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INSIDE HOLLYWOOD By Herb Stein HOLLYWOOD Calif May 3 Bennett Cerf was out here last week to address a packed grand ballroom at the Eev Hilton of nearly 1000 guests attending t he ninth annual Forest Lawn Writing Awards No not for obits but for college students at Sout hern California private universities as well as for the schools themselves Forest Lawn went for 15000 in awards coin plus almost a similar sum to feed the guests What with bringing Cerf here and other expenses the evening must have set em back close to 35000 Before his spar ¬ kling talk in the evening Cerf was given the grand tour of Forest Lawn during the day was convinced by those whod been there before that hed find it the abso ¬ lute livin end Cerf didnt say it but someone else did Forest Lawn is a nice place to visit but I wouldnt want to live there Cerf was introduced at the awards dinner by Ed Murray managing editor of the Los Angeles MirrorNews who described Cerfs multiple activities as publisher columnist author TV panelist got a big laugh with his reference to Cerfs publishing activities His agent told me it was Cerfs personality that attracted the names of the big authors whose books have been published by Random House As I scannedL the list of authors who were wooed by Mr Cerfs personal charm I found among other names Plato Aristotle Shakespeare etc Cerf notes I understand Dr Hubert Eaton head of Forest Lawn plans to bring the Taj Mahal here From my one day visit with Dr Eaton Id say theres a whale of a lot better chance of getting the Taj Mahal to Los Angeles than the Brook ¬ lyn Dodgers Cerfs advice to new writers Be brief be independent and re ¬ member humor The big book sellers are the books with humor he said point ¬ ing to such successes as No Time for Sergeants Auntie Mamie Dont Go Near the Ayater and The Last Hurrah Same is true of the Broadway stage The bit shows are the shows with laughter viz Mame Happy Hunting Bells Are Ringing Other legits may come out okay but not like the above Said Cerf An exception is ONeills Long Days Journey Into Night a very serious play but I believe people are going to it because they think its the thing to do doHe He cited several instances where humor is a most effective propaganda weapon that one good joke on an issue can do more than a lobby full of lobbyists On TV kill ¬ ing the reading habits of the nation Thats absolute bunk It used to be radio that was killing literature said Cerf Be fore that it was the cheap automobile and before that the bicycle He said that on the big TV quiz shows in addi ¬ tion to the severe oral and written exams given potential contestants they put these hopefuls through a heart examination that would stop a Marine They couldnt take a chance on anyone winning 100000 then slumping in the booth with a heart at ¬ tack As we left the dinner to join Bennett his wife Phyllis and the Arthur Hornblow Jrs in Cerfs suite a guest was trying to find Forest Lawns Dr Eaton to say goodbye Just a minute said a For ¬ est Lawn staffer Ill dig him up Left us with a gruesome feeling feelingIts Its no small wonder that we can type this column after the opening of the new Cocoanut Grove last week For a spot with a tropical setting they furnished a blast of Arctic air conditioning that had male guests wishing they had fulllength minks Musta been perfect for the hotels David Schine who spent an Army hitch in Alaska And as for the p a system it made Freddy Martin and his ork sound like the atom bomb scored to dance music Blunt commercial on radio for the lo ¬ cal run of My Fair Lady at Philhar ¬ monic No mail or phone orders PLEASE Just cash on the barrel head or no deal Life in Beverly Hills Kids at the Buena Vista elementary school were out full force last week end with a new money making gimmick a car wash on the school grounds for 75 cents Beats the commer ¬ cial washers by 50 cents plus being a bet ¬ ter job At the Stanley Bergermans birthday party for Carl Laemmle Jr Willie Wyler arrived in his new Rolls Royce Willies wife Tally told us What a blessing the righthand drive is Willies deaf in his right ear you know as a result jof a war injury Now we can converse in a car Be ¬ fore this we had more than 10 years of complete silence in an automobile
