The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 175

PAGE 39 Between the Lines Columbia CoWs, the Gem Of Yesterday's Hollywood Bay Area Best Sellers FICTION (1) Capable of Honor. By Allen Drury (2) The Arrangement. By Elia Kazan (3) The Secret of Santa Vittoria. By Robert Crichton (4) The Birds Fall Down. By Rebecca West (5) The Riot.

By Frank Elia NONFICTION (1) Madame Sarah. By Cornelia Otis Skinner (2) The Passover Plot. By Hugh J. Schonf ield (3) Edgar Cayce. By Jess Stearn (4) The Hell Angels.

By Hunter S. Thompson (5) Paper Lion. By George Plimpton again." "Who was that?" asked a startled actor. "God," replied the director, continuing with the rehears al. When Senator George Murphy was at Columbia, he asked if he could perform in musicals, as he had on Broadway.

Cohn agreed to hear Murphy audition, and the actor prepared his number in a rehearsal hall. After a final run-through Murphy said to the pianist, "All right, let's go up to Cohn's office and try it on the old bastard." "You don't have to," said the voice of Cohn over the loud-speaker. "I heard it and it sounds okay." Harry Cohn was a phenomenon of the movie industry's adolescent years. His species is now just about extinct. (Putnam's; HAVE BEEN delighted with a documentary on Hollywood titled "King Cohn," by Bob Thomas-Hie life and times of Harry Colin, a semi-literate, onetime New York song-plugger who built Columbia Pictures from a "poverty row" operation in Hollywood's Gower Gulch to a formidable and immensely successful operation before his death in 1958.

ohn was a man of insatiable drive; a ruthless businessman who watched over very detail of his studio op- ration; barbarously profane. He was one of the most hated men in the business, yet an oddly touching character who was responsible for turning out such film classics as "It Happened One Night." "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "From Here to Eternity," "Gilda," "Pal Joey" and "On the Waterfront." Some 2000 persons attended Cohn's funeral, held on a Columbia sound stage. On his television program that week, Red Skelton made the comment that was to become legend: "Well, it only proves what they always say give the public something they want to see, and they'll come out for it." Some anecdotes: The screen success of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," a prizefight fantasy with Robert Montgomery, prompted George Axelrod to offer Cohn a fantasy he had written.

listen to some damn story like yours and the race results at the same time." Cohn and his associate Sam Bischoff parted when Cohn accused Bischoff of stealing his horse-racing tips. It was true, and in the invective that followed, Bischoff halfseriously threatened to kill Cohn with a heavy Oscar from the display behind Cohn's desk. Two years later Bischoff received a phone call from Cohn. "Sam, how are you?" said Cohn. "What?" said the incredulous Bischoff.

"When are you coming home?" Cohn continued. "Are you sure you've got the right guy?" "I hear you're leaving Warner Bros. I want you to come back to Columbia." This Was Business "You want to hire me after I threatened to kill you?" "Oh, that was personal," said Cohn. "This is business." The sequel: Bischoff met Cohn but said he wouldn't come back until he was paid more than Cohn or anybody else at the studio. Cohn pressed a button on the intercom.

"Tell Mr. Bischoff what my salary is," he ordered his secretary. The reply was $2000 a week and $250 for expenses. Cohn told Bischoff: "Nobody else at Columbia makes more than I do. I'll pay you $2500 a week.

Furthermore, I'll put it in your contract that you don't lly William I logon "Fantasies don't make money," Cohn stated. "But Harry," the playwright protested, "you made a brilliant picture in 'Mr. It was a fantasy and it made a lot of money." "Sure, came the Cohnian logic, "but think of how much more it would have made if it hadn't been a fantasy." John Sturges, the young di-rector, was attempting to narrate the story line for a projected film during a. conference. Cohn listened with little reaction and repeatedly lifted an earphone.

