"Donated Favors"

In Washington last week the Board of Tax Appeals denied the plea of Actress Lenore Ulric that she be allowed to deduct $11,130 from her taxable income for the years 1927-28. Wooly-headed Miss Ulric, celebrated for her ability to create furor onstage, was quoted as saying that she had spent this sum for strictly business purposes, "entertaining newspaper critics and others."

Admitting that "the potency of donated favors, especially of food in securing adherence, is recognized," the Board nevertheless held: "Friends are a great assistance to the petitioner, but so are they to all others in whatever business they may be engaged, but they cannot be purchased in a business way, even directly."

With outraged whoops, the critical fraternity vigorously seconded the Board's findings.

"Put it any way you like," said portly Percy Hammond of the Herald Tribune, "I wasn't a recipient."

"She certainly didn't entertain me," remarked pedagogical John Mason Brown of the Evening Post, "even in the theatre."

Next day Miss Ulric self-reproachfully pleaded: "It's all been a bad misunderstanding. I never even used the word 'critics.' That was my lawyer. ... I am trying to fight a test case for the people in the theatre. ... I am merely trying to say that actors have a right to include long-distance calls, dinners to authors, etc. on their expense accounts, and get an exemption on them in the name of business liabilities."

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