MAN ON THE HALF-SHELL

Conial recall of a Hollywood reporter, from his genesis as a newspaperman and pony reading, to his coverage of a Mexican imbroglio, and Washington under Clapper, to his becoming a connoisseur of things incredible with his Hollywood assignment. Here is the saga of his nightshirts, his decisive wife, his discovery of a man who walked on water, the garter snapping at the Bureau of Standards, his days at a nudist camp, incidents of Lamour and sarongs, Mae West and corsets, the Love business, his history of Victor Mature, of westerns and quickies, the double program and various other stars and movieland personalities. Kind of inconsequential -- kind of funny in its own way.