The Press: Jealousy

“We are free to state our opinions in any way we like,” said Justice Cyril Salmon, “diffidently, decorously, politely and discreetly, or pungently, provocatively, rudely and even brutally. We may not tell a defamatory lie about anyone.” With that charge, the jury in a London court last week retired to consider the libel suit of Pianist Wladziu Valentino Liberace against the London Daily Mirror and its columnist “Cassandra,” William Connor (TIME, June 22). Three hours and 22 minutes later, the jurors were back with their verdict, eleven of them wearing the traditional stolid stare. But the twelfth —Mrs. Jean Friend, a grey-haired, 49-year-old widow—could not keep the delicious secret. She winked at Liberace. All over the courtroom the middle-aged motherly doves twittered: “He’s won!”

Indeed he had. The jury found that the choleric Cassandra had libeled Liberace in a September 1956 column strongly implying that the pianist was homosexual (“the pinnacle of Masculine, Feminine and Neuter”). It awarded damages of £8,000 ($22,400) against Connor and the Mirror. Both filed notice of appeal.

“A real smasher,” cooed unabashed Juror Friend on the front pages of the London press. “I was tremendously thrilled with our verdict. I was bubbling over with it.” Then she called Liberace’s room at the Savoy. But the pianist had left to play before a packed house at the Chiswick Empire. When a woman there shouted: “Let’s have one for Mr. Connor!”, Liberace turned to the keyboard and rippled out Jealousy.