HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY

Ferene Molnar apparently takes issue with Ford Madox Ford in the latter's dictum that "New York Is Not America." Back in that dear Budapest after a whirlwind visit to Broadway and environs the playwright says that there is but one wonder in the world and that is the city of New York.

Molnar is as wise as he is witty: he makes no attempt to placate any other section of the country besides the one which best appreciates his wares. For every dramatist there is but one wonder in the world and that wonder is the same as Molnar's. Who cares, theatrically speaking, about those wastes outside of the metropolis? And why should a visiting playwright penetrate further into America than is necessary for his business? If he is accepted by the chief Rialto he will be accepted by the hundred imitations.

To Molnar New York is the marvel. To Chippendale it would have been Grand Rapids, to Coue it is probably Battle Creek, and to foreign movie stars it is Hollywood. Every man to his taste and profession but, in Molnar's case, "the play's the thing."