Fortescue Fun

Fortescue is a name that falls readily into headline type. Each member of that socialite family has popped into the public prints in a different way. Major Granville Roland Fortescue, stepson of an uncle of Theodore Roosevelt, was a Rough Rider in Cuba, White House military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt, explorer, World War correspondent, A. E. F. field artillery officer wounded in action. Today he is a prolific fictionist. His wife, patrician Grace Bell Fortescue, is a cousin once removed of the late great Alexander Graham Bell. Their eldest daughter, Thalia Fortescue Massie, got world-wide attention two years ago in Honolulu's sensational rape-&-murder case (TIME, Jan. 18, 1932). Daughter Thalia more recently has made headlines by her divorce from Lieut. Thomas Hedges Massie, U. S. N. (TIME, March 5), by reputed attempts at suicide (TIME, April 16). Daughter Marion ("Rion") has remained mostly on the society pages following her marriage to Daulton Gillespie Viskniskki last May. Last week the last of the Fortescue children, Helene Kenyon, added her batch of clippings to the bulging Fortescue envelopes in newspaper morgues.

Daughter Helene, 20, had spent the summer at Carmel, N. Y., playing in the Rockridge Theatre stock company. One night last fortnight Reporter Gerald E. MacDonald of the neighboring Pawling Chronicle heard members of the theatre school chattering excitedly over Helene's wedding. Busily Newshawk MacDonald gathered details of how Helene, acting in Three Cornered Moon, had invited from Manhattan a weekend guest named John Marshall Jr., direct descendant of the great Chief Justice of the U. S.; how she had impetuously told her companions that she was going to be married; how John Marshall Jr. arrived, and the ceremony was immediately planned on the outdoor stage of the theatre; how members of the cast had dashed about buying presents and flowers for the improvised altar, and certain girls had donned their best summer frocks to be bridesmaids; how the bridal couple hastily enlisted a Rev. Frank H. Wells of Mount Vernon, N. Y. to perform the service while someone played the wedding march on a portable organ and someone else loaned Mr. Marshall a ring and someone else again gave Miss Fortescue away. Amid squeals, hugs, kisses, handshakes, the couple made their way to an automobile. At 11 p. m. Bride Fortescue was back in her dormitory, Groom Marshall on his way to Manhattan.

All of the foregoing Newshawk MacDonald reported to his chief, Editor William Brown Meloney of the Pawling Chronicle. Mrs. William Brown Meloney, Editor Meloney's mother and intimate friend of the Herbert Hoovers, edits the New York Herald Tribune's Sunday magazine section. Son William also covers the vicinity for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times. To both papers he flashed a full report of the Fortescue wedding. Last week both duly printed it at length on their society pages. Next day Editor Meloney received a sharp message from the Times. The families of bride and groom were denying the marriage report. And Helene Fortescue herself had denied it to another Times correspondent. Back to Helene Fortescue went Reporter MacDonald, only to have her insist the story was true. Next day the whole story degenerated into a hoax.

The wedding was a mock marriage from start to finish, a joke on the members of the Rockridge company. The "minister" was just an insurance man friend, a "friendly Elk," he called himself, who had gone through with it under the impression that everyone concerned knew it to be a fake ceremony. The hoax story, splashed over front pages, made bigger news than the original announcement. But none of the reports stated that anyone thought the Fortescue fun particularly funny.

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