Impish Charles MacArthur had done famously as a police reporter for McCormick and Hearst, playwright (The Front Page), screenwriter (The Senator Was Indiscreet) and husband (to Helen Hayes).
But he had never been an editor. Last week he got his chance. Hungarian-born Alexander Ince, onetime publisher of Stage magazine, bought Theatre Arts (circ. 30,000), a Variety for highbrows. He invited MacArthur to run it. O.K., wired Mac, on 20 conditions (samples: get me twelve geniuses, move the office to Palm Springs, get Lana Turner as my secretary). He settled for a block of stock.
Ince had been planning to revive...
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