1955-12-31 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1055.

SHOWTALK takes a backward glance at

1955-and finds seven golden rules on .

HOW TO BE A PERSONALITY

W

with the

and how NOT to be one

HO were the MPs were also Inclined to talk

whow business about La Loilo.

personalities of 1955-the people dazzle and the sparkle, the people I would not be bored to meet again in 19667 They are 11471 necessarily the people who would particularly care to meet me again in 1956,

First, the people who are NOT my

personalities of 1955, though they may well

be yours.

LIBERACE is not. You say he is a colourful character. He He has wears gold lame sults 70

of shoes, dimples, grey pałes hair

He change: lu the even- itags into a suit of black bruende with gold dots and hus ash trays shaped like Kromi planos Init to be enthralled.

She is rather like those distant Just 21 APA of Mont Einu.

tle too picturesque; all very woll for pleture postcards, but not quite in the National Gallery

It's plenty

being SECOND golden rule: beautiful is not enough, but it's plenty.

ning

RICHARD BURTON one of my personalities. the economically-minded man who makes £1,000 a week and says he can live on £39. He believes in the simple things of life like Jaguars, being rude to his boases, playing Henry V at the Old Vl. He is a good actor who believes he is a great

one.

THIRD guiden rule: being a personality

to yourself in easy, br A It is more dieult to that he loves his personality to others. I am tumoved.

Having

told you about the xay.

who

You say,

mother.

You

11

Elint he Castly

I

not your.

25712

£350,000 intimidated.

1 have seen the gentleman on TV oczug sincerity and 1 wall see hun in his first film, "Su- curdy Your.”

flut to me, his personality is outshone by his tailor's. take ghoulish interest in its sulte

the but Me Liberace

planu player froto Milwaukee Interests Jess than his plane

me even

playing.

FIRST

10 be

wland for

from your win.

re

my

prople personalities of 1956, here are the ones who are.

A gay girl

AVA GARDNER Is. without arch mystery there can be no

She has mystery

by THOMAS WISEMAN

FOURTH Fulden rule: mystery is vital. People should know about you. But they should Bot know everything about you.

MARLENE PIETRICH is one of my personalities. I remember List Oliver he was sitting a Messel suite at the Dorchester when Danny Kye Danny Kaye had just opened at the Palladium and he was not well.

Dietrich unedinely set

She re about mothering him. for her osteopath and told him about

The Mr Kaye's troubles, osteopath toll her about his own

His wife was away troubles, Suit

"And your Dietrich: lovely children, who'll look after I know the mother- come and baby-sit for you." ing tinct is in essential part Dietrich personality, of whether she is mothering some- body else's children xxly else's Prime Minister.

them?

Lec

or some-

She whispered

personality. You never Mix/W when und where she is going to uppear or

That's disappear,

mystery.

I asked her at one stage why never quite know whether

made any ins murried.

ur she had engaged

She whispered: That is also mystery, recently.

into divorced, flunce, and ex-husband of the moment.

golden rule on how

personality:

You clu

13

don't

can't

any competition

tailor. You

She is not

Is

امل

especially to her husband, "Shh I'll let

uf

Ava Garder is a girl you are still curious about after she has GINA IALLOBRIGIDA answered all the questions you ean conceivably ask her und she not one of my personalities. She Is a symbol, not a personality. could conceivably answer.

Bowless Mark Her face is a

She has the reputation which betrays nothing of beeg in excesively gay gr character. She Is

whole- with a pack of sultors in every teartedly

wsta

Capital batting for the privilege preoccupie.t being beautiful it does not give of showing her the town, her a chance to be anything else. (Who wants her to be anything

anyway?)

When conversation whe

in fact, she often lonely. `1 know of an English actor and his wifo not

the exactly brightest

things either. young whom she would ring up fre- quently while she was here and

"Oh, geo,

I'm say:

50 lonely. Could I come along with you wherever you are going tonight--- to the movies or somewhere."

