People: All in Good Time

Socialist George Bernard Shaw turned a capital gain in a London auction. After hanging on to a $160 clavichord for 28 years, he let it go for a well-tempered $440.

On their sixth wedding anniversary—their first together—Trumpeter Harry James and Cinemactress Betty Grable (who seldom misses a day at the races when not making pictures) gave each other six-week-old thoroughbred colts.

In Washington, the House voted to strike off a gold medal in honor of Vice President Alben W. Berkley. The Government would keep the medal, but Barkley, along with the public, would get a chance to buy bronze duplicates.

Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, who have been living with their in-laws at Buckingham Palace since their marriage, finally moved into a home of their own: 124-year-old Clarence House; still being given $200,000 worth of decorations and repairs for wartime bomb damage.

Tough All Over

Helen Hayes stuck a hand into her deep freezer, pulled it out too late to avoid a smashed thumb when the lid banged down.

In Grandview, Mo., while Harry Tru man’s sister, Mary Jane, officiated down town at a cornerstone laying, brother J. Vivian Truman suffered a concussion and back injuries falling out of a hayloft.

Convicted traitor Mildred (“Axis Sally”) Gillars asked a U.S. court why she couldn’t get out of prison on bail now that the Government was letting convicted spy Judith Coplon “roam the streets unmolested.” In Phoenix, Ariz., ex-Publisher John Boettiger filed a divorce complaint against the former Anna Roosevelt, charging extreme mental cruelty. In Los Angeles, Mrs. Boettiger announced that she would file one against him, charging desertion.

Deported from the U.S. in 1946 and from Cuba in 1947, onetime Vice Racketeer Charles (“Lucky”) Luciano glumly faced possible deportation from Rome to his native Sicily. Italian police suspected that he was mixed up in dope smuggling. Protested his girl friend, from Luciano’s Rome penthouse: “It’s like Charley always said, just persecution, that’s all.”

Footloose

Comedian Danny Kaye had a prominent role in a real-life melodrama. He was aboard a transatlantic airliner, 600 miles off Ireland, when one of its engines caught fire and a propeller fell off. While the plane lost altitude, Danny and 53 fellow passengers put on life jackets. Turning back, the plane managed to reach Shannon, and Danny got into comedy again: “I can swim,” he cracked, “but not 600 miles.”

On the sinister side, Russia’s Tass news agency reported that “a certain Douglas” had arrived in Persia for “Alpinistic purposes” and was heading for a town near the Russian border. Translation: Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and his son, on a Persian vacation junket, planned to climb Mt. Demavend.

World Citizen Garry Davis had an ambitious scheme to defy national boundaries, but it fell through. He was set to address a meeting in England from a hovering helicopter, but all available French helicopters, officials assured him, were too busy spraying insecticide against beetles.

Former Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles still showed the effects of the narrow scrape he had last December after he lay all night in an icy field near his Maryland home. Thin and slightly stooped over a cane, he was off on a trip to Switzerland to “try to get my health and strength back.”

In Del Mar, Calif., where the August racing season beckoned, a harried hotel manager fussed over preparations for Prince Aly Khan and wife Rita Hayworth, who had asked for reservations for a party of 22. For the newly weds themselves, the hotel was sprucing up a four-room suite with $5,000 worth of special new furnishings.

Fancy Free

Clutching herself in a large beach towel, Cinemactress Virginia Mayo stepped out of the Malibu surf with a story: a bold wave had parted her from her bathing suit. By a happy coincidence, a friend was near by with the towel, and so was a photographer. By an even happier coincidence, Virginia is starring in a new movie called The Girl From Jones Beach.

In her Park Avenue apartment, Explorer Osa Johnson yearned for the jungles—where “I can look up at the blue, blue sky and feel all Africa is mine.” She planned a new expedition, complete with helicopter, in which she would be able to “flutter over . . . and tickle the backs of elephants and ostriches.”

Columnist Drew Pearson had an inside story about Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who is administering the U.N.’s plebiscite to decide whether Kashmir wants to join India or Pakistan. According to Pearson, Nimitz is fed up with his job “under the hot Indian sun” and eager to quit and “come home.” “Somewhat exaggerated,” observed Nimitz, who had been working at Lake Success all the time.