Monday, Dec. 11, 1944
Born. To Teresa Wright, 26, serene, green-eyed cinemactress (Mrs. Miniver, Casanova Brown, etc.), and Niven Busch, 41, easygoing Hollywood scriptwriter: their first child, a son; in Hollywood. Weight: 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Married. Captain Don S. Gentile, 23, dark-haired, dimpled, Mustang fighter ace, credited with shooting down 23 enemy planes; and Isabella Masdea, 21, his home-town sweetheart; in a cross-sabred, military ceremony; in Columbus, Ohio.
Married. Ethel Barrymore Colt, 32, brunet, convent-bred actress daughter of Ethel Barrymore; and John Romeo Miglietta di Carmiano, fiftyish, Oxford-educated Italian-born executive of American Republics Corp. (oil); she for the first time, he for the third; in Manhattan.
Married. Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, 34, the President's second son, father of four; and Faye Emerson, 27, blond, shapely Louisiana-born cinemactress, mother of one; he for the third time, she for the second; at Yavapai observation station, Grand Canyon, Ariz. Blessed with a ten-day Warner Bros, honeymoon, Miss Emerson, who met the Colonel 14 months ago, cooed: "We both have our jobs to do, Elliott and I. Other men's wives have continued their film careers after marriage. I mean to do just that--at least until after the war is over." Asked if she looked forward to meeting the Roosevelt family, she said: "I'm a loyal Democrat, you know." Asked why the couple chose to be married in a glassed-in observation station, cloud-high amid the swirling mists of the Grand Canyon, the bride replied: "Our marriage means so much to us both that we wanted to begin it as beautifully as possible."
Died. Carl A. Cover, 51, lean, weather-beaten, super-efficient Bell Aircraft Corp. vice president, onetime crack test pilot of nearly all Douglas aircraft (e.g., DC-3 transport, A20 attack "Havoc" bomber, etc.); and Max Stupar, 59, Austrian-born industrial-aviation planner; in an airplane crash, while flying a twin-engined cargo plane from Marietta, Ga. to Buffalo, N.Y.; near Wright Field, Dayton.
Died. General Eoin (Owen) O'Duffy, 52, bellicose, hard-drinking, hunger-striking Irish revolutionary, who fought under the late great Michael Collins in "The Trouble," headed the Free State Army when Collins died, commanded the Irish Civic Guard until Eamon de Valera ousted him in 1933, promptly organized the Fascist Blue Shirts in retaliation; in Dublin. "Give 'Em the Lead" O'Duffy, son of a North Ireland farmer, had a voice that could make a policeman jump a block away, the smile of a man who knew he had to keep his eyes open. As president of the National Athletic and Cycling Association, he led the Irish Olympic team to Los Angeles in 1932, five years later marched off with a green-shirted "Irish Army" to help Franco against "Communism and anti-Christ," returned to Dublin and oblivion.
Died. Charles Victor Bob, 57, bland, bulky, nugget-studded mining promoter and Wall Street stockbroker; of a heart ailment; in Manhattan. Splurging into Manhattan virtually unknown in 1922, the "Millionaire Kid" threw fabulous banquets for celebrities who did not know him, offhandedly floated 50-million-dollar corporations, reputedly owned tin mines in Bolivia, chromium mines in Canada, copper mines in Arizona, parlayed his barker technique into millions. Three juries, bamboozled by his grand manner, failed to convict him of a six-million-dollar mail fraud. But the law caught up with him in 1939, sent him away for seven years (of which he served less than two) for a "goldbrick" swindle.
Died. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, 67, spluttering, antic, millionaire founder of Futurism in art ("Fascism is 100% Futuristic"), longtime crony of Benito Mussolini; in Milan. Bald, explosive Signor Marinetti, a master of manifesto scribbling, devised celluloid hats with handles, aluminum neckties, tried amidst Italian boos to abolish spaghetti (to him it was farinaceous, fattening, and foolish-making). An adventurous gourmand, he savored beefsteak cooked in honey, awaited the day when the world would live on pills and powders. For an opening-night audience at his experimental theater, he provided rotten eggs and vegetables, after the first tomato flew ordered the cast to pelt the audience with its own supply of garbage. During the Ethiopian campaign, he served as a captain, was later inspired to write the following lines of "aeropoetry": "War, only hygienist of the world. . . . Who sings war has in his pockets fecund love. Who sings peace carries cowardice, treachery, death."
Died. Josef Lhevinne, 69, auburn-headed, technically suave Russian-born concert pianist, longtime U.S. two-piano favorite (with his wife Rosina), himself an avid amateur astronomer; of a heart attack; in Queens, Long Island.
Died. Albert Bacon Fall, 83, arrogant, ice-eyed Secretary of the Interior under President Harding, catalytic agent of the Teapot Dome and Elk Hill scandals (he secretly leased Government oil fields to private oil interests); after long illness; in El Paso, Tex. First U.S. Cabinet member ever found guilty of a major crime, Fall spent nine months in prison for taking a $100,000 bribe from his friend and onetime associate, Oilmagnate Edward L. Doheny, who was acquitted of the bribe-giving. Fall became a Roman Catholic, sold his million-acre ranch, died claiming that the Teapot Dome Lease "was the most financially advantageous deal ever made for the Government."
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