Cinema: The Soda Trade

Hollywood, a glittering city of outsize swimming pools and pink Cadillacs, has its homey side, too. It has a favorite corner drugstore, called Schwab’s. For years Schwab’s has been a hangout for movie stars, hangers-on and Coke-stretchers, who sit at the soda fountain sipping their drinks, waiting for miracles, or just thumbing the movie magazines borrowed from the magazine rack. At Schwab’s, Columnist Sidney Skolsky receives mail, phone calls and tips. With Skolsky’s syndicated help, Schwab’s has become the best-known corner drugstore in the U.S.

Last week Schwab’s was getting some lively competition. No sooner had Schwab’s announced that three visiting Italian starlets would be guests at its soda fountain for publicity pictures and ice cream than the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel Drugstore retaliated with a bulletin that the Ritz brothers would throw a party for friends at Booth No. 1. “This is the table,” a solemn announcement reminded patrons, “where the R.K.O.-Stolkin deal was practically concluded some time ago.”

Manager Milton Kreis calls his Beverly-Wilshire Drugstore a “rich man’s Schwab’s. Our clientele is different . . . We have a Romanoff, Chasen’s, LaRue type of clientele.” To keep his clientele, Kreis stays open 24 hours a day (Schwab’s closes at midnight), delivers sandwiches and prescriptions in a black truck with gold leaf lettering, carries such carriage-trade items as $500 hairbrushes and $250 shaving brushes. Like the best nightclubs, it has plug-in telephones (at the soda fountain) and a pressagent.

Kreis puts out a monthly magazine, Chatter, which chronicles the doings of its customers. Samples: “Never noticed before what beautiful blue eyes Peter Lawford has,” “Betty Grable snackihg and poring over a racing form.” “Overheard George Raft telling friends that the cherry burgundy ice cream is the best in the world.” Chatter also carries movie reviews, beauty hints and signed columns by the soda jerks, pharmacists, cashiers, kitchen help.

Kreis is now trying to lure Hollywood columnists to his drugstore. Gossipist Sheilah Graham is a regular (from Chatter: “Sheilah Graham quietly dining with friends, never missing a trick”). Though Columnist Skolsky shows up occasionally (seductive Chatter item: “Sid Skolsky in again, and what a sweet guy that is”), he remains loyal to Schwab’s. Meanwhile, Leon Schwab is taking his competition calmly. Says he: “They’re just an imitation. They’re getting our overflow. We wish them the best of luck.”