A Brooklyn girl named Betty Smith last fortnight made more news than a city editor could shake a stick of type at. She
> Published a first novel (A Tree Grows in BrooklynHarper; $2.75).
> Watched its sales whizz past the 150,000 mark.
> Honeymooned in New York with an Army private named Jones.
Newsmaking Betty Smith, who described herself as a onetime "third-rate actress in second-rate companies," also: 1) pocketed $55,000 for the movie rights to her book; 2) publicly scratched Hollywood's eyes out when it offered her $1,200 a week ("I don't...