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

In Hannibal, Mo., Christopher Morley, author, and Carter Davidson, president of Knox College, visited Mark Twain's boyhood home, found some unpainted pickets on a fence between the house and the Mark Twain Museum, rolled up their sleeves, white-washed the fence.

In Merion, Pa. last week, baldish, 62-year-old Josef Hofmann, famed concert pianist, father of a 17-month-old son, grinned when a reporter asked his opinion of 55-year-old Conductor Leopold Stokowski and Greta Garbo. Said Pianist Hofmann: "I think they make a good couple. . . . Certainly there must be some attraction. And even a great musician gets bored with notes and bars and sharps and flats."

Since retiring from boxing seven years ago, William Harrison ("Jack") Dempsey, former world heavyweight champion, has given his name to a Manhattan restaurant and bar, a hotel in Miami, a chocolate bar, a whiskey. Last week he gave it to Jack Dempsey's Sports Magazine. Wrote Editor Dempsey: "Hello, folks! Well, here it is. ... There never will be any dirt or filth in the pages of this magazine. Sports are essentially healthy and clean. . . ."

Although he feels "fit as can be," Producer Daniel Frohman, 86, wrote his own obituary, listing his achievements in 64 years of show business, sent the story to all Manhattan newspapers. Said he: "I might be run down by an auto, you know."

John Pierpont Morgan sued Manhattan's Sound & Harbor Towing Corp. for $3,500. Reason: A scow towed by a tug bumped his 343-foot, turboelectric yacht, Corsair. Banker Morgan accused the tugboat pilot of 1) negligence, 2) attempting to leave the scene of the accident.

Returning to Japan after a four-month tour of the U. S.,Haruko Ichikawa, Japanese author (Japanese Lady in Europe), announced in Tokyo: "American women are proud and arrogant. The men are timid before them to the point of foolishness."

Cinema Comedian Eddie Cantor told Washington's Hadassah chapter that Nazis had threatened him by telephone because of his Jewish activities. Said he: "Even in Hollywood where the motion picture industry is run by Jews, I have a bodyguard."

Although he was named for his uncle, Winthrop Aldrich, board chairman of Chase National Bank, Winthrop Rockefeller, fourth son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., last week explained why he has no middle name. His mother, Abby, an avid pacifist, did not want his initials to be "W.A.R."

For helping to cement good feeling between Japan and the U. S., Dr. James Augustin Brown Scherer, onetime (1908-20) president of California Institute of Technology, last year received from the Japanese Government a jeweled medal, the Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure. Unlike Dr. Scherer's previous eleven books on Japan, Japan Defies the World, published last January, was unpopular with the Japanese, who promptly banned it. Piqued, Dr. Scherer last week handed back his medal. Said he: "If this emblem was given me to seal my lips, I don't want it."

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