People: The Gracious Gesture

In his weekly column in the London Sunday Dispatch, Britain’s Professor Cyril E. M. Joad began by answering a simple question about the clothing of American children visiting England with the British war-bride mothers. But he soon dived into deeper issues: “[American fashions for children are] terrible, aren’t they? Little boys of seven . . . dressed in check suits, long trousers, and blue trilby hats . . . cowboy suits . . . bobby socks … violent tartans … Poor little brutes! Eating their cake too early, they will get through it too quickly . . . It is precisely this too-early maturity in … manners, customs, habits and dress in Americans which makes them reach such an early, uninteresting and uniform middle age. What could be lovelier than an American girl at 19 or 20 . . .? What more dreadful than the American woman of 40 with her horn-rimmed spectacles, her leathery skin, her strident voice, her rushing about to lectures and committees, her general air of running the country and . . . culture? . . . Why is … America the most uncultivated of all the great nations? The answer is surely because culture is the job of women, while the serious business of life, moneymaking, is left to the men.”

Two days after Cinemactress Elizabeth (Ivanhoe) Taylor, 20, returned to Hollywood from England, where she left her husband, British Cinemactor Michael Wilding, 39, awaiting his U.S. immigration quota number, Elizabeth informed her M-G-M studio bosses that she may not be able to star in the movie called The Girl Who Had Everything. Reason: she is expecting a baby next January.

Cuba’s Strongman Fulgencio Batista, making a friendly bow toward his great & good neighbor to the north, announced that a small park on Havana’s seawall drive will be officially dedicated next month as “Fourth of July Park.”

Back in his native Denmark, Captain Kurt Carlsen went aboard the royal yacht Dannebrog for a half-hour chat with King Frederik IX. Commented Carlsen: “It was a simple meeting between two sailors.”

In Princeton, N.J., at a family get-together that included six of their seven grandchildren, U.S. Senator (since 1944) & Mrs. H. Alexander Smith celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary.

On the French Riviera, Auto Heir Horace E. Dodge Jr., 51, gave some expensive publicity to sometime Actress Gregg Sherwood, 26, whose announcement last year that they would get married was pooh-poohed by Dodge as just an attempt to get more free publicity. On the terrace of the Palm Beach Casino—where 40 guests enjoyed mounds of orchids ($15 each), 60 lbs. of ice-encased caviar and a $1,000 display of fireworks—Horace presented his platinum-blonde friend with a $4,290 gold bracelet (her collection of gewgaws from Dodge already includes a $3,000 gold cigarette lighter and a $74,290 diamond ring). Said Dodge, who is still waiting for a final divorce decree from wife No. 4: “I do hope to marry [Gregg] some day.” Purred Gregg: “Friendship.”

The Strenuous Life

In the darkness of early morning in Washington, Britain’s Ambassador Sir Oliver Franks pulled on a topcoat over his pink pajamas and, along with Lady Franks and their two daughters, hurried out to watch a $10,000 fire raze a tool shed on the embassy grounds. The fireside group was soon joined by a neighbor, New Zealand’s Ambassador Leslie Knox Munro, who for the occasion wore striped pajamas and a loud Paisley bathrobe.

“Blatherskites!” snorted Humorist James Thurber, is the word for congressional Red-probers. “The end of American comedy is in sight, and the theater’s gone to hell . . . Who can write where everybody’s scared? … I hate Communism . . . but I happen to be on one of those letterheads with Paul Robeson—and I’m not getting off … because I’m not letting any Congressman scare me to death . . .”

Yvonne (The San Francisco Story) de Carlo, 29, a Hollywood bachelor girl who has spurned many suitors, yawned and crossed a recent Paris acquaintance, Aly Khan, off her list. Said she: “Princes are no different from other men; Aly is just a nice boy.” Then she explained why her sights are set so high: “It is a biological necessity for me to idolize a man for his accomplishments.” Her choice above all others: “Albert Einstein [73] … the perfect companion . . . the only man who could go to the moon with me and know just exactly where he was all the time.”

Word leaked out that the State Department early this month instructed customs men at U.S. points of departure to keep their eyes peeled for an ex-diplomat and Far Eastern expert who once traveled broadly and freely: Johns Hopkins Professor Owen Lattimore, who has no passport to leave the U.S.

Although he claimed he hadn’t had “anything to drink,” barrel-shaped Comic Lou Costello apparently bowed to circumstantial evidence after he was hauled into the Van Nuys, Calif, jail on a drunken driving rap. The cops’ version of Costello’s night flight: Lou drove out of his driveway, bounced off both his gateposts, headed off without headlights on the wrong side of the street, finally heard the prowl car’s siren and stopped halfway on the sidewalk. After his lawyer pleaded guilty for him and paid a $150 fine, Comic Costello was led back to his car. At first he wanted to take the wheel, but soon meekly subsided with, “Home, James.”