The prolific author Stephen Longstreet has passed away at the age of 94. (Here's a link to an obit.) But that's not a picture of him…that's Phil Silvers. Long before Bilko, long before Silvers was a major star, he headlined a Broadway show called High Button Shoes, the book of which was sort of written by Mr. Longstreet. That is, Longstreet penned the script and then — if we believe the legend — he departed, leaving others to revise it during its out-of-town try-outs. Legend further has it that those try-outs were so disastrous that other hands — mostly Silvers and lyricist Sammy Cahn — wound up changing every word of the book. In any case, High Button Shoes was a considerable success, and Silvers believed he was the reason. He was therefore miffed, after the show opened, to read items that kept turning up in the gossip columns about a planned movie version.
The first one said, "Author Stephen Longstreet is in talks with Danny Kaye to star in the movie of his Broadway smash, High Button Shoes." The next said, "Author Stephen Longstreet says he expects Red Skelton to star in the movie of his Broadway hit, High Button Shoes." The next said, "Stephen Longstreet reports that Ray Bolger is close to signing to star in the motion picture version of High Button Shoes." It was when he read the Bolger one that Silvers lost his temper and, from his dressing room on Broadway, dispatched a telegram to Longstreet, who was out here in Hollywood. It said:
IF I READ ONE MORE ITEM ABOUT WHO'S PLAYING MY ROLE IN A MOVIE OF HIGH BUTTON SHOES, I WILL START PLAYING THIS SHOW EXACTLY AS YOU WROTE IT.
The press items stopped.