Hazel Rio
MERRYMAKING
As told to Warner Williams
The off-beat, revelatory memoirs of a not-so-well known screen actress who, as she writes, “stayed a starlet for thirty years.” Miss Rio describes her strife and hard times as the ingénue victim of innumerable horror films, and recalls her long and poignant relationship with her mentor, the later actor Simon Moro. Her narrative throws new light upon the possible artistic reasons behind Moro’s self-immolation. “He was a man who knew when to end his own epoch,” she suggests his tragedy, “and somebody who always preferred the appalling to the appealing.” But Miss Rio also knows a happier Hollywood, and is cheerfully frank about its present sexual mores, her own escape from Puritan torment along “the thorny path of virtue.” Whence her career, and hence her title. Lavishly illustrated.
MARCH / NON-FICTION / 320 PAGES / $7.95
—FROM Spring Books from Atheneum
DOUBLE HORROR FEATURE
S. MORO IN RAVEN
Q. ADAMS IN MOUTH OF EVIL
FAMILY NITE WED.
—-from the marquee of the Peace Gardens Drive-In Theater, Minot, N.D.
THE SCAPERELLI LIVING ROOM, Baronial style that still fits a family budget. Aged oaken furnishing, heavy velour drapes, medieval to Renaissance artwork. Also canopied bedroom suites to match. Darkened floors included, slate or vinyl. Mullioning of windows optional. Another new décor from Quincy Adams Associates, Hollywood, Calif.
—FROM Sears Catalogue
…find no record of delivery on that date. Our files indicate that air express had been arranged by you for a coffin on our 4:39 A.M. flight to Tempelhof, but that no bill of lading was issued that day, or the preceding night.
We are sorry that we cannot be forthcoming with further information. We would suggest that the matter be settled by your check for $100.00, covering solely our immediate expenses for previously ordered special handling, with no additional charge for other. unused services.
SINCERELY,
(Unsigned)
for Frankfurt Air Freight, Ltd.
—FROM letter in files of Maliproductions, Inc., Malibu, Calif.
COWAN ACQUIRES RITES
TO MORO HORROR BIOG,
FLETCHER TO SCRIPT
—HEADLINE IN Variety
… will drop its present spot commercials featuring character actor Lars Syndor. An agency spokesman described the conduct of Mr. Syndor as “brutalizing, and detrimental to the tradition of clean, cool shaving.” Apparently the agency wants nobody thinking those kinds of thoughts with a razor poised that close to a man’s throat on nationwide television.
—FROM Advertising Age
“The Auxiliary Ego as Counterplayer in a Senile Case of Morbid Exhibitionism.”
—title of lecture delivered by Dr. Horst Yost to the
Horst Yost Institute of Psychotherapy
… that suicide, anciently understood as felo-de-se or “self murder” may in the Moro Case have to be redefined as a tort. Certainly it depended to a great degree upon various forms of contributory negligence. Mistaken identity, suppositious intent, the engineering of public response, to name but a few conundrums …
—FROM The Columbia Law Review
Unentitled ms. Holograph. 89 pp. Undated. Damaged. Hardboard cover broached, pp. 1-71 penetrated, pp. 72-89 heavily scored and dented. Stains throughout, compromising legibility. Designated a prompt book, and attributed to Simon Moro, 20th-cent. German actor.
—description in Rare Books Collection of New York Public Library
“In the main, I think we’re all saddened, regretful. But I also think we can be somewhat grateful that this fair city was never subjected to his interpretation of Caliban.”
—remark of Quincy Adams to Joseph Papp on
The Mayor Lindsay Show over WNEW
“They’re very gentle birds. People get the wrong idea. They don’t go around pulling off people’s fingers. Look, I’ll show you. Bite, Rupert. Go on, bite. See? Didn’t even break my skin. You could let him bite you the same. Bite Johnny, Rupert.”
—extract of interview with Gregorio Tarkas, bird trainer, on The Johnny Carson Show
GOTT MIT UNS FÜR KÖNIG UND VATERLAND
SIMON MORO
1900–1968
—from an old gravestone in family cemetery near Vienna, N.J.