The Press: Gag a Day

It was a party Jiggs would have mightily enjoyed. Into the lofty grand ballroom of Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, shirt-sleeved waiters, sweating, bumping against chairs and calling hoarse warnings, ferried outsize trays of corned beef & cabbage. Powers models swirled among the 1,031 guests, handing out clay pipes. On the stage, aging Funnyman Arthur ("Bugs") Baer cracked wise, a line of Bloomer Girls pranced through a dance routine, Bing Crosby crooned Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, and then Morton Downey sang it again.

When it was over, the guest of honor, a fat, button-nosed oldster who is regarded by...

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