Show Business: Only You, Merle Miller

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While Cooper talked, Dann rummaged through desk drawers, passed cigars, unpacked and repacked his briefcase and read memos. "The other executives," reports Miller, "took notes on what Dann was doing and, on occasion, glanced at Cooper." When Cooper had finished, "vicepresidential throats were cleared, vice-presidential feet were shuffled, hitherto ignored vice-presidential itches attended to, vice-presidential coughs coughed." But not a word was said-until Dann finally said that the new version was great. For several minutes the room was a hubbub of cross talk in competitive praise of Calhoun.

"Dann asked the lesser executives if they had any criticisms or suggestions, but by that time it was clear that we were dealing with a classic of the caliber of Othello." Some of Miller's victims-Cooper for one-have said that Miller will never work in TV again. Yet last week ABC announced that Miller, an obvious masochist, is writing a TV play for a new drama series. It obviously will not be drawn from Dick Daring, which would make a much better TV series than Calhoun ever could have been-and would be even less likely to get produced.