She

strikingly beautiful whatever the time of day Italian Parilament was night, and she has that aura mentioned, but only because the which identifies personalities.

elset her in Paris the was limited to her fabulous face, her fabulous body, her fabulous earnings, and her fabulous admirers, all sub- jects in which she is intensely not to say fabulously-interested and about which she can talk fluently and endlessly.

The

Tourists sit up and take notice where desolation and tall weeds reign

WHERE

HITLER

ONCE RULED

By JOHN RADCLIFFE

or

you

I am not un actress. 1 secret. an a personality."

10

14

I do not suppose who was personality in the cradle, but she certainly

in Dr.

Her DUT- monally indeed is her greatest achieveme achievement. It was a work of art. It is a triumph of acting, haute couture and invention.

If you FIFTH golden rule:

the with satisfied not personality

have you got, invent another one,

KATHARINE HEPBURN

Are

Here SHOWTALK

takes a forward

glance and finds

a personality in the

raw...

A tigress called Shirley

THE BOREDOM OF SOCIALIST REALISM

IN

By ARMAND ROUSSEAU

every branch

of bandad; and concreto, proelical

of

Soviet life prepara. copying it calls sterile. It asks

for the tender moyemonte tions are being made the human heart but these have for the celebration in 1957 becomo

utterly private and

Who can dare to show affec-

of the 40th anniversary of secret in the Soviet Union. the October Revolution. tion and suffering when even Among the plans is one to the old love songs have been hold a grand All-Union Art forbidden, and for u generation Exhibition.

"the reaction of the masses" to There has been only one e Soviet Union is

overything that happens inside tho

all that All-Union Art Exhibition

in the press, in literature coun's sinco Stalin's death — and in the arts? Artists and combined show for 1958 and Journalists who have ventured

outside these limite 1964--the organisation of

pre known to have

been dismissed, re which was a kind of dress primanded or worse. rehearsal for 1957. It open- The challenge of the camera

****

ed in January 1955 at the must be met, Dovzhenko says, with an individual, creative Tretyakov Gallery in Mos-

with style

a profound ro- cow. Foreign visitors have velation of man and of humanis- reported that people hurried ed nature, which photography past the familiar products can never give." of Socialist realism-trac- All Taboo

tora, factories, farms cele- brations, meetings, crowds That was

of

the viow

of tho of French impres- This, together with other "izans" in the Visual arts wuring the inst 70 years, has been quite taboo in Soviet Russia, Dovzhenko thanks

expresstordsm

workers. etc. and exponenta gathered in a big bunch to sonism. gaze at two nudes, the first the nudes that have been allow ed for many a long year,

There is nothing unusual Russia was right "In rejecting in this. Revolutions have a impressioniam, way of bringing prudish they had a mo

constructionism....but after all most complex path

than what

her low-cut dresses people into positions of in the search for new arustic habitually show. She has an

power-people who harness possibilities.

Dovzhenko's article ends by Instinct for showmanship, a ed all their energies to the genius for publicity, Most people cause of revolution, and asking the painters and sculp UT of the last gasp of 1954 emerges a personality-in-

are preparing their the-raw.

immediately like A tigress from Tiger Bay, Cardif, called

her because expect everyone else to do work for the 1987 All-Union In her

immediately Shirley Bassey with a voice like hot honey.

Art Exhibition to "extend the people. dressing-room, after her triumph on the Arst night of

creative frontiers Her father

realism." "Such is Life," she told me about herself.

So relaxed

ᎾᎢ

1-

she was a Now she is

merchant sraman, Two years ago £3 108. u week packer at a Cardig factory. under contract to Jack Hylton and making £125 a week. Where did she get her ferocious vitality, I asked. "It must be in my

and no singing

sise said. "I've had no training

She tauniy 18. She has no smoothness, No sophistication. As a show-business personality, she in still in the rough, uncut, unpolished state, But she has something in the blood.

it throbs out into her songs, It is going to throb on into 1956. It's going to get into your blood, too.

is the eternal enchantress: Hep-

To me she has a beauty which burn is the eternal enchanted. Lollobrigida could never hope to

Ber face is marvellously ex-match. pressive. She does not tell the world much about herself, “but her face tells more than anolber actress's autobiography. Her personality is there for all to see.

