruthless realism of the movies. Mr.

Fields ought to go back to the stage where he belongs and where he 13 unbeatable. I imagine that he will after this fiasco." So-o, Fields became a movia star and never returned to Broadway stages, though 17 years have passed. the lights and thanked him. he saw she was in the show. She was tiny and slender, with genuine blonde vellow hair and blue eves non fodder "Oh!" She turned away from the lawn.

"All right, Joe." By the time they reached the her, always her, never anyone else tor him. "Sergeant Selby" it was the end of the block he had forgotten nurse. Congratulations on a about it. And the next morning Uncle Sam put it completely out sturdy son. He felt his face light up with a million candles, and then he was of his head by inviting him to report for his preliminary physical.

Jim Petrillo will chuckle at this prophecy from Sherwood's pen: "'Don Juan' in which John Barrymore is starred is accompatied by the New York Philharmonic via the new mven tion of indicating that it will be possible in the future to dis He was duly classified as fit, ac afraid he would cry. He looked at the nurse, knowing his mouth was W. C. Fielde Fooled him. ceptable and willing.

And there was no kidding about the latter. He'd saved his dough before Peggy setting in a stony line. with soft, unsticky lashes. She wasn't more than 20. He was 30, and he felt more like a mug than ever self-uneducated, built like a fullback.

"I didn't stop to think," he said, stilling his coffee. "My mitts are always two jumps ahead of my alleged mind." "I've never seen a man knocked cut before." "You sound pretty new to Broadway." "Well, I am!" She was from Ohio, a dance-crazy kid not the dance hall jive stuff, but classical ou may see her now, Ser geant. ever came along, so she was amply provided for. He left for camp Walking slowly along the cor without anything on his mind. ridor, ne tried to sort out the words he wanted from all the new words pense with orchestras in movie theatres." Presently, Tommy Dorsey's band is at the Paramount, Jimmy Dorsey's band is at the Roxy, Dick Himber's band is at the Capitol, Erno Rapee's great orchestra i synonymous with the Radio City Music Hall, Glen Cray is at the Strand Of course, my sympathy goes out to Sherwood, because readers shouldn't remember what any one of us wrote 17 years ago There ought to be a statute of limitations.

He wangled hij first leave six rushing through his head. "DarI weeks later. Ihcy had dinner at ing," he would say. "Darling, I a restaurant and went to the movies and then took a cab to the wanted a gin, one just like you, but I don't care, because I love you, sweetheart; I've always loved you." And then he was inside her room, looking down at her in the one-room furnished apartment she had taken for the duration. He was taking off his tie before he realized she was crying.

"What's wrong, kid?" He sft bed. Her face was small and wan down on the bed. "One of the wolves been howling after you?" against the white pillow. He had never seen her more beautiful. She smiled weakly, reaching out her She shook her head, not looking hand across the sheet.

at him. "What cooks, then?" It took her some time to tell him "Hir stinker," he said. "You look like you been in a dog fight." He heard her out, then stood up Your Stars Today MARION DREW ballet, and all the rest of it. She come into a little money and hit New York to break into ballet. She'd ended up in the chorus of Off the Arm." "My name's Peggy Oxnaid." "I'm Joe Selby." "Yes.

I know. I've seen you backstage." He let it go by and finished his coffee and said he would take her home. His responsibility for her would end at her door. Eut somehow that was only the beginning. They met again, back in the drug store, then rowing in Central Park on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by all the sailors not in the Pacific.

Peggy said, "You'r not exactly talkative. Joe, what do you think about all the time?" He thought about everything. But he'd learned to strangle his emotions early in life. He'd come up the hard way, and he'd never learned small talk. He only said vhat he thought.

And so, six weeks later, he stumbled into his first and only proposal. "Well, why not marry me?" he aid for the second time. "You can't struggle through life with a handle like Oxnard." "Oh, Joe, Joe!" Peggy laughed noftly. "Is that the only reason you can give me? Honestly, can't you think of another?" "Don't get me sore now," he WHAT TO EXPECT TODAY Sun in Capricorn. General tendencies A quiet day with few opportunities for important decisions is what the calendar tells U3 for this date.

It is well The old magazines he sent along are equally interesting because of other stories in them For instance, did you know that as long ago as 1922, Photoplay Magazine declared that Eric von Stroheim was ('efinitely through? Of course as recently as 1943, von Stroheim was doing O. K. in "Five Graves to but listen to this 1922 blast: "This is a von Stroheim picture that will do you no good at all to see. The story is completely sickening, the melodrama atrocious. It is an insult to American ideals and womanhood.

