HOLLYWOOD ABROAD: Bee Volant

The motto of the second Earl Beatty of the North Sea and of Brooksby is Non vi sed arte (Not by force but by art). His arms include a beehive beset by nine bees volant, his crest a demilion gules holding in the dexter paw a crescent or. Last week an artful bee volant from Hoboken was buzzing about the prettiest hive ever to bear the illustrious Beatty name. Frank Sinatra, who recently proved in Madison, Ind. (TIME, Aug. 25) that he puts on some of his most striking performances offscreen, was being demilionized by London society and demi-society, while the press eagerly predicted that he was about to marry pretty, brunette Countess Beatty, 36, the former Adelle Dillingham O’Connor of Oklahoma City.*

From the moment he checked into a $75-a-day Dorchester Hotel suite, Frankie had the British press enthralled. Reporters duly noted that the suite contained what even the British have come to call a Hollywood-size bed, and the Daily Mirror commented: “Never was so large a bed used by so small a man with so little apparent regard for sleep.” Frankie spent most of his insomnia with Adelle Beatty. Ostensibly in town to introduce Danny Kaye and other stars of Me and the Colonel at a benefit opening, Frankie took her to three parties on three successive evenings, particularly wowed Lady Northampton’s guests. “Perfectly adorable,” said Lady Lewisham, and Lady Dalrymple-Champneys was so stricken with the Sinatra charm that she gasped: “I’d like him to meet the Duchess of Gloucester.”

But later on the third night, Lady Beatty spatted with Frankie and drove off in a Huff.* After two days, during which Frankie sulked and even refused an invitation to a ball for Princess Margaret, Lady Beatty decided to save face—her own face, which in times of emotional stress has a tendency to break out in an unbecoming rash. Off to Zurich she flew to see her psychiatrist. Said she about Frankie: “I don’t want to see him ever again.”

Eternity lasted less than a day. Lured by three phone calls from London, Lady Beatty returned, her lovely face rashless. Nevertheless, when it was finally time for the benefit, Frankie assured his audience, including Queen Elizabeth, that “I came from Los Angeles just to do this job, not to get married.” When he was presented to her, the Queen asked: “Hello, how are you?” Said Frankie: “I’m well.”

There was some question whether Frankie was really quite well when he brusquely turned down an offer from Brigitte Bardot to go to London to discuss a movie. “I can’t wait,” said Frankie. “I gotta be in Boston. Senator Kennedy is a friend of mine, and I promised.” Finally, Frankie made a return volant to the U.S., still determinedly withholding his paw sinister from the gold circlet that anyone might wish to slip on his finger.

*Her first husband was Lawyer William V. O’Connor, now California deputy attorney general. Her second, who divorced her last June on charges of adultery, was Earl Beatty, grandson of Chicago’s late Merchant Prince Marshall Field, son of the late Baron Beatty of the North Sea, Admiral of the Fleet and dashing hero of Jutland, who is famed for his remark to a flag officer, after seeing two of his cruisers go down: “Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.”

*A Huff is a small British auto that English ladies take with them to parties in lieu of mad money.