Prumbs Down

Fey, fanciful Playwright William Saroyan has long been his own advertising agency. Last month, having heard that a play lampooning him--Five Alarm Waltz --was approaching Broadway, he got considerable free publicity by betting its press agent, James Proctor, $1,000-to-10-c- that it wouldn't run two weeks. Author of the play was pretty Lucille S. Prumbs, 26, Manhattan-born daughter of a Hungarian Jewish novelist, Sara B. Smith.

Last week Producer Everett Wile brought Five Alarm Waltz to Broadway. It was a generally tasteless comedy about a poetic Bulgarian blowhard who accepted the challenge of his wife, authoress of chic parlor comedies, to write a drama and wrote one that made hers look sick. Swart tousled Actor Elia Kazan managed to make the hero fairly amusing, but nothing in the part suggested William Saroyan's undeniably special talents. And Playwright Saroyan won his dime. Five Alarm Waltz closed after four performances.

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