The director finally exclaimed: "What the hell are you doing?" "I'm listening to the results at Santa Anita," Cohn shot back. "When you're as old as I am, you'll be able to things Victorian has resulted in a specialized and scholarly study "Collecting American Victorian Antiques" by Katharine Morrison McClinton (Scribner: The author has been extremely selective in her material and illustrations (there are over 200), and included only the finer, more handsome and expensive objects. The result is an attractive volume, especially recommended for anyone about to begin the acquisition of antiques of this period. John Melane also looks over the Victorian objects, on the "whatnot" shelves and in the period parlors, in "New Horizons in Collecting" (Barnes: but he branches out into many fields that had 5, 1967 have to talk to me. Agreed?" Bischoff agreed.

rX)HN WAS a great gam- bier, and switched to bridge. He invited the actress Binnie Barnes and her husband, both cracker jack bridge players, to play a few hands. Cohn introduced them to a woman he described as a friend. She seemed familiar to Miss Barnes. After a few hands she recognized the woman as a national champion.

"Harry, how could you do such a thing?" Miss Barnes asked. "Well," he said, "I wanted to beat you." Cohn informed himself of happenings on Columbia sets by placing microphones on the stages. By switching dials, he could learn of the progress on every picture. A rehearsal on a film once was interrupted by the disembodied voice of Harry Cohn saying, "That was lousy. Try it The Siege of Dienbienphu Cordinved rom Page 36 The only access was the airstrip, which was under continual bombardment; the last successful landing and take-off was on March 30.

The garrison, manned by no more than 13,000 troops at any given time, was supplied by a pathetically inadequate airdrop; even so, as much as 30 percent of parachuted equipment fell behind enemy lines. During the siege, which coincided with the monsoon season, days went by when there were no airdrops at all. Against the defenders, General Giap mounted a force of nearly 50,000 combat troops (with some 30,000 reserves) and enough artillery and ammunition (most of the weaponry, on both sides, was of American manufacture) to pound the valley to pieces. Dienbienphu was the death-rattle of French colo-islism in Indochina. Fall's murmurings to the contrary notwithstanding, it is hard to see how it could have been anything else.

Neve York Timet Beardsley and Victoriana Why Settle for Less? 140.000 410,000 BOOKS I 6REETINQ PAPERBACKS CARDS Books Inc ISC GEARY SAN FRANCISCO 1421 IIOMWtT MU WairlVT till! Hlllidal Mall Town I Country SAN MATEO SAN JOSl Stanford Mall Coddlngtown PALO ALTO SANTA ROSA Suburbs Storn Ohm Ft tninn SERVING CALIFORNIA SINCE 1861 SINCE IWIj NevvbegiiVs BOOK SHOP on Union bqur JVftPF, OLD RARE BOOKS ANTIQUE MAPS CHILDREN'S BOOKS pricr ctrfft nn Bought 7D SI ttfuutqa irut Book Shop S0MtSrMt OppoiHt Stwration Polact Hotat 1X3 7371 OpenMon. OThurs. night Sine 1894 New, Old Rorc BOOKS Bought ond Sold HOLMES BOOKS TtalKIKl Itlkltort th ttt" 274 14th OAKLAND HSimiieKSiMrHWJMST. (UNCISC0- lor th Mutual books I prints gB SHIRAIDELU BOOK ST0RI Chirardclli Squat GR 4-7252 Mm. to 1 rM.

-mif 1 to I M. been rejected, until recent- ly, by the collectors advertising cards, political mementos, tin cans, miniarura, sheet music, and much more. He describes and includes many photographs of these new antiques and offers a variety of hints and enlightening comments for the collectors. You may not be able to own an original copy of "The Yellow Book" with a Beardsley illustration, but you just might find an old edition of The New Republic, Scribner's or The North American Review that had published works by or about Thomas Wolfe, or Two Worlds, VoL I and II, 1925-27, that contained material by James Joyce and Ezra Pound. Confirmed from Page 35 thor is more like a museum than an antique shop.

George Grotz, an authority on American antiques, suggests that "the place to start looking for Victoriana in New York is Ihe Circa 1890 Shop just off Second Avenue on east Seventy-eighth Street." He proceeds with his directions until you find yourself cn Bleeker Street, in "Antiques You Can Decorate With" (Doubleday; a illustrated practical guide on where to find antiques, what they are, and how much to pay for them. Some examples: Small Victorian frames go for a few dollars each; ancestor paintings, about $85. This popular revival in This World, Sunday, March.