Memories of his Russian youth float through the paintings of Marc Chagall like some well-loved dream. Although he has lived much of his life in France, he went on painting the rabbinical figures, village steeples, brides, bouquets, clocks and animals of Vitebsk. Back in the U.S.S.R. for the first time since 1922, the 85-year-old artist was visibly moved by an exhibition of his work, some of which has been kept under lock and key as too "formalist" for the Soviet censors. Did he remember the paintings? Tentatively touching his 1917 oil, The Wedding, Chagall replied with tears in his eyes: "More than you can imagine."

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"Don't rely on mothers, husbands, boy friends, girl friends and critics. Learn to self-analyze," the redheaded diva told the 120 or so seniors. Beverly Sills picked up an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music and gave the graduating class some off-the-cuff advice. "Don't be the critic in the grandstand, be the bullfighter in the arena. Say 'yes' to life." She also talked about her sudden elevation to stardom at 37, seven years ago. "I'd worked for 30 years and, if that was overnight success, that was the longest night of my life."

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Burlesque isn't dead as long as Sally Rand can lift a shocking pink ostrich-feather fan. At a benefit for Phoenix House, the Manhattan drug rehabilitation center, Sally, 69, got most of the midnight whistles from the Roseland crowd studded with names, from Senator Jacob Javits (in black tie) to ex-Evangelist Marjoe (in jeans).

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Among her most valued treasures, Marlene Dietrich explained to the London Daily Express, is a bit of penicillin culture, the first ever developed by the late Sir Alexander Fleming. How did she win this memento? "When I saw how his discovery saved the lives of soldiers who had lain in the mud for days, I had to see him with my own eyes. A meeting was arranged--a dinner party, I cooked. We became very close friends," she explained. "Men are better than women," Marlene went on. "I fancy myself as probably having more of a male brain. I am not easily distracted."

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It was actually the day after his 30th birthday, but Broadway Joe Nomath was presented with a cake at the Sealy-Faberge Celebrity Golf Tournament in Las Vegas. Namath's next big moment came when he got an eagle on the par 5 15th hole. Namath, matched with Golfer Marlene Hagge, said he loved it, "because I'd always rather play with women [pros] than men."

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China is the trip of the year. Candice Bergen is one of the Americans who has made it, having just returned with the usual testimony about the friendliness, the honesty, the self-reliance she found there--and the children. Not that there was much to interest an actress professionally--the Chinese make few feature films and the scripts have to be suitable for "the masses." Moreover, "I came away feeling very pro-American," Candy confessed. "My views are often different from my Government's, but I know very well that a Chinese with different views from his government's would probably be in jail."

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Dr. Marcus Welby has had a long and distinguished medical career: four years of bringing comfort and wisdom to the sick and troubled of TV land. It seemed only appropriate to ask Actor Robert Young to deliver a few of Welby's simple truths to the graduating class of the University of Michigan medical school. Some of the seniors were not tuned in to Young's bedside manner. They held a countercommencement and got Dr. Benjamin Spock, the baby doctor and peace activist, to speak.

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How much sex will the market bear? Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown wasn't a bit worried about Playgirl and Viva, the two liberated magazines that have been started up to steal away her 1,700,000 circulation. "The more competition, the better. After all, the pressing question is how to get through the night." Are the 600,000 women who grabbed up Playgirl's first beefcake issue a new breed of female? "No, women are still worried about self-improvement. I throw in the sex, but I try to make Cosmo as much like the Reader's Digest as I can."

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Singer-Dancer Josephine Baker, 67, was another aging belle who brought down the house. Taking a short vacation from her villa on the French Riviera and her twelve adopted children, she returned to New York for her first performance in nine years. At Carnegie Hall she sang a little, seductively, talked a lot, intimately, and smoothly did the Charleston, the dance she took with her to Paris in the '20s. Although everyone seemed to like her sequined body stocking, a few fans could not help remembering how pretty she used to look at the Folies-Bergere clad only in bananas.

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