Stroheim is definitely through." It doesn't seem so long ago that we were stunned when Jackie Coogan was suing his mother for moneys that he claimed were being withheld from him So a 1920 article, quoting Mrs. Coogan, is sharply interesting: "Jackie's only a little boy now he doesn't know what money is. But when he grows up, he must enjoy the fruits of his labor. The money has grown so. it seems only in justice to ourselves that we must so safeguard it that we cannot ever be the objects of criticism or suspicion.

In this way, it will be a matter of tourt record, and we feel, both for Jackie's sake and our own, that this is the easiest method to take." Tucked away in one of the old magazines: "Hollywood's sympathy goes out to the family of John Stevenson, who died while missing a leap from an elevated girder to the top of a bus. The leap was performed as part of a sequence for Pearl White's next serial, as Stevenson was her stunt man, assigned to double for her in the dangerous sequences. The fatal accident occurred at Columbus Circle in New York City." When Miss White died in Paris, every obit stressed the fact that she was a cinematic nonpareil because she never used a stunt man to substitute for her The family of John Stevenson must have its own thoughts on that. A fan magazine writer, covering the Marilyn Miller-Jack Pichford wedding, performed at the home of Doug Fairbanks and Mary Pichford, gave some behind-the-scenes light on the romance and ventured a hope: "We suspect the reason the marriage was performed so quietly is that Miss Miller's first husband, Frank Carter, was killed a year ago in an auto accident, and Olive Thomas, the first Mrs. Jack Pichford, died tragically in Paris last year.

Let's hope, all of us. that the principals in this marriage experience greater happiness." But the nice wish failed, and since then, Doag Fairbanks, Jack Pickford and Marilyn have died. It seems ages ago, rather than years, that these stories I've quoted were of consequence The kids of today probably will be puzzled by some of these names, which were then so important Once you drop, from the bed and moved to the window. "I'm awfully sorry, Joe. If I'd known He stared outside at the dark.

There were words you used at a time like this. He'd heard them often enough in shows. But he'd never believed them. He had to use his own language, and there weren't any words in his language to tell her what was happening to him. He silently cursed himself in the dark, listening to her cry in the bed.

unable to help her. When he wnt back to camp, she was always in his mind, like violins in him. He didn't write much, but he read her letters over and over, and once he came close to killing a loud-mouth who picked up one of her letters and started reading it to the rest of the guys. She never mentioned the baby when she wrote, but he kept in touch with her doctor, not saying a word to her about it. The week her time not to push matters when indica tions show a lack of planetary speed, as it were.

Attend to detail work, occupy your time with mud amusements and avoid arguments with associates. Late in the evening watch health. If Today Is Your Birthday. Throughout the period ahead of you there is worry or uncertainty about changes, but deeper influences will bring you better results than you can see at present. You may be unc'uly concerned with the immediate events of your life; forget this and look further ahead.

lour money matters will show some development alter next August, with possible promotion. Today's Watchword. Look at tonight's moon, which out of the parade, the onlookers haven't the time or the ambition to wonder where you disappeared And history today is moving at such is nearly full, hence a beautiful breakneck speed that even nostalgia is old-hat. said. 1 never asked anybody to marry me before." She touched his hand.

"Joe "I know I'm a hard citizen," he eaid. "But I can look out for somebody like you." It was a pretty crummy proposal. But Peggy understood. They were married the next Sunday. Neither had any family.

One of the Kiips, Butch Nafziger, was his witness, and Peggy had a girl from the line stand up for her. Their first Sunday together they went walking. Some kids were playing on a corner lawn. Peggy tugged at his arm, riaking him Stop. "Look at them, Joe and the little baby in that buggy!" "Sure, sure," he sail.

"They're all in the soap ads." was due he wangled another leave and wired her when he would blow in. Th flat was empty when he came home. A note was on the radio. "Darling, don't worry about me." For a moment his insides turned over in panic. Then he called the hospital, feeling his scalp tighten and tingle while he waited for the buzzing to quit in the receiver.

"Yes, she's all right so far, Sergeant Selby. Come to the hospital if you wish." She was already in the labor room when he arrived at the hos-piti 1. They wouldn't let him see her. "She asked that you wait until it's all over." "But I'm her husband I've got to see her." sight, it is rather near Jupiter, one of the bright members of our cosmos. Do you know that our solar system is shaped somewhat like a watch with a shining globe intelligence Test (c) Hate have lave love.

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