The Old Gang

In Manhattan, Publisher Bernarr ("Body Love") Macfadden had a hot tip on the presidency in 1952: "I see very clearly that the truly American and conservative Democrat Judge Harold R. Medina [is] headed for the White House."

In Paris, Mary Garden, 72, said that she would make a lecture tour in the U.S. this fall, her first trip back in 18 years. Her subjects: music, the opera, and singers. Said the onetime prima donna, whose hip-swinging versions of Thais and Salome still linger in the memories of old-time operagoers: "I will speak as I feel."

In Washington, Dr. Herman Baruch (younger brother of elder statesman Bernie), whose resignation as U.S. ambassador to The Netherlands was recently accepted, explained why he had chucked diplomacy. At 77, he said, he simply could not bring himself to face another one of those clammy Dutch winters.

In Boston, Mayor James Curley, who has done time on a mail fraud rap, took a backward look at his life & hard times. "I might have taken the primrose path," he admitted righteously, "but I chose the thorny path--trying to do something for the needy, the unfortunate. Any man that takes the hard, thorny road will always be accused of being a boss and a buccaneer."

That Old Feeling

Britain's political Satirist George Orwell, 46 (Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four), long ailing with tuberculosis, announced his engagement to Sonia Brownell, 30, assistant editor of the highbrow Horizon, for which he has written an occasional article. No date was set, but friends hinted at a hospital wedding.

Baseball's immortal Ty Cobb, 62, who was divorced by his first wife two years ago after 39 years and five children, was all set to try again with Frances Cass, fortyish, twice-married mother of two.

Cinemactress Elizabeth Taylor, 17, who was engaged to All-America Glenn Davis for eleven months before she gave him back his gold football last June, broke her four-month engagement to William D. Pawley Jr., 28, but kept the 3^-carat diamond ring that she had lightly called, in happier times, a "nice piece of ice."

Sonja Henie, 36, highly professional ice-skating star, and Winthrop Gardiner, 36, socialite sportsman, were married in Manhattan, at a small ceremony (there was a little trouble arranging for the church, since it was her second marriage and his fourth). Sonja was a few minutes late because of some last-minute fussing with her costume, a frilly, off-the shoulder affair of blue net and lace costing around $500--not including, of course, the halo hat of bogus egret feathers, blue lace gloves ("to take the place of sleeves"), a pearl and diamond necklace, diamond bracelet, diamond earrings, and an armful of peach-colored orchids and maidenhair fern. The bride cried some during the ceremony, but cheered up later over the champagne, when 500 close friends gathered to wish the newlyweds well.

To Remember You By

General of the Air Force "Hap" Arnold, grounded at Sonoma, Calif, since his retirement in 1946, made one more break with his past. To the local city fathers he presented his collection of model airplanes (more than 65 exact scale models, covering every phase of aviation history, with wingspreads ranging up to 4 ft ). For one thing, they were cluttering up the house, he explained.

Gild a Gray, beaded shimmy-dancer of the nervous '203, who is suing Columbia Pictures for $1,000,000 for invading her right of privacy with the movie Gilda, said in defense of her specialty: "The shimmy was an original aboriginal dance. It was an African, a savage dance. I gave the public food for thought."

Bob Hope, according to Gallup pollsters, is the U.S. public's favorite all-round funnyman--just ahead of Milton Berle and Jack Benny. Last on the list of 15: Charlie Chaplin.

Pope Pius XII, in a busy week, found time to grant an audience to Jersey Joe Walcott, and a papal decoration for "civic qualities, comprehension of spiritual values, and devotion to humanity," to William Randolph Hearst.

Italian Cinemactress Anna Magnani (Open City), great & good friend of Italian Director Roberto Rossellim until Ingrid Bergman came along, settled down for a short rest after winding up work on her latest movie. Volcano.

British Foreign Secretary Ernie Bevin, winding up talks in Washington this week, was leaving behind a personal memento: his lower eyetooth, yanked a fortnight ago. Well-worn, silver-filled, double-rooted, but slightly smaller than the average, the Bevin tooth will be enshrined at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, along with the bridgework-of Japan's General Tomoyulci (the "Tiger of Malaya") Yamashlta, hanged for war crimes.

-Not in the institute's collection: George Washington's famed store teeth. Of the three known sets, one is privately owned, one is on display at Mount Vernon, one is owned by the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.

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