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Which twin is the British gin?
At left, famous White Satin Gin-a British favorite for almost 200 years. On the right, the White Satin we now distill here in America, with the same invincibly dry taste of its British sire. We imported an entire English still, just to make sure you'd get that true London Drytaste...without paying import duties. Who can taste a tariff, anyway?
Wrap your next Martini White Satin
DISTILLED LONDON DRY GIN • 90 PROOF • DISTILLED FROM GRAIN • THE SIR ROBERT BURNETT CO., BALTIMORE, MD

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"Don't dare put me in your play!"
Are all fictional characters pure fiction? Not according to Bruce Jay Friedman, who has recently adapted his novel A MOTHER'S KISSES as a Broadway musical. (Scheduled New York opening: October 29th at the 46th Street Theatre)

Ask a writer if he bases his books or plays on existing people and he will invariably toss you an injured look that seems to say, "What kind of person do you think I am?" or "Anyone can do that." You might as well try getting him to admit he uses hair spray or takes secret Dale Allen dance lessons before he visits to Cheetah. "Well, I sort of use them as a seed" is an answer that might come from a more forthright and hell-for-leather member of the fraternity. "They're good as a jumping-off point and then you go on from there." Writers are quite touchy on this subject and my feeling is that their sensitivity has little to do with the fact that live models are apt to show up with live attornies. In some way, fiction writers seem to feel that the use of flesh-and-blood references tends to tarnish and diminish their stature as story-tellers. After all, the argument might go, if my sole accomplishment is to have gotten that Con Edison pipe fitter down on paper, who have I actually created? Wasn't it the Big Novelist in the Sky who did the creating, long before I showed up? And then there is always the Fiction-Is-Dead Crowd to contend with. If all you are doing is writing about people you've run into, aren't you merely a thinly disguised journalist after all?
Well, though it cost me my P.E.N. club carnation, I am here to say that fiction writers really do base their characters on actual people and not on bus exhaust fumes. Not only that, but it is the only game in town and would that it were all

by Bruce Jay Friedman

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