Page
THE CHINA MAIL,
TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1958.
THE
A REPORT ON LIFE IN RUSSIA'S CENTRE OF CULTURE
I give my guide the slip...and do a deal for a sausage
SO THIS IS LENINGRAD.... Doc Wells, who has
described for China Mail readors har voyage in
J tourist a Russian ship as
to Russia, now steps ashore and meets the people
Soviet Customs official looked suspicious. "Hashish? Opium? Gold objets d'art... foreign publications precious stones... fire- Bleakly I owned up that my scruffy luggage contained none of these high-spirited accessories to the rich, fully-lived life.
"What, please, is that?"
That was my pressurised, non-sticky hair spray. I de- monstrated with a short. stuccato burst about the
tara,
"Oh, perfume."
"Well, yes and
not hashish."
no.
But
Exit Customs. 1 was in
Not much Russia!
in -only a t-hold on Lenin- nonetheless in grad, but Russia.
An Intourist guide, com- with identification badge and air of harassed efficialdom, stood under the Czar-sized crystal chandelier in the dorkside reception room. We shook hands,
"I'm Miss Wells,"
Then, distinctly menacing: "Why are you not on the list?"
down.
by DEE WELLS
THE HAT I BOUGHT FOR A POUND: 3 straw cirets with rib- bons. I bought it in a Leningrad xlore-and here a Loudon model show what it lookn like when it is worn.
tea
Mertes
Put-holes in the paving,
displays sparse window
of Kuoda, hand-span bridges over the marnlag-softened murky water, and the air of decayed grandeur made it look very much {ike the shabbier arrondissements of Paris.
more
ment store.
'Hotcha Baby!' And The Striptease Waltz
by JOHN LAMBERT VIENNA.
YUL BRYNNER looked across the table with 'black, baleful eyes. "The trouble with me," he said, "is that I am a man completely without conceit." It was a statement remarkably at odds with the tales being told around the Vienna woods and nightspots.
Brynner is in Vienna with Deborah Kerr and Robert Morley making "The Journey." And he seems to be. behaving in exactly the big-film-star style that ho apparently despises.
Ite
'Heretical'
Almost every day the film set true ambillon. Now I have to has been closed to visitors on trade my reputation as an getor Encounter with the Customs over ascent spray....
Brynner's orders, "I don't need for a chance to show my talents to see anybody," he says. Al- as a director."
mugs. No buildings were under repair, but shaving
"Yes. We enjoy a very late, most every night his bald head
business sente pops Uke a never-setting moon
Such shrewd here and there a reconstructed marqueterie. I asked to see the bat mild spring.
may disappoint the women who building looked its reeful self French Impressionista.
Pedantle, perhaps but fole-ever the night clubs.
sec Brynner as a mysterious, .again.
Irene looked prim and a little minded, Irene. She told the
listens to the inkling brooding character. Hurt. What about the diamond chauffeur to take us to a depart- Strauss music-and looks nt "Mysterious?" he eclices,
sturkied blanket given to the
the striptease girls twirling to "there is no mystory about me. But! Car by the Sultan of Turkey? It was pure Edwardian,
Li. And with a six-inch clgur I refuse to glve interviews "No, Impressionists. Or go vast, and teeming with people. back to my
Toy departments stocked with Jammed between his Jutting lips because I don't like the whold my snusage."
world in my backyard." he growls: "Holcha, baby!"
He lowers we came red irleycles, games, dolls, and A tong safari later,
his heavy eyelids to the attend the pictures,
rocking horses. A tiny cosmetic
1ke dangerous panther, then tuckti uway in (NOTE: They
adds surprisingly: "I am just an were bought counter
Huge plastic shopping
old homebody at heart. I seldom early in the century by two corner.
merchants who bags and handbags plled on o
poke my nose outside the door Children's Jumpers, Bul Brynner has the charm at home. Abroad? Well, that's Bey cuk the speks, and underwear stretching and conviction to confound even different."
the length of a centre aisle. up the sherbet colours of the country in a bury after
the mezzanine, grander eighteenth century revolution, Confiscated by the And then, on
clis-iatz! Government, bulldings. Baby-leaf green. Lip-
and
A BEAUTY stick pink, Lemon yellow, Pale approved of as "decadent
recently
me. I am not interest- spotted beauty with think turquoise. All with money-no. Individualistic," only ♫bject, lardedd-on rococo trim, have they been pul, warily and
pale pink cabbage rosen. Very in being a big glamour boy well-slipped lawns, and hedges, experimentally, on display.
Alm star. It is on heretical out- Опе
My Fair Lady. But expensive, look to have in Hollywood and They are breathtaking!
covered with early room was
that is why I am unpopular with the Picassos.
Irene looked relieved that, in with 27 next
some people there," Matisses
to spile uf my frivolous ways, 1 Jammed framve frame, and a third serving as a was not
Titter fool. "Top entch-all for
But Arey streets, grey sky, rich Russian grey river, and grey people are had to leave their art collections counter. just shadow frames that point beblad when
BUZZED ROUND
pul
the
1
about £8.
his own contradictions.
