People, May 24, 1937

”Names make news.” Last week these names made this news:

By a 2-to-1 vote of the U. S. Merchant Tailor Designers Association, the title of “World’s Best Dressed Man” was transferred from ex-King Edward VIII to George VI (see p. 18).

From Mendoza, Argentina, onetime President General Carlos Ibanez of Chile flew back to Santiago to resume ranching after six years’ exile.

Onetime (1924) Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee and thrice Governor of Nebraska Charles Wayland (“Brother Charlie”) Bryan, brother of William Jennings Bryan, finished his term as Mayor of Lincoln, Neb., retired permanently from politics.

John J, Farley “professional contact man,” brother of Postmaster General James Aloysius Farley, was haled into Manhattan City Court by his divorced wife, who demanded payment of $730 back alimony. Pleaded Farley: “I am overdrawn $200 at the Chase National Bank. … I have only $20 in my pockets, and all the property I have is a pearl stickpin, a watch and a cheap pair of cuff links. I am unemployed, out of a job.”

On a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo, Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth had the keeper bring a 6-ft. king snake from the new reptile house, calmly fondled it as it coiled about her neck. “It never occurred to me to be afraid of them,” shrugged she. who as a girl visited Walter Damrosch (see p. 47) at Bar Harbor with a green snake, Emily Spinach. Impressed, said Keeper Joseph A. Stephan: “Snakes know people who understand them. Mrs. Longworth does. The snake acted as if it were in the hands of an old friend.”

In a Harvard Law School classroom a student asked Professor Warren A. Seavey if he did not believe that Chicago’s onetime Mayor William Hale (“Big Bill”) Thompson would have soon been defeated had Chicago newspapers fearlessly exposed his tarnished regime. Replied Professor Seavey: “Well, everybody knows about Curley, and yet I’m afraid he’s going to be elected Mayor of Boston next fall.” Seated in the back of the room was first-year Law Student Leo Francis Curley, who after class approached Professor Seavey, received an immediate apology for the slur. Announced Massachusetts’ onetime Democratic Governor and Senator-reject next day: “I’ve advised my son to resign.”

To Manhattan’s St. Luke’s Hospital, Edward Lawford, brother of Actress Betty Lawford (The Women), brought Hearst Sports Columnist Martene W, (“Bill”) Corum with flesh wounds in his left hip and both legs. Columnist Corum said he had been hit by a stray bullet while walking along Madison Avenue. When police continued to question him, it came out that he had been with Ruth Lamar (divorced wife of Banker Robert Lehman) at the Stork Club, where a quarrel with Lawford started, that he had taken Miss Lamar to her Park Avenue apartment, where Lawford shot him. Wrote Corum in his column: “Your correspondent always has been inclined to have too much lead in the wrong places.”

Telegrams of sympathy to Corum: This will be a lesson to me. Steve Hannagan.

You’d be surprised how peaceful it is on Hibiscus Isle at this time of year. Damon Runyon.

How do you get those hits? Lou Gehrig.

You don’t think there could have been any mistake? Westbrook Pegler,

Pitcher Robert William (“Bob”) Feller, 18, of the Cleveland Indians graduated from high school at Van Meter, Iowa. At the exercises, recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast nationally, Bob gave the school an athletic trophy case, saw a large picture of himself presented to the school as the class gift. His marks (passing: 70): physics. 79; psychology, 79, English, 74; history, 70.

In San Francisco a thief filched the three favorite racquets of seven time (1923-25, 27-29, 31) No. 1 U. S. Woman Tennist Helen Wills Moody. Patrolman Dan Marble, brother of current No. 1 U. S. Woman Tennist Alice Marble, was sent to investigate.

“The present German rulers of England are occupying the throne illegally—they are the Wettin family—the name was changed to Windsor during the War,” boomed Donald Hall, 46, San Francisco engraver, on Coronation day. Rhymed he, proclaiming his right to the British throne as a direct descendant of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn:

“Archbishop Lang’s holy oil Will not make Bert Wettin royal”