Thorpe v. Astor (Concl'd)

After embarrassing the cinema industry for three weeks with its display of dirty doings, Hollywood's Astor Case was brought to a decent close last week. To Actress Mary Astor, suing her onetime husband, Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, for full custody of their 4-year-old daughter, the Los Angeles Superior Court awarded the child for nine months a year. Before rendering his decision, Judge Goodwin J. Knight called for Miss Astor's diary in which she recorded her irregular love life and which Dr. Thorpe's lawyers tried to use obliquely to disqualify her as a fit mother. After four hours of reading the manuscript from cover to cover Judge Knight ordered the diary impounded with the court.

Judge Knight's only further interest in the case proved to be Playwright George S. Kaufman (Dinner at Eight, Of Thee I Sing). Depicted as the "Perfect Lover" in Actress Astor's memoirs, Kaufman had ignored a subpoena to testify. Before a warrant for his arrest could be served on him, he had secretly fled from Hollywood to Manhattan. "There won't be any settlement for Kaufman," fumed Judge Knight. "I'll put him away for a while to cool off if he ever comes back into the jurisdiction of this court! He could write quite a play about life in jail!" In Manhattan the high-strung dramatist faced newshawks after three days in seclusion. "I assure you that I took all this very hard," said George Kaufman. "There is only one thing I resent about the case. Some newspaper writer referred to me as a middle-aged playwright. The reason I resent it so much is because it's true, but the thought is frightening.* I have also one wonderful piece of news for the American public. I have never kept a diary. Everything I write is to be acted on the stage."

*Dramatist Kaufman is 47.

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