He also chortles savagely at brooding. "If "It is true that I am not con- being called
women think that they are rom- celted," he insists. "I don't care pletely wrong" he says. *In what I look like or what people tact, I am always the guy who makes the Jake that gets some- body else out of the mood.
around. nm always clowning
reason? Simple. I can't The. sland tension, I am just jovial, I suppose."
He warms to his self-debase- ment with a swig of leo-cold tea, "Most of all," he sighs, "I cannot stand people who treat me as a deralgod because I uni
flm star.
hus
Van Goghs, much," she agreed. Gauguins. Scurats, the teorits! The counter was crowded with We were the only people clutching women taking adva- there. And I thought frene tage of "Special" on white Kubordine Marlene might relax art stop being so cotton
Dietrich-type pork ples,
"Nol for me,"
"In Hollywood nobody "Not for anybody," said Irone
the nerve lo question the authne laughed, reallyly of a big star-it is not poli- ties. They say: 'Yes, you are su faughed, for the first time.
Way over in the corner we right to everything found it. A little, slightly-tiered
"And I despise them circle. It straw
Ind even ribbons. Nothing lush, only because they soon change these
nttitude if your next movie cotton, but with tiny while em-
why I feel a flop. That is broldered flowers on * green
Insulled sometimes at being background,
im star."
ornale silver scrvice and pastel Savonnerie rug as standout gur nishings. The up- holstered furniture so grand. it was
I joined a queue at the sausage frugally shrouded
countr of a comer grocery in dust covers.
Only to find that a ticket must Leningrad's first be bought for the exac Astoria believes in at one wishes to spend be- fure it is possible to bay any- In the thing at all. Very cart-before- "You are not on the list." point d'esprit blanket cover the grand scale.
bright green cider dining room, potted. rubber the-horse, but I got on the end prissily intelligent, OVET
plants were dwarfed by of the teket-buying queue. their cavernous roundings and looked more imposing than scrawny chrysanthemums.
Music came with dinner.' As big-wig locals and tourists step- a 12-plece ed into the room,
und played very possable ultra. Western
arrangements the Mood and Begin the Be quine, Gracious living hit
American mid-thirties swing even higher peak for my tunes were obviously the diners British friends stashed away favourites, but occasionally the suddenly remembered Two floors below, Looking at where it was, and tossed in ! their room I felt like an op- rousing Russian song, pressed kulik.
Bedside lamp with agonisingly ruched pink silk "What list? I haven't shade, dripping clear glass I only just beads. With done anything.
about 15 this minute got here."
superfluous pieces of cur- "You are perhajat on the cued Victorian furniture, it was positively the dernier cri of fin de siecle decor.
other list."
And Vals,"
so I was. "Miss
WHISKED OFF
an
band
ONLY. SIGN
of
"Don' you think they're pretty
"Well, maybe pretty. Some dryly, And womo allowed Irene, but only blobs to colour. They don't tell a story, Children could du 05
At last my furn eame. sur-
but I can't speak u word of no Russia. All the
shoppers
help.
buzzed around
SO AFRAID.....
I pointed to the sausage. They well” nodded and held up Böger to establish how much I wanted to spend. But how should I know? I couldn't read the figures or the Jetters Negotiations broke down.
almost
But never underestimate the
We left the lonely Masters, To her, I looked at some placate
Russian paintings-The Death of the Postman's Faithful Deg A Souller's Return to His Aged Mother, that kind of think,
Irene showed them proudly.
was
uff
while
A fortune
'Kindest'
All of which may sound alarming to his admirers. But this version of the real Brynner is vouched for by Deborah Kerr. Says she: "He is one of the fun-
niest and kindest men I have ever known."
Milas Kerr, usually presumed for it to be straightforward and had ไท 3 nice way slodgy turned enigmatte herself here.
Her 12-year marriage to Tony Bartley has exploded violently against the soft violin back- ground of Vienna.
13
It cost only a pound. Irene
She has chown the peculiarly agreed it was an inoffensive hal It, She and, therefore, worth
British technique of putting her sealed different emotions into even tried it on. power of a pack of women. 1
thawed Irene. But she froze up The hi-haggle had almost
and separate cartons. She will
her ir Brynner enn stand the not talk about
marriage got my sausage. Three roubles
T blaze of I said: "My, those again when I invited her to the slings and sycophaney of star- brenk-up despite worth. And went down Lenin-
circus that evening. grad's th Streel ealing it are paintings." We were quits.
dom he should make a fortune. gossip about her friendship with Outside I
"I cannot, thank you. I study At 40 he now gets £40,000 a from the paper wrapper.
writer Peter Viortel. Sunny Poch evening with my lanec.
