People: Apr. 22, 1929

“Names make news.” Last week the following names made the following news:

Herbert Hoover, George-of-England-and-Edward-of-Wales, Col. Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Calvin Coolidge, Benito Mussolini, Henry Ford, Thomas Alva Edison, Charles Chaplin, David Lloyd George, Paul von Hindenburg—are the “ten most important news personalities in the world today,” said President Karl August Bickel of United Press last week. Bickel afterthoughts: Pershing, Clemenceau, Stalin. Sir James Barrie presented all the rights to his famed play, Peter Pan, to the London Hospital for Sick Children last week. Theatre men estimated the value at $20,000 per annum. The morning after the gift was announced, a dignified Londoner walked into the hospital and contributed handsomely to its funds. When his name was asked he replied, “the first pirate,” and stalked off. Major Felippo Zappi of Italy, at whom cinema audiences cry “Cannibal!” because of circumstances under which he was found, without his comrade, Finn Malmgren, after the wreck of the polar-exploring dirigible Italia (TIME, June 4), sailed last week from Venice, bound for China. Said he: “I go on a delicatemission.” Mr. and Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt paused in Paris last week for an interlude in around-the-world cruise aboard their Diesel-motored yacht Ara, of which Mr. Vanderbilt is the working captain. Licensed Master Vanderbilt sailed from Miami in November, has visited Havana, Honolulu, Marshall and Caroline Islands, Manila, Ceylon, Rhodes, Athens, Messina; plans to visit Morocco, Canary Islands, returning to Miami in mid-May after covering 31,000 nautical miles. Said he in Paris: “I have never carried a gun. . . The traveler who is supercilious is never well received, but the stranger who comes with a smile and knows how to give a pat on the back getson well. . . . Throughout the trip we have always been able, thanks to our special short wave radio equipment, to be in constant touch with my office.” Katsuji Debuchi, Japan’s ambassador to the U. S., motoring in Washington’s Rock Creek Park last week, came upon several small cars stalled in a ford of the rain-swollen stream, their carburetors flooded. He had his chauffeur maneuver his powerful car behind one after another of the smaller cars, shunt them to dry land. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, 67. President of Columbia University, went last week to a Manhattan hospital to be observed and was operated upon for gallstones. Devereaux Milburn, 48, retired international poloist (10 goals), went last week to a Manhattan hospital to take treatment for the shoulder he broke last year in a South Carolina hunting field. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary and Mrs. Ford’s 64th birthday last week in Monroe, Mich., as honor guests at an exhibition of old-fashioned dances—Virginia Reel, Minuet, Varsovienne. News was published last week that they had attended services on Easter Day in a Detroit church. Major Henry O’Neil de Hane Segrave, bald, Etonian speedfiend, landed at Southampton last week. Holder of the world’s record of 231.36 m. p. h. made at Daytona Beach a month ago, he received a letter from King George, a promise of knighthood, a loud welcome. In London, the future Sir Henry Segrave was dined by the Lord Mayor and corpo ration. The Golden Arrow, his monster car, was displayed in Selfridge’s department store. The future Lady Segrave was showered with blossoms. The racehorses of Harry Ford Sin clair, jail-bound oilman, are not to be barred from Maryland race tracks this year. So announced Chairman James A. Latane of the Maryland Racing Commission, last week. For a time last year Maryland barred Sinclair horses “to keep the game clean.” Nathan F. Leopold Jr., once of Chicago, from now on of Joliet, Ill., Penitentiary, co-murderer in 1924 of small Robert Franks, is to get all or part or none of the income from a trust fund of $50,000 left by his father for his “care, maintenance or benefit,” as decided by his brothers, Foreman N. and Samuel N. Leopold, trustees. So it came out last week from the senior Leopold’s will. The two trustee brothers get equal shares of $500,000. Soprano Mary Garden met Tenor Beniamino Gigli for the first time last week in Manhattan. Said he: “It is a great pleasure to meet a great artist.” Said she: “Dear boy, I am so glad to meet you at last.”