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INSIDE HOLLYWOOD ByHerbStein HOLLYWOOD, May 11.— Off-The-Record on HARRY BRAND — It just wouldnt seem right doing a column as we did yesterday on MGMs pub-ad topper Howard Strickling without bouncing one right back on his chum Harry Brand, director of publicity at 2 0th Century-Fox Studios. This combo is the most powerful and effective one-two punch in the motion picture industrys field of public relations. It is appropri ate that on the desk of each is a photograph from Elvis Presleys Col. Tom Parker. The one to Brand is inscribed: "To Harry, who learned everything he knows from Howard Strickling" and the one to Strick carries the note: "To Howard, who learned all he knows from Harry Brand." If ever anyone could qualify for the title of "Mr. Hollywood," it is Harry Brand, yet actually he was born in New York City. He came to California as a child, aching as Gene Fowler puts it, to be first on deck for the Gold Rush. Brand became a full-fledged columnist, then sports editor of the old L. A. Evening Express while still attending L. A. High School. At one time he enrolled at USC with the intention of becoming a lawyer, but the legal bug couldnt survive the printers ink surging in his veins. Brand has had more top sporting world lights as pals than anyone in the nation, including Jack Dempsey, Gene Fowler, the late Damon Runyon, to mention but an elite few. Hes, been the intimate and confidant of Governors, Mayors, United States Senators galore. Although handicapped by an ankylosed knee as the result of a boyhood mishap he was at one time one the crack handball players of the Los Angeles Athletic Club at the time when it dominated the field in that sport with such champions as May-nard Laswell, Max Gold, et al. Since then he has become about the fastest man on his feet when it comes to an after-dinner speech, general gab on the phone or at a luncheon table. AAA In 1919 Brand switched from the newspaper ranks to motion picture publicity, starting as a press agent for comedian Al St. John, then for Buster K e a t o n . As Keaton was in the Joseph M. Schenck stable of stars, Brand gradually assumed publicity guidance of Norma and Constance Talmadge and all the other film enterprises controlled by Schenck. From that tine on he served as the publicity brain of all Schenck enterprises till the latters retirement from action about * five years ago. A A A Brands mental processes arc the nearest thing to a Univac in the field of human mentality. He has what could be called a "dividend brain," enabling him to hold a phone conversation, a desk business conference and write a letter at the same time. He is a renowned wit, at one time held-his own in a three-cornered duel with Eddie Cantor and the late Al Jolson when both were in their prime. He thinks so fast that after your fourth word he not only knows what youre going to say but also what his reply will be. AAA Among the kings and queens of the film world for whom he has been prime minister of publicity are Mary Pickford, Valentino, Doug Fairbanks, Roscoe Arbuckle, Ronald Colman, the Talmadge sisters and Keaton. Those were in the halcyon days of the movies when there was a Royal family of the screen and United Artists was their seat of sovereignty. Later satellites who became stars under Brands ministry include Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Sonja Henie, Betty Grable and Marilyn Munroe, to name the outstanding few, These players were developed into stars after Schenck and Darryl Zanuck merged their company into what is now 20th Century-Fox.
