Mouse's Return

For almost a year bright little Sidney Skolsky has been a columnist without a column. A onetime Earl Carroll press-agent and Broadway gossip, Skolsky went to Hollywood for the New York Daily News in 1934, quit three years later when he was ordered back to New York. He worked for a while for King Features Syndicate, but he and Louella Parsons disagreed on whether Garbo would marry Stokowski (Skolsky was right) and that got him in bad with Hearst. Since the fall of 1938 "the little black mouse" has been a familiar sight in Hollywood studios and night clubs, but nobody has given him a contract.

This week Sidney Skolsky joined the growing stable of writers that Publisher George Backer is assembling for his New York Post. Hollywood thought Publisher Backer had picked the right horse, for Skolsky is one of the ablest columnists in the business (he originated the term "Oscar" for Academy Awards) and by far the most popular. Most serious row he ever had was when he criticized Constance Bennett for her noisy behavior at first nights in a column entitled "The Constance Sinner." Actress Bennett invited him to take her to an opening and see if she could not be a lady. Replied Skolsky: "I'm afraid I couldn't be a gentleman."

Columnist Skolsky has a wife smaller than he is, and a love for Hollywood because it is the only place he has ever gained weight.

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