£1,250,000 FOR WAR LECTURES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1942, Page 3

£1,250,000 FOR WAR LECTURES

FEES IN U.S.A. ■ NEW YORK. February (5. ' The American public's demand lor {war lectures will result in foreign I correspondents returning from the battle zones earning £1,250,000 in fees, states Variety, the entertainment world magazine. The man most in demand is Wil-' liam Shirer, author of the best-seller “Berlin Diary,” who could lecture every day at fees ranging from £125 to £lBO each. He has limited himself, however, to 30 lectures. Vincent Sheean has arranged to give 75 lectures for £lO,OOO. half of which go in agents’ fees and expenses. Quentin Reynolds is also in demand and has begun a tour, for which he is being paid from £B5 to £125 for each engagement. Ed. Murrow, London representative of the Columbia Broadcasting - Company, is doing a three-weeks tour at £250 a lecture.

Writers like Mme. Tabouis and “Pertinax” have lost some of their popularity, because American audiences demand observers who have just returned from the fronts. Highest-paid lecturers of all arc two women: Dorothy Thomason, who receives from £250 to £500" a lecture, and Eve Curie, whose fees average between £lBO and £250.