Posted 5:38 PM by Gene

I'm sure I shouldn't be so critical; after all I (like tens of millions of other no-talents) have worked on a book for far longer than I've been gainfully employed. And at times like these I think, for what purpose? I forever dream of being wealthy beyond avarice, but even if the psychotic dream passed, for what purpose?

Part of the fun of being a hit writer would be to know the cream of society. Who do we have now? Today, for instance, I think of a very catchy tune called "Drop That Name" from Bells Are Ringing (starring Judy Holliday, who was all of 43 when she died), and just beholding the verse you know what any ambitious writer with an itch for social climbing is up against (I quote from the fine cast album):

Man: Don't be flustered miss. Do as they all do -- just drop a name!

(He and members of the chorus start dropping names:)

Ed...
...Murrow!
Noel...
...Coward!
Humphrey...
...Bogart!
Bennett...
...Cerf!
Somerset...
...Maugham!
Jennifer...
...Jones!

Lalala la, lala!

Just the first six names and the sensitive soul is done for. The whole song has forty-five names. And it makes one madder at the pee-wee age we live in to think that the songwriters, Styne, Comden and Green, probably knew nearly all the names! One other thing: I have reason to believe (I think it's in the piano-vocal score) that when Humphrey Bogart died not long after the show's open his name got replaced with Sammy Davis's, so the rot already set in. Can anyone think of one name, one name from today that could stand squarely and proudly in the company of those first six?