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INSIDE HOLLYWOOD By Herb Stein HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 31. "Suckers" was the best they said of Gus Green-baum and Ben Goffstein when they poured their money into and took over the ailing Riviera Hotel almost two years ago. Soon after the takeover we itemed these boys didnt bet on dead horses. Not only did they inject vigor, bounce and profit into the operation, but theyre planning to skyscrape 200 more rooms onto the tall building straight up in a new wing formation. Suckers? . . . Two main events for Vegas next month: Opening of "The Pajama Game" at the Riviera next Wednesday, and Jack Bennys Vegas debut at the Flamingo the 24th ... TV Guide managers and department heads around the country pop to Nassau for their annua convention June 3-8 . . . Groucho Marx will do two or three weeks of summer stock with "Time for Elizabeth" comedy he wrote with Norman Kraska long back. Its a prep for an NBC spec hell do of it in the fall. Story concerns a man who retires, moves to Florida and hates his retirement. AAA Arthur Marx, who chronicled the showbiz generation of the Marx Brothers via. his "Life With Groucho" tome, is .polishing a book on his own family third generation Marx for Harpers pressing early next year. Redbook publishes a chapter from the book in the August issue, with another started soon after . . . Author Marx will start work soon, too, with Oscar Levant, on a new Levant book . . . Dont know how "Island in the Sun," title song from the pic, can be a hit. Every word Belafonte sings is understandable; crumbles the whole foundation of calypso . . . Buddy Adler went before the cameras to play himself in a Jack Benny telefilm for next season. Gimmick: Jacks life story is supposedly up for consideration by a studio and he goes to see the studio toppei Jack decided to use Buddy himself instead of getting an actor to portray him. French literary agent Alain Bernheim here to negotiate pic sale of Francoise Sagans new novel, "Those Without Shadows," described as a French "All About Eve." Dutton will have it ready for you in the fall . . . Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin will park here for at least a year while making "Stay Away, Joe," and "The Boy Friend" for MetroL They dont figure to touch Broadway again until 59 . . . Both Feuer and Martin rented homes here but didnt lease their manses back east, just shuttered em . . . Sinatra ecorted Lauren Bacall to the Ormandy concert at the Philharmonic the other night . . . The Wall Street Journal carried a story on would-be members pushing the Los Angeles and Hillcrest Country Clubs. Applications are from "folks faf more interested in oil than in golf." But the concern about the Beverly Hills area turning into an oil field isnt confined to the golf courses. The Journal reports "more than 7,000 Beverly Hills home owners have already agreed to lease drilling rights on their lawns to the Signal Oil and Gas Co. and Union Oil Com- pany, providing permission can be obtained from the authorities to drill." AAA Hal Yates, writer-director of "Margie" and "Blondie," will launch a teleseries of his own called "Juvenile Hall," based on case histories being made available by L. A.s Juvenile Hall. The Halls Judge William Neeley will narrate . . . Walter-Wanger tried to lasso Abbe Lane for a western. She wouldnt be noosed . . . Nick Adams says there are so many tranquiliz-ing pills on the market the druggists are getting nervous . . . Warren Cowan placed a call to Eddie OBrien in Japan, got through to him in four minutes, and he came through as clear as Hal Moore . . . Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger how own 76,000 acres of America . . . Bill Hol-den, just back from the Orient, packs his family off to England with him in two weeks . . . Jack Philbin, who produced the Jackie Gleason show, has a series idea thatd bring Hedda Hopper to television as a welcome, steady diet. And along with it, the Motion Picture Relief Fund would get a hefty chunk of the take . . . Gleason is without a steady girl. Strictly freelance. AAA Uncle Mat says a woman will look into a mirror any time except when shes about to pull out of a parking space . . . Ralph Boccia, popular Naples restaurant owner, at Mount Sinai Hospital for gall bladder surgery . . . Joe E. Lewis, packing and panicking em at El Rancho Vegas, says "MonejTgoes a long, long way. All the way from here to Washington" . . . Sage Lewis advises: "If at first you dont succeed, try", try again. Then quit. Theres no use being pigheaded about it."
