Miscellany: Hedi & Rollo

Some months ago 15-year-old Betty Blanchard, whose parents were estranged, introduced her father Rollo, 50, to Mrs. Hedi Heusser, 28, ex-wife of a Swiss ski manufacturer. More recently, pert Hedi has lived with her two children, 10 and 6, in an apartment in Scarsdale, N.Y. for which, she says shyly, Mr. Blanchard pays the rent. She also says that the wedding ring she sports was given her by Rollo as a token of their engagement.

Four years ago before New York outlawed breach-of-promise suits, she might have sued him. Instead, one evening last fortnight, she tied up her red hair in a yellow ribbon, donned a flowered chiffon negligee, said good-by to her children and drove to Rollo’s home in Irvington nearby. After a few minutes’ conversation Mr. Blanchard abruptly left the house.

Unruffled, Hedi telephoned her lawyer, Mortimer O’Brien, went upstairs, locked herself in Rollo’s bedroom. There she would stay, she announced, till Mr. Blanchard came back and married her. Mr. O’Brien called the police and warned them not to eject her. She called the police and asked for protection. When the police chief and Lawyer O’Brien came to the house, she wailed: “I love him! Why is he so cruel?”

Mr. Blanchard, who is vice president of Neptune Meter Co. (one of the largest U. S. manufacturers of water meters), just rich enough to be spoken of by the tabloids as a “millionaire sportsman,” went to live on his yacht at the Tarrytown Yacht Club. For three days Daughter Betty, unwilling to let Hedi be starved, fed her. Meantime, Hedi leaning out of the second story window (see cut) bantered with reporters. When the detectives came into her room, she lay down defiantly on the bed. The tabloids called it a lie-down strike.

After three days Daughter Betty left. Hedi announced she would stop eating. The detectives refused to admit Lawyer O’Brien to the house but Hedi sent him notes by a string lowered from her window. By the same route well-wishers sent up a pot of coffee and a box of fig newtons.

Last week Hedi weakened. When she descended, she was met as she left the door by a newsreel camera. Said she: “If Rollo wants me he’ll have to come and get me.” Said Rollo speaking for the first time, “I hope I never see another woman.”

Fourth

In Manchester, N. H. chilled Householder Alfred A. Cote touched a match to a newly-laid fire in the kitchen stove. Few minutes later the lids started to bounce, things began popping and whizzing inside like a banana republic presidential campaign. Bustling in, Goodwife Cote knew immediately what the matter was. In the oven she had stored the family’s Fourth of July fireworks.