She is forceful. She dresses already furcefully. She walks forcefully, She talks forcefully, But in her is acting there is infinito tender-

one of my personalities Dietrich ness.

HOW

MY

SIXTH

have You

golden rule; fr you

great talent, it's easy

being

can't help

ahe

Jess

ilkes most

the same.

Too Strong

The

Soviet

revolution-

tors who

O

of Socialist

course, Dovzhenko is right about the impressionists. They

and new

the

She is the most completely relaxed person in show business

certainly discovered new afini- ties between colours which had I know of With the possible exception of a driving test, i

aries could not clamp down never before been placed along-

aide cach other on don't think anything has ever

a canvas.

perturbed

shadow her. To me she is on the theatre or the opera, New light glamorous and 1 personality whose traditions were too came into pletures through the impressionists, and painters because of the ease and natural-strong and offered the only resionist

have "madje use of gains with which she plays her escape from dally hardship and discoveries of impression off-screen role, a performance

in the big cities. But they m" in every nation that morits an Ox,

But Dovzhenko's article re- in made rules for painting and SEVENTH golden rule;

colved a

severe reprimand in and the new per-sculpture,

Pravda within the matter of being gonality

counts for Soviet painters had to obey from no less moro than Inspiration and the now rules if they want- USSR Academy of Arts, who perspiration.

choot V. ed the State's wages.

What resulted has been aptly

described

relaxation

•

Summing-up: Them is hardly a person loft in show business

any more. The place is swarm

are

theso

many

merely

personality,

of Conclusion: Many DIANA DORS is one of my

In public she is "personalities" personalities. eften presented as a caricature, nonentities everyone has heard but she is really quite a charac of

She has much mare to offer

(COPYRIGHT)

ier.

I COOKED

MONSTER

to 1 said Lehr

husband WILB like to taste a sucking pig."

I threw it away casually, like: "I'd like # diamond bracelet or a cruise around the world."

But men have an uncanny

for the memory

wrong

un

enormous

As neither of the ladies told me whether all this was to be done with or without the pig's eyes, lashes, whiskers, or fangs, Val decided I should take it to the local butcher.

since

קת

thpiece.

to, "Keme none of this. falso (and not new) pro-

a week, Bund body

Kemonov as their Dovzhenko had wrote Kemenov,

and

the

for

agree.

with which one could

a appealed by

approach ઉનામાં ing with so-called “personali- Russian critic: " ...pictures, originality in painting. tes."

hov metres in size, of

would have

Very battles, storms, sessions and Dovzhenko, he said, and stated

positions meetings, with a multitude of recurring

portraits, not

Dovzhenko had written for lavish glittering chandellers,

the painters: "We chose you to red carpets, gilded (theatre) be artists

so that you might boxes, ceremonial uniforms gladden and enrich our vision ...the very pictures were of the world and not so that so like one another that it you might confirm that which the photographers bring to our though the seemed £18

notice so easily and accurately." majority had been painted

By

Yolande Donlan

Actress-author, the "Sand In My Mink” girl

a

I stuffed and stuffed and

stitched and stitched and longed ... and longed for a sowing machine.

in a single studio...

This most accurato descrip- tion of Soviet painting comes from

elderly the pen of an

Party Line

Kemenov came down heavily

Sovion art critic, A. Dovzhenko, on this observation and firmly writing in the Literary Gazette restated the Party line:

that the drinks had standard loco of criticism.

叫

of June 1955. His article re- "There is need for the utmost views this year's All-Union Art clarity

the artists must Exhibition, and is, by ang create works which worthily East or West a re- reflect the glorious path of struggle and labour of the Dovzhenko looks round the Soviet people and show these Tretyakov exhibition and writes: works at the All-Union Exhibi-

the same

de- tion for the 40th anniversary of question arises as the Great October Socialist

brought to mind Revolution"

the door and stories. in which

But The Monster won the last round. It refused to open its mouth when I offered the apple. No matter how hard I tugged, the jaws stayed clamped.

