IRVING BERLIN is the world's foremost writer of popular songs and one of America's leading insomniacs. Fame, riches, marital happiness and honors from grateful governments have come to this slight, dark man of 63, but the one thing he lacks is sleep—to hear him tell it, anyway.
Once when he was a guest at the Palm Springs ranch of Movie Mogul Joseph M. Schenck, the desert air was riven around 3 a.m. by a blood-chilling series of screams and cries. Headed by the burly Schenck, who clutched a revolver, the bathrobed guests (among them Dramatist Moss Hart) hurried to the scene.
Instead of...