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ON THE BROADWAY SCENE eyBoyor NEW YORK, N. Y., May 7. — PERSIAN ROOM OPENING: Paul Hartman opened Thursday night at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel. He had the help of two good-looking girls but they werent enough. Not only that, but Ave had a very embarrassing incident following the show. But first, the show, so youll understand why we shoulda stood in bed. Mr. Hart-man came onstage looking-very nice and cheerful in a suit of tails. It might have been a very pleasant, nostalgic evening except for the fact that apparently he wanted to forget the past which made him famous and do a new act. He did very little dancing, comic or . otherwise. Instead, he had a routine chock-full of almost-funny jokes and slap stick comedy. In the latter he resorted to playing a violin and losing the bow, doing a magic trick and losing a prop, etc., etc., and in the process completely losing us. His comedy is supposed to be wry. It came out ham on wry. Well, anyway, there we were trying to laugh and enjoy ourselves but our efforts were opposed by what was happening on stage. However, at the table just to the right of us was this woman gurgling with! delight. She was laughing at everything Hartman said and did. She is hysterical with joy, practically falling off the chair, j I was sitting there unable to crack a smile, j •wondering to myself, "Which of us is nuts, me or she-? Have I been to too many nightclub shoys? Am I too blase?" etc. At the end of the show she yelled "Bravo, Encore!!" etc. After its all over we were having- coffee when Paul-Hartman walked -over, stopped at the laughing ladys table and I heard her name and recognized her to be his press agent. Okay, that wasnt too bad, after all I!mj entitled not to like something. But following the show a friend of ours comes over to the table to say hello. Our friend says, "Pretty: disappointing, wasnt it?" We agreed. "Why," asked our friend, "does he do that inane, ridiculous comedy? Why not just the comic dances that he used to do so great?" We agreed. At this point, we noticed a young man sitting to the left of us who had caught our conversation. We -smiled. He smiled. Later, I asked the press agent who the young man was. "Thats Dick Maury," she informed us, "He wrote the whole act, the dialogue, everything." My wife, Jane, and I were sitting there wondering how to dispose of ourselves when the Persian Rooms camera girl came up with the answer. Figuring us to be a likely couple, she sauntered over and asked, "Wanta get shot?" BEAU BROADWAY: Tallulah Bank-heads "Ziegfeld Follies" contract stipulates that no theatre parties will be sold and that she will have a special dressing room built just offstage and that it will have wall to wall mirroring on 11 sides. . . . Julie Andrews strolled into Gilmores for lunch and came out with a whole eheese dressing .... Funny! Audrey Hep-bum first became famous in the U."S. via "Gigi" as a Broadway play. Now, shes too big to play that role in the movies, so Leslie Caron is doing it . . . The Mark Hellinger Theatre oughta get a medal. Theyre one of the few houses which print the name of the show "My Fair Lady" on the tickets. . . . George De Witt flew to Miami and won a tennis tournament there. . . . Speaking of athletic events, Sidney Wood, the Davis Cup champ, won a sizeable wager by going through an -entire Chinese meal at the new Sun Luck 49th St. with nothing but chopsticks. AAA TAXIGABBING: Harry Belafonte signed for two movies, "A Winters Morn" with Susan Hayward and "Spotlight" with Lena Home and Richard Conte. The latters about a* Negro boy who hunts alligators in the Florida swamps, gets noticed by Richard Conte, a crooked agent, and built to stardom as a singer. "A Winters Morn" will be shot in December if Harrys, "Sing, Man, Sing" doesnt come to Bway. . . . Sammy Kaye signed Ruth Gillis as his new singer. Kaye, however, uses only girls with double initials like Mary McCoy and Betty Benson. So Ruth changed her name to Betty Baxter. . . . Glenn Coves new Villa Victor opens May 10. . . . Martha Wright is Mary Martins choice to sing "Wonderful Guy" at Marys testimonial in Hartford May 12 with Gov., Ribicof f , etc., on hand. . . . Featherweight Bill Bossib will soon become a fatherweight. . . . Crooner Roy Hamilton heard of a girl wTho isnt exactly immoral but the Key to" the City fits her apartment.
