Theatre: Show Business: Dec. 19, 1938

> When You Can’t Take It With You closed in Manhattan after a two-year run. Producer Sam H. Harris wired the cast: ”Better luck next time.”

>Called before the Dies Committee to answer charges that the Federal Theatre Project had Communistic leanings, FTP Director Hallie Flanagan was accused of quoting from “a Communist named Marlowe.” Patiently she explained that the Communist was Christopher Marlowe (1564-93).

> For this year’s show, Once Over Lightly, Princeton’s Triangle Club wanted two pandas, unsuccessfully petitioned the New York and Chicago zoos for the only two in captivity. Replied Dr. William Reid Blair of the New York Zoological Park: “Your suggestion . . . raised my blood pressure to an alarming degree. You may have the loan of my wife’s crown jewels, but the panda is out of the question.”