CHAMPAGNE CHOLLY: The Life & Times of Maury Paul

The highest paid society editor in the world -- as seen by his secretary- Maury Paul is known to Hearst readers of the American as ""Cholly Knickerbocker, to readers of the Evening Journal as Billy Benedict, to still other column addicts as Dolly Madison or Polly Stuyvesant, -- a four ringed circus. This is an inside portrait of an inside gossip, from his early artless mistakes, to his position as reporter without a libel case, generally accepted bon vivant. The heyday of the '20's, when the self-styled ""Mr. Bitch"" pursued the glamorous, gossipy targets, the debs, charity functions, Macy's Fifth and Park Avenue and Cafe Society, the Old Guard, the balls, the openings -- here is name value as well as inside tattler reclame.... Paul initiated his gala style, omniscient prophecies, before the Winchell era. This is unimportant save as a footnote to an era. This manages a hardboiled -- and appreciative appraisal, stressing the ephemeral immortality of the social spheres. Snob appeal -- and I don't mean intellectual.