And after munched
picture.
only four My sausage
But she chatters gally, a lite Irene,
my interpreter-guide Irene pointed out the sights, On He is an engineering student."aims he can afford to own a big took gaily, about her career. "I
financial chunk of "The Journey" think my only ambition now, They only two, a man
assigned by tourist, was wait the left a girls advanced ing- A Leningrad tute for some kind of learning;
a story of the Hungarlan re- and his wife, no VIPS,
Junoesque ing in the hotel A husky-veled,
volution with a smashing great sang I Love Parts- University student, specialising on the right. simple tourists like myself girl
in English, she was very bright, enthedral, "It is now a museum
Anatole Litvak. had five rooms,
English.
"Very nice," I complimented' very quick, very buger to please for the people," said Irene firmly, -but very serious. Earnest, On-
I was so afraid she might Six-foot porcelain vases her afterwards, flanked their white and gilt head,
She smiled and shook her ward-and-upward.
tell the chauffeur to stop that I said the first thing that came
I gave up. But, I loosened my the cabaret himself with
But he economisen by doing have made four flims in a row. hl That is too many. It leaves no louble door und, inside,
into my empty head,
Culture Corset and pleked up
... for rest." balalaika. HU cabaret act room for "Let's go shopping. Let's go two enghunting Texans who My room: a riot of colour, there was an entry room,
nearly caused an international With were staying at the hotel.
incident of a shipboard party on Mauve walls,
buy a mad straw hat. ruby-red drawing room, study, dining
"Circus? Honey, just lead us the Danube the other night.
Identity confirmed, exis- tenge recognised. 1 WIN whisked off in a
sung- Euously grand black limon- sine to the Hotel Astoria.. Which was even more sump- tuous. Though hardly black.
"Do you know Paris well?" More headshakes, "But surely, you speak Eng ish."
"Nyet!""
velvet curtains with lace room, bedroom, and bath. billowing beneath. More Crammed with genuine velvet in the sleeping alcove, period furniture (Empire? parrot fashion, pink walls, and o fragile Yes, but whose?), with an has as much chance
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She gave my sausage a scath- Ing look, declined my offer of
took me firmly In piece, and
and for a mammoth dose of t culture.
DETERMINED
the
1)
green.
IMPOSSIBLE
"Well, ask him to come too. One' evening won't make any difference."
"It is impossible. Finol exams are soon. In two months."
she says, "is to sel with Murlon co-producer Brando even if I have to wait until I can only play his mother."
Then suddenly she said: "I
He can also afford to hire Viennese palace to give a party.
The
ribbons."
Irene !urned
"You to it."
strangest TAILPIECE: were so guests We Some Russian It's a marvellous circus. She had learned the words
wish only to mock our consumer
stirred by his soulful strumming game being played in Vienns
to had a terrife time. And come that they And probably
goods.
spot Yut started shooting now is trying
bald
The Brynner's
head, of recing
"Tio, I don't, I think your buck afterwards to dance and through the cabin windows. the
consumer goods are fine. Paris as have of seeing
Who drink in the hotel dining-rcoin.
Viennese only see him with a hat sinister trilby What would his future have slightly Incide
Next morning, Irene eul short Husstan of a
ate all that sausage after all?
There will not be a hat in my description of the evening's been The King and I had jammed over his brow. They "Ho please you."
Jun
not happened along "I would cluck "We will go
this morning to no doubt have been a top diree must be as-sensitive about showing his pale as any other the Peterhof. Once the summer tor in Hellywood by now." palace of the Czars.
bald man." Now a Then he chuckles at my dis the
But there is a shrewder rea- nustum
I am not being people, bellet. "No.
"I was the con for his shyness
than that. "I get paid for television Versailles, it leading
director in Says Brynner:
showing my head so why should New York at the time. Being a film star has only held up my I show it for nothing?"
Full speed ahead to Hermitage, once the Czars win: 1,500-room ter palace, now a museum, She made me leave my sausage with the chauffeur, and took me inside this gem oʻs Neb-Fairytale architecture.
Irene was determined to do but several with Lenin in becoza, past the the 1,500 rooms, admiralty's bright gilded spire, thousand jewelled snuff-boxes That is not the point of a hat. Described by some as bearing a Immodest," he says.
I sneaked out carly before my Intourist shepherd arrived, walked across a windy square
1
later I dug my heels in. and down to the river.
Senffolding was the only more evidence that the war-blistered generals,
of paintings
No more
“SHUN!!
TROOPING THE
COLOUR. THUR, JUNE ENH
PREVENTION
OF FAINTING' ALL GUARDSMEN WILL BE IN BED WITH ONE PINT OF MILK ONLY 6.30PM SHARP
"ASK SEREY
FoЯl A PEP PILL
“Any hat would please me, We'll buy one that plenses pun,“
"I do not wear huts."
"I do not wear hals either.
No Ahat is becouse It's spring, resemblance Russian Surely spring comes even Limoges In Leningrad?"
here Fa
Etcetera.
for
to
sympathetically:
ROLEX
A landmark in the history of Time matierement
"I've just had a beautiful dream. dreamed that only the R.SM, passed out this year.“
A