The Press: Swaffer Smacked

Dramatic critics, like oldtime court jesters, have more than poet's license. The monarch public, easy to amuse, hard to offend, suffers them gladly. Avowedly criticizing plays, they sometimes overindulge in gossip, in personalities. Some days they go too far. Manhattan has its suave George Jean Nathan. London has emaciated Hannen Swaffer.

One day last week Critic Swaffer of the London Sunday Express (circulation 538,889) sat at lunch in the Savoy grill, crowded with Londoners eating solid, expensive food. Up to his table stalked Actress Lillian...

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