Heretical

a

ilve doza Then my bun for three days and nights stuffing order

Val appeared to An a hundredweight of nounce sausages, "I'd without stopping."

onions and two sage bushes.... long since run dry and our friends were growing talat with When I'd

t chopped up

starvation. couple of tons of stuffing, Val proceeded to invite a couple of Five hours had elapsed since tons of guests to do the eating we first slammed the oven door

The day of the party The in the pig's snout. For the last after reading some novels and A world divides these two

wo fnd So I swallowed a quick sherry, Monster arrived first, which was time I opened

helpful

knows on which side ho the fridge,

looked The Monster in the face, neither probaty of Ron Hall Kows, and any artist reading closed my opened

the them in despite its fangs, which were sation, nor poetry ....

Dovzhenko is an out- eyes, pulled the monster into my

thestand. It was suitably trussed for bared from the cooking, Berlin. Eva Braun were reputed to have | things, so it was only a few largest shopping bag, and felt

genre pictures, the theme most moded art critic who has sud- the occasion with its legs tied

frequently findia descriptive denly spoken up in a voice wo bus died in a suicide pact,

came my way down the street. FOUR sightseeing

days later that

to places of wood, gasher along

THE BATTLE

rather than artistle embodiment, have not heard from Russia for Y his sonst bun The chancellery was partially bouncing into the lounge

whiskers its back, "Pisane sir," I plended as sur- nothing more disturbing than

gone, and

year TT snarled at me, I snarled and the pictures are more like years and box, reptitiously I pushed the corpse

Kemenov, with his "glorious enlarged illustrations or stills area of desolate ruins in ther damaged during the last with

from head to stern

back, and I knew it was from cinema filma than paint path of struggle and labour." Sur- under the butcher's counter, "can great slit the Soviet sector,

in this shouting "Surprise! over- days of fierce lighting

dono.

Ings."

speaks you make this terrible monster up its middle.

jargon which all off- prise!" grown with tall woods. No eroa

look like the other animals in

cials speak in Soviet Russia, In The Rod Army looted most of

Soviet Russle the officials al- body paya heed to the bomb the furnishings and then barn-

Lucky lide me, I thought, and your shop?"

ways win, but they fall to in- rubble until the guide an- ed out the ornate interior.

like a child at Christmas I rushed

spire good art, Kemenov admits "And Finally nounces laconically:

in 1048, the Soviets to the happy surprise and

Dovzhenko has the audacity this indirectly. structure down and opened up the box.

So I had to out the apple to complain that these "illu over there is part of the tore the

of the valuable

I wrapped it in paper, cooled bunker where Hitler and carted most

"Yikes!" I screamed, and im-

It at No. 3, unwrapped it, drank into wedges and tie it on with trations of daily life" are "con- crudo, dull and unimaginative mosaics and marbles to Treptow

a glass of wine, rubbed it with string.

crute to the point of sterility pictures painted in a hurry by Eva Braun committed sui- Park, where they used them to mediately slut it again, Lying

"Delicious," said the dinner and limited to the point of the "brigade method.' And Chinese soy sauce, cooked it at build their memorial to the Red limply on the bottom of the box cide."

"Aren't you having

"there are also few substantial No. 4 ate

banality." some left-over It is one of the most barren, Anny men who were idlled in was a great white beast with long AFTER he had assured me it ch

atwing

He wants painting to provide works on contemporary themoe" No thanks," I sighed, dump-henceforward in profound 10 at the present All-Union Ex- the last desperate struggle for eyelashes, pink doenails, whiskers could be made to look like In its ears and a snout-full of a respectable animal for the oven,

The guests arrived — I could Berlin.

fang-Uke teeth.

