Milestones, Mar. 27, 1939

Born. To William Augustus (“Wild Bill”) Wellman, 43, crack cinema director (Nothing Sacred, Men With Wings), and his fourth wife: a daughter, their third child; in Hollywood.

Born. To Henry Tindall (“Dick”) Merrill, 42, crack Eastern Air Lines pilot who made the first round-trip hop between the U. S. and Europe; and Martha Virginia (“Toby”) Wing, 22-year-old cinemactress: a son, their first child; in Manhattan. Fortnight ago newshawks found out they had been married since last June.

Married. Ann Cooper Hewitt Gay, 24, great-granddaughter of Inventor-Industrialist Peter Cooper (founder of Manhattan’s famed free educational centre, Cooper Union), heiress to $10,000,000; and one Gene Bradstreet, 23; she for the second time; in Reno. In 1936 Heiress Hewitt started suit against her mother for tricking her into being sterilized, allowed the suit to languish because “no matter what she is, she’s still my mother.” Next year she married Ronald Gay, onetime automobile mechanic, lived with him a few months, sued him for divorce. Recently she has been living at El Cortez, swank San Francisco apartment hotel, under the name of Mrs. Howell. Last fall she bleached her hair platinum, left for fun in Miami, returned fortnight ago for her final decree from Mechanic Gay. When she got it, she promptly married Mr. Bradstreet, a onetime bartender, took him honeymooning in her yellow Packard.

Married. Ina Fagan Whitaker Gilbert (“Ina Claire”), 46, stage & screen star, onetime wife of the late John (“Garbo”) Gilbert; and William Ross Wallace Jr., 40, able San Francisco attorney; she for the third time; he for the first; in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Married. Crown Prince Shahpur Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, 19, heir to the throne of Iran; and Princess Fawziya, 17-year-old sister of King Farouk of Egypt; in a ceremony that required her absence; in Cairo (see p. 23).

Married. Sam Henry Harris, 67, Manhattan theatrical producer (The American Way); and Kathleen Nolan Draguseanu (“China”) Watson, 38, one of the first U. S. newspaper camerawomen, sister of Cinemactor George Brent; both for the third time; in Germantown, Pa.

Died. Frank Dwight Fitzgerald, 54, Governor of Michigan, who last fall defeated for re-election Franklin Roosevelt’s great & good friend, Frank Murphy; of a heart attack following influenza; in Grand Ledge, Mich, (see p. 14).

Died. Barren Gift Collier, 65, philosopher (“Barren Collier says”), hotelman, realtor, world’s No. 1 streetcar-card adman, whose company’s posters are said to be seen by 1,200,000,000 people per month; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. In 1933, Barren Collier, always a big-time speculator, announced he was broke, declared a moratorium, became the first U. S. tycoon to take advantage of the amendment to the bankruptcy law which President Hoover signed day before he left office.

Died. James Delmage Ross, 67, administrator of Oregon’s Bonneville Dam power project; of a heart attack; in Rochester, Minn. Canadian-born, “Jaydee” Ross performed his first feat when he walked to Alaska to strengthen his tuberculous lungs. Later, as superintendent of Seattle’s municipal power plant, he built Diablo Dam in the mountains above Seattle, so loved electricity that he created around it a fantastic park of palms and banana trees, colored waterfalls, phonographic birdsong. He entertained visitors in his home by suspending a copper ball in the air electrically, frying eggs in a wireless electric pan. So popular in Seattle that its voters once recalled a Mayor who ventured to fire him, Jaydee Ross was widely admired throughout the Northwest. Said Franklin Roosevelt last week of his friend: “It is fitting that every American should know of the passing of one of the greatest Americans of our generation.”