Monday, Jan. 12, 1953
Names make news. Last week these names made this news:
The Gallup poll reported that for the fourth consecutive time, Eleanor Roosevelt was "the most admired woman" in the world. Next in order: Queen Elizabeth II, Mamie Eisenhower, Clare Boothe Luce, Helen Keller.
In Manhattan, the National Arts Foundation announced its selection of the top artists of 1952: Swedish Sculptor Carl Milles, whose 38-figure Fountain of Faith was unveiled in National Memorial Park, Falls Church, Va. last fall; Wagnerian Soprano Kirsten Flagstad, who made her farewell appearance at the Metropolitan Opera last spring; Dramatist Sean (Cock-adoodle Dandy) O'Casey, "the most magnificent prose writer in the modern theater"; and the Dancers of Bali.
Italy's five-year law, which stripped citizenship rights from those who held office under Mussolini, expired last week. Among the 2,000-odd ex-Fascist officials who may now vote and hold public office: former Marshal Rodolfo Graziani; Prince Junio Valeric Borghese, leader of the neo-Fascist M.S.I, group; and Giuseppe Bottai, onetime member of the Great Fascist Council.
In the closing days of a Moral Rearmament Movement assembly in New Delhi, Frank Buchman, founder and leader of the organization, was honored for his "services to the cause of world morality and peace." The award: a copy of the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi (My Experiments with Truth), and a marble statue of a Hindu god.
A hilarious New Year's Eve party in an exclusive Cannes nightclub gave birth to a new form of fun: pelting the aging Ago Khan with green cotton balls soaked in champagne. Said the indignant target: "This is terrible. I do not like this." Among the pelters: son Aly Khan and Cinemactress Gene Tierney, his latest Cote d'Azur romance.
Without tippling a drop himself, Tevis F. Morrow, 56, a relatively rich oilman by Dallas standards, showed Hollywood a Texas-type New Year's Eve party. He took over the entire Mocambo, Sunset Strip's expensive playspot, complete with two orchestras, three bars, wine list and kitchen. Among the items which impressed the social reporters: imported 10-gallon hats for the guest list of 300, which included cinema's great and near great plus Parisienne Songstress Edith Piaf, Doris Duke, Queen Mother Nazli of Egypt, and Hotelman Conrad Hilton; 115 Cadillacs in the parking lot; five detectives hired to guard an estimated $2,000,000 worth of party jewelry; a 5 a.m. breakfast of ham & eggs and champagne; the tab for the night, which came to $25,000.
Said Morrow: "It was worth it. I think everybody had a good time."
Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, Latin America's most celebrated political refugee, began his fifth year of residential sanctuary in the Colombian embassy in Lima, Peru. Leader of the outlawed Peruvian leftist APRA party at the time of the 1948 military coup, Haya fled to the embassy pleading the time-honored right of asylum.
On the eve of his 75th birthday celebration, Poet-Author Carl Sandburg (see BOOKS) told a New York Times writer why it was that, in 1899, he flunked out as a West Point cadet: "It was arithmetic and grammar. Those verbs again. They are terrible things. Nouns are definite, the names of persons or things, but verbs cause all the trouble in the world. All lawsuits are about something coming between two nouns--those verbs."
Charlie Chaplin and family prepared to live in Switzerland for a while. In the mountain village of Corsier-sur-Vevey overlooking Lake Geneva, Chaplin paid $200,000 for a 13-room manor, paid another $93,000 to fill it with rented furniture for six months.
Israel's new President Isaac Ben Zvi, a plain-living and frugal man who lived for 26 years in a tar-papered wooden shack, refused to let the government buy him a mansion befitting his title. He finally settled for a small house with office space on the first floor, living quarters on the second, and a large hut in the yard for official receptions.
Playwright Truman (The Grass Harp) Capote gave a reporter in Rome a hint about his next play, to be partly in verse. It will be located in the West Indies, he said, with an almost all colored cast, and is "about life in a house of ill fame or brothel or whatever you call these houses with women inmates."
Despite chills and a cold, Artist Henri Matisse marked his 83rd birthday by working in his studio in Nice.
In Albany, Thomas E. Dewey began his eleventh year as governor of New York, the second longest tenure in the state's history. The record: 21 years (1777-95, 1801-04) served by George Clinton, first governor of the state.
The Imperial Household Board in Tokyo released some New Year's poetry written by Emperor Hirohito. Samples:
Like symbols that show how abundant was the year,
Rich in fruitful yields stand the rice stalks row on row,
Far across wide paddyfields.
Always to pursue
The study of ancient writings,
Yet to understand
The knowledge that is new;
Then shall peace reign over the land.
In Manhattan, Sob-Singer Johnnie Ray finally admitted that his seven-month marriage to Marilyn Morrison ("the first girl who ever made me feel like a man") was over because of "complete incompatibility." Said Marilyn: "I was very much in love with Johnnie the day I married him. I love him today. But I cannot live with him." Said Johnnie: "Man, it wasn't that chick's fault. Because that chick tried."
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