I left The Monster with him and hear the merriment, cooked it ing exhausted in my shopped for adornmenta

"I've lived with that thing for velation of man and of humanis hibition. Thus the official guar- dians of Soviet palating are in "Your

at No. 0, made paper car-mufts sucking plg," he said

ed nature." three day! The holly-wreath seller told for its burning

This

La all very heretical The Russians claim they intend

benevolently, as though he had

I was out of luck there at No. 1, wrapped it up again.

duce some memorable works of are always loitering about the to raake a beautiful "People's giver mo the diamonds or

The were too many shopping days to The gutsa' merriment subsided.

the Communist cultural law- art for the 40th anniversary of Park" where Hitler's famous

"You can cook it any Christmas. But I did find an I unwrapped it, had a glass of cruise.

malcars of these last three or the October Revolution, but stood, Reichschancellery once

not allow Soviet he way you like,"

four dicoadba It is heretical they dare and a wine, poure cream on it, cooked Wing how I would be a chef cellery were the offices of Joseph ed from the top of the stairs, Across from the Reichschan- "Cook that monster?" I shrick- Apple for the snout

necklace of radish leaves. It at No. 2, ata more stuffing, instead of an actress,

because it calls things by their painters too much freedom. I

banal painting will be Interesting to see what Goebbel's Ministry

names: it calls It at No. 8; the guests' even look at it! Call "You having a party?" asked cooked *** "I can't

of everyday objecta and events the Soviet artists produce, paganda. They have now been the doctor, I need an injection!" the grocer, when I placed the merriment ceased. rebuilt

and remodelled into

So while I hid in the bed- the Soviet- room he emptied overything out parlement for East of the bridge and replaced it and the East Zone of with The Monster.

lenst visited Jandmarks in Russian sector.

the

There is a reason, perhaps, for the lack of interest in the ruins.

A half-dozen Communist pollee

battered steel and concrete.

no shops-not

п

There aro single street vendor laidos ad vantage of the bunker's tourist possibilites.

The Reichschancellery used to

well as his office. It was built during 1988-59, modern in style,

be Hiller's officiat

residenco 18 for

of Pro-

It doesn't seem as though

but richly decorated in the in anybody lives now in this da

THE FANGS

untál

the

to

gold momic and in solate waste. In winter it is a TEXT maning, after I'd taken terior with

an amil-dear pii, I thumbed Jays of gold leaf, marble and fine muddy mess, and in summer it

through my CDOKOTY books. Arst door is filled with choking dust. wood. From the

Ironically, not for away from Elizabeth David's told ne balcony facing the Platz he used to make his famous speeches to Hitler's bunker at 11-13 Bondler build a wood fire and then bury his followers massed in the Strasse is the old Nazi War it in myrtle leaves. I thought Larype

Ministry square below.

that was a wonderful way of Under the gardena of the A statue in the neatly kept hiding the monster, Reichschancellery, Hiller's permeden of the old War Ministry road Dorous Fong's "Joy" of sonal air raid shelter was built building pays homage to the Chinese Cookinsgl.” four floors deep. It was said general filler executed because She told me to wrap it in. to have been the most elaborsie of the bomb plot, Bach day the "jacket of stews and reeds, air rold shelter In Germany, geçimim) by instruction from mods, adhering with drosh clay, heated, and air-condi- Communist elly officials, lays and then bake in treated pið dug tioned, guralabadku with pavery, truh, downy at the base of the in-ground."

(also tohi ground palace that Zitler and

|attention to the fre

"It's beautiful," he enthused as he lugged it on to his scales. "Weighs 1515."

מה

THE SNOUT

JOHNNY HAZARD

THAT'S RIGHT,

MYNNEER MEER...

| YOU THINK REAL

(SPLUT】MILATZZ IS NOT

ENOUGH I AM ABOUT TO BA K-KILLEDANI SHOULD BE AGGRAVATED TO D-DEATH?..

rueste.

chair.

It'd be the same us

There have been too many

Da, cooked tenting ing after I received compared with the doctrines of lemma. They want to pro---

0 note from one of the guesta

Well, it was gracious.

(COPYRIGHT)

THROW THROW THIS I TRIED SUYS... IDIOT AND HIS BROTHER | BUT YA BETTER

LEAVE PEACEFUL

LIKEW

By Frank Robbins

NOT YOUR FAULT, CHUGGYMIRIT MEER'S THROWING OUT HIS LAST.

CHANCE KE LIFEI

this situation

calls for a

San Miguel