People: Paths of Glory

Manhattan’s official greeter Grover Whalen turned in expense accounts for two recent civic receptions. The tab for General Douglas MacArthur’s welcome came to $23,467; the one for Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, $6,296.

Italy’s Communist Boss Palmiro Togliatti. who was pinked three times by an assassin in 1948, got a token of esteem from the Skoda steel works: a bulletproof Skoda limousine. Such a gift, said the beaming Togliatti, “*is proof of the industrial ability and excellent workmanship of Czechoslovakia, working…freely to put out cars for the common man at a time when capitalist industry is concentrating on brutal rearmament.”

While Middle-East tensions were erupting in a blast of gunfire (see FOREIGN NEWS), honeymooning King Farouk of Egypt dealt firmly with a tense situation of his own. In Lugano, Switzerland, a photographer snapped his picture. When the pudgy monarch protested, local policemen seized the film. Higher-ranking police, who later ordered the film returned, explained: “Switzerland is a free country.” Said Farouk: “I will never return to Switzerland again.” Then he and his entourage of 50 flounced off to Italy.

Over the dour objection of six thrifty Scots members, who wanted to slice the amount by half, the House of Commons voted to give Princess Margaret an annual pocket-money allowance of $16,800.

Senator Charles W. Tobey, 71, Bible-quoting gadfly of the underworld, got doctor’s orders to stay home in Temple, N.H. and take it easy. Said Mrs. Tobey: “He’s been overdoing it for two years. He’s been doing the work of a dozen men.”

On Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, veteran Racing Driver Ab Jenkins warmed up his old Mormon Meteor, which has carried him to world records at every distance from 50 kilometers (at 172.92 m.p.h.) to 1,000 miles (at 172.8 m.p.h.), for a last fling at some new records. On the twelfth lap around the twelve-mile course, hitting 200 m.p.h., the Meteor skidded and mowed down a line of wooden markers before Jenkins could straighten out. As the car began to heat up and smoke, because of a punctured radiator hose line, Jenkins braked to a stop and jumped to safety. He had chalked up 24 new records, including 196.69 m.p.h. for 25 miles. Looking sadly at his smoking racer, Ab announced that he was through with fast driving. “At 68, I’ve outworn the car.”

Footlights & Klieg Lights

Columnist Hedda Hopper thought it was high time Hollywood stopped trying to make its stars look like just folks, and began marketing some of the oldtime glamour. Said she: “You can’t pick up a magazine without seeing pictures of your favorite star marketing…washing dishes, hanging out diapers, changing babies. If they haven’t got a baby they romp with a dog… You never saw Valentino holding a child; but you saw him with a beautifulbabe on his arm. Jack Barrymore never posed for a life-with-father layout. Have you ever seen a picture of Garbo hanging out wet wash?”

While lawyers were holding transatlantic conferences over her divorce demands from Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth turned working girl again (at $252,000 a year plus 25% of the net profit on her pictures) and checked into Columbia studio for her first chore: five hours of color-camera posing for magazine covers.

For the critics who disliked his recent London production of Hamlet with a Freudian interpretation (which he kept) and a Vandyke beard (which he shaved off after ten performances), Alec Guinness explained some of his ideas on staging in the Spectator: “The setting, a formal and rather bleak affair, I take full responsibility for. It was partly the result of reaction against permanent, semi-permanent and realistic sets in Shakespeare, and, above all, a stubborn dislike of the rostrum. Rostrums, apart from cluttering up the stage, tend to produce a one-foot-up, one-foot-down sort of acting which I find peculiarly dispiriting. I have very few conversations on the stairs in my own house.”

Parties & Pals

At a Hollywood premiere (rhymes, in Hollywood, with “come ‘ere”), photographers snapped a happy hand-in-hand pair: Crooner Frank Sinatra andCinemactress Ava Gardner. It was their first appearance together in the movie colony. Now that his wife has agreed to give him a divorce, Frank explained,it was perfectly all right. Said he: “It gives me great pleasure and pride to be able to escort Ava to a public premiere. I’ve cared for her a long, long time, almost a year and a half.”

In Paris, Barbara Mutton, who was refused a Mexican divorce from fourth husband Prince Igor Troubetzkoy three months ago, got gladsome news from Cuernavaca. After a private session with her lawyer, a judge had decided that the divorce was in order after all. “It was sad, but it had to happen,” said Barbara, whose prince had tentatively suggested $3,000,000 as the price of freedom. “What can one expect from life? It’s cruel and there is very little real romantic love left.”

In Buenos Aires, Maríia Ester, Maríia Fernanda, Marfa Cristina, Carlos Alberto and Franco Jr., the Diligenti quintuplets, dressed up in their party best, joined playmates in giggling at a clown, puffed out 40 candles on a huge cake, then posed for a eighth-birthday picture.