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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

He said that no matter how crowded the subway was at night when he went home, there was always plenty of room because he smelled so from the hides that he had been working on that people would just take one whiff and move as far from him as they could, so he always got a seat up to the Bronx! Anyway, through his love of the theater, he made contact with a little group in Newark. It included young unknowns named Dore Shary and Eddie Choderov and other fledglings who became famous later.

Then Moss wrote a play about Hollywood, although, of course, he had never been there. It was a comedy. It was called Once in a Lifetime. He began taking it around. At that time, the wonder boy in the producing world was Jed Harris, a four-star son of a bitch--but fantastically successful at the time and quite fascinating in his way, but cruel. He read Moss‘play--he kept it for several days--and then sent for Moss. He said, “You're going to make it. This has got a lot of funny stuff in it. It's not my kind of play, but I think that a fellow who would be interested in it is Mr. George S. Kaufman. You go around to see George Kaufman. You tell him that Jed Harris said that he should read this play right away.”

Moss Hart, in a delirium of excitement, went rushing to George Kaufman. Little did he know that Jed Harris was just playing a dirty trick on him. Harris and Kaufman had just had a terrific feud and the mere mention of Jed Harris' name sent George Kaufman into a state of rage. Now came





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