Page 12 J
Startling figures:
SEE THE FAT 'PICKINGS? FOR BOOKS THAT
THE... CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, {APRIL
PRE-BOOM SELLINA PRICE
Graham Greenei
Brighton Rock £10,000
Irwin Shaw
The Young Lions
£50,000
Show
Edna Ferber
Boat
£25,000
MAKE THE
GOLDEN GRADE!
THIS year sees great news for movie writers. In a hand-out from just one major Hollywood film studio are listed 20 so-called "Literary Proper- ties Acquired."
They range from "The Dud For example, Irving Lazar, the Avocado." by newcomer Elaine pirate chief of the percentages Dundy, la "The Journey to the who has just mid "Lolita" (of Centre of the Earth," by Jutes all
US$160,000. things) for Verne, the Daddy of space (A play is en Fatablished Pro- fletion.
party the mrement it is a Hil.)
Tals is splendid stuff. It means that the trend for buy- ing, on already established hit is Decelerated. More and mere the film of today is bared on The
noic of Last Month.
sell
Wellers with wares to ore queueing up for the great Fay-aff. Look at the Jucky es this announcement of literary stock prices
FROM THE TERRACE John O'Hara.
by
RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE by Grzec Metalibus.
THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF by Jomo Michener.
SINK THIS BISMARCK by
C. S. Forester,
THE TWENTIETH OF JULY by Constrnline Fitzgibbon,
The agent
These are going to rake in the lolly for their lucky authors because they are Estdbled Literary Properties.
An EP. la even more Estab- Thlied If I in by an Established Name, such as Graham Greene, *C. 5. Daphne Du Maurier. Forester or Nicholas Montaret.
Strong men then bargain dead body. Quite across its often a reviewer's say-to or a newspaper culting may force the bidding up. Authors estab- lished as long ego as 1931 are highly delighted with this new state of things.
Marked men
James Jones
Pierre Boulle
From Here to Eternity
£90,000
Bridge on the River Kwai
£2,500
1959.
STOP OF THE
BOON PRICE
Our Man
In Havana
,000
Lucy
· Crown · £150,000
Ico Palaca £300,000 plus
The
Pistol
£30,000
The Other Side of the Coin
£50,000
In a booming world of letters the spur to succeed is £. s. d.
tions are really great for "Our Man in Havana." Like Ferber, he is on a percentage baals and will therefore reap big benefits from the drawing power of stars like Noel Cownid and Sir Alee Guinness.
Then there is Irwin Shaw, another plu-lined pro. When they bought "The Young Lions" Shaw get £50,000. Now for "Lucy Crown" the guro is way up, something in the region
Take Edna Ferber, the mother Ogure of the movie writers. Her stories have been portrayed by Jean Harlow ("Dinner at Eight") cnd James Dean of £130,000. ("Giant") and the has aut-
There are the marked men of Üved them boll Wiven she Show Biz, boys whose price is began operating, the righ of to high that WANTED is Bat- "Show Beal" went for a paltry 'teringly cerons their pertraits £23,000. Now when she in every dim producers' office visulisea "Ice Palace" she in the world, experts to put down a million But what coul the new- comers-the one-shot boys, who Gesham Greene, another may have nother shot in veteran, bezun very modestly their leckers? How would John
Good. Now let's take lime off dollars,
tu cunsidor what
Established Property.
มะ
A book Ja an Extablished with £10,000 for "Brighton Braine be paid the produced Properly the moment II requires Rock." He now gels three Umes a recond story the get £5,000 on agent.
that sum, and Greene's Expipta- for "Reom al the Top") ond
Tommy Steele:
the old pioneer
at the crossroads
By JOHN LAMBERT
ECHOED Tommy
Steele, "Crossroads? Yus, I know that my career is at the cross- roads. From here I either go up, or down. Only don't think I'm not doing anything about it, chum."
Mr Steele, after two years of shy-rocketing success. Is now. beginning to feel a slight pinch, In South Africa and Scandina vla, where personal sppearances. #MURSK SÜVİRİSİKartenzehementiuntomer på honom time high, he is now suffering from sipped sca
His plan
And in Britain, where Als rock 'n' roll style was the only sure substitute for Elvis Presley,
he has been duplicated by
legion of loose-limbed,
talented, imilators.
if
So what can be do?'
&
lesa
sald:
muffled reflectively and "My plan and I think it's working out—is to become a bigger entertainer, to be inde- pendent of the fails and fancies ef the moment,
AA
STEELE WITH IS SIGNTOST: "THE BUSINESS"
Eckstine would belt it out as if that's what you always get his heart was breaking. But both when you first call on an agent, of them do a big job with the "That big. bald head and acme material because they do those eyes... that's all you rep it their own way."
of the agent from your little
"Not that I intend giving up rock 'n' roll. I know which side my bread is buttered on, and I also know that the teenagers can make or break anybody.
Steele, at the crossroads, la a chair. And you only remember "Another thing is to become much more complex. character the eyes when he gives you a really chocgy about the songs than he was.
I record. I would for rother
Job.
"That eiger is what be lights cut down on the number of Yet he still prefers to seem when you start raking in The dizes mako, so that I can be the perky, apparently simple money for him. The curtain but really shrowd personality stands for the, stogo all thal brezme a pubila idol,
sorts of curtains, really, but it's always drawing bock and show-
certain that when I have got one on axle` It's worth buying, So ollen a record has one good He insists that
song and the other side is just, pop. That's a swindle, and it's dangerous."
They work
cannot understand long werde-ing you." although, he can go through the mall type in a contract wiE-
And
tears but any dictionary..
