Hearts & Flowers

Crooner Frank Sinatra, carrying on his round-the-world pursuit of Cinemactress Ava Gardner, entered new territory when he and Ava flew off to Mexico for "a quiet vacation" together. It turned out to be neither very quiet nor much of a vacation. At El Paso, when reporters asked if the junket was going to include plans for a quick south-of-the-border divorce from Wife Nancy (who is about to bring her own suit in California), Frankie snarled: "You're wasting your time. Why don't you go home and have your dinner?" In Mexico City he lost his temper again and La Prensa labeled him "the mediocre tenor of very limited resources [who] hates newsmen."

Deeply wounded, Frankie took Ava off to Acapulco to do some nightclubbing with Hedy Lamarr and her new husband, Ted Stauffer, owner of a local nightclub. Hedy, however, pointedly snubbed Ava; and Frankie, this time with a bodyguard, found another fight when a photographer snapped a picture of the happy couple. While the bodyguard threatened to put a bullet through the photographer unless he gave up the film, Frankie shouted to reporters: "This is a private affair of my own, and I don't have to talk to anyone, you sonsabitches." The whole affair did not seem so private to nightclub patrons who had just witnessed a balcony scene between Frankie and Ava. Said one: "They thought nobody could see them when they went out there to smooch in the dark, but they were wearing white clothes and it was better than the floor show."

Property & Penalties

In Spokane, some 3,500 curious and bargain-hungry citizens turned out to watch the Government auction off the house and effects of mobdom's tax delinquent Virginia Hill. The house was knocked down to a local salesman for $30,237, just $237 more than the Government's minimum selling price. Some 1,800 odds & ends brought a total of $14,992, including Virginia's own little .25-caliber pistol with a clip and a couple of shells for $36; a ruby-studded wedding ring intended for her marriage to the late Bugsy Siegel, which went for $10. With the new credits, the tax agents figured, Virginia still owes $115,881 in back income taxes.

Writing in the International Teamster, President Daniel J. Tobin took a slap at high-priced labor leaders. The pay should be good, said Tobin, "but I don't believe that we should follow the millionaire class ... In our last convention I refused to be a candidate for office if they increased my salary from $30,000 to $50,000 per year.*

Out of my salary I pay in state and federal taxes one half of the amount I receive. Even then I have enough left to live decently and honorably and to maintain the dignity of my position."

The will of the late Actor David Warfield, filed for probate last week, left an estate of more than $1,000,000; that of the late Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg came to $830,581.46.

A Republican charge that Cinemactress Myrna Loy and her new State Department husband Howland H. Sargeant had enjoyed a Paris honeymoon at government expense is just not so, declared Georgia's Democratic Congressman Prince

Preston Jr. The bridegroom did indeed travel on government funds because he was on an official mission; the honeymoon was coincidental and he paid his wife's bills. Besides, Preston added, since conferences frequently started at 8 a.m. and lasted until 2 a.m., "Paris turned out to be a mighty poor place to spend a honeymoon."

Personality Kids

Irked over Moscow's refusal even to acknowledge his recent "friendship resolution," Connecticut's burbling Senator Brien McMahon offered another suggestion: that 50 members of Congress be invited to tour Russia while the U.S. plays host to members of the Politburo.

Michigan's junior Senator Blair Moody also had U.S.-Soviet Union relations on his mind. He announced that he was sponsoring Dr. Ralph Bunche as Ambassador to Moscow to replace retiring Admiral Alan G. Kirk. So far, the response had been "excellent," ex-Reporter (Detroit News) Moody said. Furthermore, such an appointment "would certainly be a living refutation to the whole Communist propaganda line in Asia that America grinds down people of colored races."

In a syndicated series called "Stay Away from Hollywood," Cinemactress Betty (The Greatest Show on Earth) Hutton warned would-be stars about Hollywood pitfalls, including the difficulties of romance among the movie great: "Even if you should become a star, love in Hollywood is still a major problem . . . Once you become a star, you can't be seen with anybody who is not an established actor. And most of those handsome males are married. So you have to give up any ideas of wearing a wedding ring and leave your love life to chance." Other Hollywood columnists, however, reported that Betty's chance had come along: as soon as her divorce from Chicago Camera Manufacturer Ted Briskin is final, she will become the second wife of Author-Producer Norman Krasna. Pledge of their engagement: a ring of 30 diamonds piled in the shape of a pyramid.

In a Los Angeles court, where the will of the late W. C. Fields is being contested, his longtime Secretary Magda Michael appeared as a witness, gave some sidelight testimony on one of the comedian's unfulfilled ambitions: to rehabilitate Wino, a small dog which skid-row sots had taught to drink wine. "The poor beast is sodden with wine," Fields had said. "I shall wean him on dry Martinis, then I'll taper him off on beer. Eventually I'll make him a teetotaler." Fields had died before he got a chance to begin his mission.

Bored with being a dark blonde, Greta Garbo startled her Manhattan cafe friends by sporting a new purple hairdo. Term for the tint: "Burnt walnut."

Hollywood Cowpoke Gene Autry decided his life story would be a box-office attraction too, planned to start making The Gene Autry Story as soon as he could find a photogenic boy to play the youthful Autry, and another actor to play Will Rogers, who inspired him to leave the drudgery of being an Oklahoma telegrapher some 22 years ago.

Time & Tides

While royal salutes boomed across England, Queen Elizabeth quietly celebrated her 51st birthday in Balmoral Castle, Scotland.

For a "lifetime of outstanding contributions to aeronautics, including pioneering with multi-engine airplanes, flying boats, amphibians and helicopters," Russian-born Igor I. Sikorsky, 62, was awarded the 1951 Guggenheim aviation medal.

Historian Samuel Eliot Morison, 64, who left Harvard to enter the war as a reservist lieutenant commander, was placed on the retired list as a rear admiral. Morison's plans: to keep right on writing his comprehensive History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.

-* Some other salaries (not including expense accounts): the Railway Clerks' President GEORGE M. HARRISON, $35,000, to be boosted to $76,000 if the Salary Stabilization Board approves; JOHN L. LEWIS, $50,000; JAMES C. PETRILLO, $46,000; WILLIAM GREEN and PHILIP MURRAY, $25,000.

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