Epistolarians
Chief Magistrate Henry H. Curran of Manhattan, who writes in his spare time, encountered that horrid word again in a probation officer's report, promptly dashed off one of his publishable letters. In the lingo of social workers, practically all brothers and sisters who are not twins are siblings. "To me," wrote the Judge to all probation officers, "it has a very doubtful sound, dubious, dismal, desperate. . . . How would you like to be called ... a coystrel* or a curmudgeon. . . . Exit sibling."
Harold Ross, picket-toothed editor of The New Yorker, read in Exquisite Lucius Beebe's rococo column that he was shy a front tooth. Ross wrote in reply that he had all his front teeth, had a whopping gap between two of them, had refused his dentist's suggestion that it be filled in. Cried Ross to Beebe: ". . . You are making an eccentric out of me."
Performers
Winston Churchill, having ceremonially received the "freedom of the city" at London's Guildhall, saluted a crowd with his familiar topper-twirling gesture, was caught by the camera in close resemblance to William Claude Dukinfield (W. C. Fields).
Eleanor Roosevelt, who had lately christened a barge at Port Angeles, Wash., got a phone call after she arrived in Seattle : a diver had gone to the bottom of the harbor, brought up the handbag she had dropped (with her plane ticket, money and eyeglasses).
Jimmy Savo, master of pantomime, finally replaced one of his trade-marks--the amorphous suit of clothes in which he has been clowning for 25 years. For a faithfully ill-fitting duplicate, he paid a Park Avenue tailor $200.
Marlene Dietrich & Jean Gabin, dining together in Manhattan's El Morocco club, gave themselves over wholly to Marlene's expert schmaltz.
Roger Touhy, of Illinois Stateville Prison, was not allowed a peek when a movie called Roger Touhy--Gangster was previewed at the prison. Neither were any of the other prisoners admitted to the show. It was to start at 8:30. It was 10 before it did start. By that time the sound equipment had been repaired and the air sweetened. Somebody had cut an electric cable. Somebody had turned on the steam pipes.
Royalty
Princess Elizabeth's future husband has already "been picked for her" and will "be unveiled after the war," reported Bob Considine, best-selling co-author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (TIME, July 19). He also declared that:
King George VI slips out of bed at 6:30 these mornings, shaves himself, breakfasts on coffee, cereal and powdered eggs, has a hard time getting cigars.
Princess Sibylle of Sweden, handsome wife of 37-year-old Prince Gustaf Adolf, was about to give the Royal Navy cause to fire a salute. The Navy was ready last week with 84 shots if a boy, 42 if a girl. Sibylle has already borne three daughters--eight, six and five.
Hes & Shes
Abby Rockefeller Milton, only daughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr., arrived in Reno to get a divorce, after 18 years, from David Meriwether Milton. A blithe young speed enthusiast known as "The Golden Girl" to society editors of the mid '20s, she had stayed out of the news since her marriage. Milton is a lawyer whose accomplishments include borrowing $1,000,000 from his father-in-law. The divorce will be the first involving one of John D. Sr.'s direct descendants.
Madge Bellamy, wide-eyed star of the silents, sued for a divorce of a sort from Lumberman Albert Stanwood Murphy, whom she scared with some wild shenanigans last January 'for allegedly jilting her (TIME, Feb. 1). Murphy had been honeymooning with his new bride at that time. Alleged Madge Bellamy last week: under Nevada law she and Murphy have really been married since 1941, though without any ceremony, since Nevada considers it already a marriage when two people make up their minds.
Henry Fonda, now a quartermaster in the Navy, was the latest Hollywood celebrity to come down with girl trouble. Barbara Jean Thompson, a 24-year-old divorced mother of four, charged that he was the father of her fourth. Said Fonda's confident wife Frances: "It isn't true. ... This girl will have to settle with me." The girl demanded: $10,000 for lawyer's fees, $2,500 for court costs, $5,000 for hospital bills, $2,000 a month for the baby.
Jack Dempsey won custody of his daughters Joan and Barbara, eight and six. "I don't care what any judge says," declared ex-wife Hannah. "He is not going to get the children. . . . I'm going to appeal to the highest court in the land. . . ."
Dr. Robert K. Speer, stocky head of New York University's elementary education department, charged his wife, two of her friends and three private detectives with disorderly conduct. He protested that they had all piled into his hotel room crying "Where's the woman?" while he was bare as a babe. There was no woman, he said, and besides they had carried off a house dress he happened to have around. "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves," snapped the judge. "Get out of here; get into the war effort. . . ."
Fighters
James Stewart, Hollywood star with the Army Air Forces, was promoted to a captaincy at Idaho's Gowen Field.
Charles Dickens' great-grandson, British Naval Lieut. Peter Gerald Charles, got the D.S.O. for skillful and daring attacks "in enemy coastal waters."
Lieut. Peter Markham Scott, Britain's No. 1 bird painter, son of the late great Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott, commanded light naval forces which left an armed enemy trawler ablaze after an encounter off Le Havre.
Rudolf von Ribbentrop, 22-year-old, London-educated son of the German Foreign Minister, got the Knight's Insignia of the Iron Cross for service on the Russian front. He commands a tank company.
Tony Galento, the boxer who walks like a beer barrel, was fined $60 in Orange, N.J., for pushing his right at a cop. The heavyweight saloonkeeper had refused to drop a nickel in a parking meter (and refused to stop shadow-boxing in court).
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