He falls
a hunting story This," he said, 'pointing' te' against "himself," in which hi aahleld-like symbol, "kums, up
I asked him what he thought' hest said, "You should shbul show-business. You have the of his legion of imitators. He Tally, ho! Tommy, not There's masks for laughter and teard grinned. "I have to hand it to the fifiile brown basket!'"..
are but «Übera's...also. a. doggor
and that'
them," he said. "They works. And he has started symbolic always there like stink. But think they painting. He showed me one of what you've got to wat out. would be better off to work on hie' ·canvases,' called "Show for, 'mate" being themselves and not go Business."" His peramentary. It seems to indicate you are Imitating otherw, "bendi
thought, would be enllgaming a cynie," I said, "AKAN ME ***To be a star you gotta be an to other overnight??wensations, Tommy. Steele rosred with Indlekchaal. Take an old czterides and "sh Insight into his "kosi, qaughter.. He, oven, doubled up and life. "Those Foodsa #Thingy parkonilly. Be side, swith it. #Cyno?” “hu echoed. don), Zotariee. The way Nósi "That big patch of green "No, cocker, I'm Just" alakig up, Coward sings At La toffee-noood that Indicatos ga" beginner. And the Anure from the park.” and a bit equare, j'béreas Hilty” that' inthe "gibi by the big deal option (London: Expusa Kerską).
how will the now tomous author of the, £2,500 "Bridge on the Hiver Kwa!" make out? Well, unlike Mr Broine, Mr Boulle, author of "Bridze ca the River Kwai? has written a second. It is casted "The Other
EXTRESSOGRAPH BY MICHAEL KAND
These Peasants
Really Need A Rest, Mr. Silone
IST
By RICHARD LISTER' THE SECRET OF LUCA. By Ignazio Silona. Cope, 15.
ILONE'S peasants remain as obstinate, super- stitious, poverty-stricken and warped as ever. Motorcycles may now have reached whatever be nighted edge of Italy it is he writes about, but ease. of communication has brought, no easing to their lives, which are stuck like some ancient gramo- phone in the repetitive groove of misery.
This feeling la Intensified in and for whom Luca had a can- his latest novel.
suming romantic' pasilon,' which she came to return.
Luca, an old peasant of 70, returns to his village after 40 years in gool for a murder be [did not commit. Although some- one else has confessed to it and he has been pardoned, the surly, spicious villagers still cold shoulder him and stubbornly refuse to say why when Andrea, the local boy who has made good, rides In to congratulate, his father's ok friend..
HIS SECRET
There was nothing to be done about it in that strictori Harrow community. The alter native fer him seemed to bu flight or suicide. He could facs fato threw neither; and when
the alternative of life imprisonment, he chose to ac- cept it.
This act of twisted chivalry is a quaint flower to find grow ing in the bamen and stony soll at Silone's Italy. He pervitados
But Andres is not the, mais us of its possibility. but his
to be pui eff and gradually he method of getting at it is per- uncovers the 40-year-old scandal haps
artificial to be
too
Side of the Coin," and it has based en, good stories, And
and finds out why at his tal convincing. gone for £50,000. Which is o books are booming, so lonz Luca-refused to call the evidence nice, big increase in coin for they are talked about. So here's which would have cleared him. Mr B to count the other side of hoping for a good few more of
Either way the story has
It was all for the love of a o both happy ending. Good nime CTC
Indy, Oriensia, who had married the only rich man in the district booming so long as they BTC
JACKY'S DIARY
JACKY MENDELSOHN
AGE 31/%2
-By NANCY SPAIN
IN SCHOOL YESTER DAY WE LEARNED A BOUT HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA 1492
AL OF HIS FRIENDS SAID YOU ARE CRAZY BE CAUSE THE WORLD IS FLAT BUT GOLUMBUS KNEW IT WAS ROUND BE CAUSE HE OWNED AN EGG WHICH HE, TRAINED TO SIT UP
Mr Silone's great talent, in my view, badly needs a long holiday from peasant life.
-fLondon Express Service),
COLUMBUS WAS AN ITALIAN FROM TALY WHO WANTED TO GO Y DIS COVER AMERICA ONLY HE DIDN'T
HAVE MONEY FOR CARFARE
SO HE WENT TO QUEEN IS A BELL SO THEN COLUMBUS REN WHO IS THE QUEEN OF SPAINTED SOME BOATS LIKE YOU! SHOWED HER HIS TRAINED EGGO DO IN THE PARK ONLY SO SHE GAVE HIM SOME MONEY BIGGER
TACKS THE SAVERS WERE GOING TO MUTINY*
*WHICH MEANS LIKE
KICKING SCREAMING®
HERE
THANKSA
THE
NINA
Or
FINELY THE SAW AMERICA & THEY WERE VERY ZAPPEAS THEY WERE ALREADY DOWN TO THERE LAST FEW TACKSO
3
WHO RAY
WHEN COLUMBUS LANDED HE FOUND A THE INDIANS SAW THAT HE WAS VERY BRAVE
BUNCH OF WILD INDIANS & BUT HE WAS SO THEY SMOKED A PIECE PIPE WHICH MEANT NT SCARED BE CAUSE HE NEVER SAW THEY WOULDNT SCALP HIM SPECIALLY AFTER ANY WESTERN MOVIES AS COW-BOYS HE GAVE THEM BEEDS & TRINKERS [WERENT INVENTED YET
Syndicate, Ing.
ADD VICE
FOR CHILDREN INDIANS WILL LIKE YOU IF YOU GIVE THEM BEEDS
TRINKETS
YOUR FRI