Upper Classes

Sidney Hillman, strong boy of U.S. labor and champion of the common man, now visiting London to help make plans for a world trade-union conference in February, bunked in at swank Claridge's Hotel in London, where he found that two of his fellow guests were King George II of Greece, King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

Katharine Cornell, soulful, dark-eyed U.S. actress, touring European war zones with her oldtime favorite, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, put up at Rome's lavish, fuel-short Grand Hotel, was promptly rated No. 1 on the "bathtub circuit" (hot water morning and afternoon)--a post-occupation honor hitherto conferred on only two other guests: Winston Churchill and General George Catlett Marshall.

Julia Marlowe, 78, once famed as the beauteous and romantic Shakespearienne of the 18905 of the world-known dramatic team, Sothern (E.H.) & Marlowe, appeared publicly for the second time since her husband's death (1933), to open an exhibit of scripts, promptbooks, costumes, other souvenirs,* at the Museum of the City of New York. Clad in black, wearing a black velvet hat modeled after the one she wore as Portia in an 1887 production of The Merchant of Venice, Miss Marlowe read a poem (in a strong, full, ringing contralto) written by her husband, replied, when asked what she thought-of the modern theater, "I wonder if what I think matters now."

Lady Oakes, svelte, greying, Australian-born widow of multimillionaire Miner Sir Harry Oakes, appeared socially (at the opera in Philadelphia) for the first time since her husband was found murdered in July 1943. She pronounced Philadelphians "good, sound, solid people," planned to depart soon for her first journey to the Bahamas since her son-in-law, Alfred de Marigny, was acquitted of the unsolved murder there.

Archduke Felix, tall, thin, third-string heir to Austria-Hungary's vanished throne, bobbed up in Mexico City (first Habsburg to visit Mexico since his ancestor, the Emperor Maximilian, was shot there), denied that his visit was political, failed to get audiences with Mexico's President Avila Camacho. Russia's Ambassador Constantine Oumansky departed declaring that if he had his way Spanish would replace German as Austria's national tongue.

Bourgeoisie

Alfred Hitchcock, round, restless British cinema director, famed for his movie chillers (The 39 Steps, Rebecca, etc.), revealed that their audience-paralyzing secret was a thing called "the McGuffin."* Said he: "The McGuffin is the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about ... it is very necessary."

Captain Mildred McAfee, brisk, athletic, curly-haired head of the WAVES, ardent feminist, suggested that since volunteer lady hostesses "resent" having WAVES, WACs, SPARs and women marines at their servicemen's parties, husbands of hostesses ought to get together and entertain servicewomen. One of her WAVES had told her about one such party, "held in somebody's back yard because they had a swimming pool--it was not an organized thing." Everyone had a good time despite the fact some of the men were old enough to be the girls' fathers.

Joseph Ferdinand ("Joe") Gould, Harvard '11, bearded, twinkly, snobbish "last of the [Greenwich Village] bohemians," no kin to famed Railroad Manipulator Jason (Jay) Gould, announced that his uncompleted Oral History of Our Times, now eleven times longer than the Bible, will be ready for publication when the world, "which is now only 20 years behind me, catches up." Now at work on a monograph entitled Why Princeton Should Be Abolished, Harvardman Gould explained: "Most present-day publishers are illiterate and also from Princeton."

Foreign Affairs

Mischa Auer, gangling, rubber-faced, Russian-born cinema jackanapes, was removed from the vice-presidency of the Russian-American club of Los Angeles. Official reason: he had been publicly trying "to undermine United Nations' unity by sowing the seeds of hatred and mistrust for our ally Russia." White Russian Auer countered that he was merely protesting against "communizing the U.S."

Gunder ("The Wonder") Haegg, hollow-cheeked Swedish track star, ordered to report for military training in the" Swedish Army, reported for duty one day late, gave as excuse the statement that his charwoman had mislaid the induction notice, was promptly given five days in the guardhouse.

Tokyo Rose, slangy, honey-voiced Japanese radio propagandist, down to her last half-dozen badly scratched, pre-Pearl Harbor phonograph records, evoked the aid of the Miami Rod & Reel Club, which appropriated $500 to supply her with fresh discs--through neutral channels "or by bomber over Tokyo."

* Including a portrait of E. H. Sothern, as he appeared in the 1901 production of If I Were King, by Artist John Barrymore.

* By no means original with Hitchcock, the McGuffin is a hoary British joke about a parcel-toting man on a train meeting another man, who inquires:

"What's in the parcel?"

"A McGuffin."

"What's a McGuffin?"

"A McGuffin is a small animal with a long, yellow, spotted tail, used for hunting tigers in New York."

"But there aren't any tigers in New York."

"Ah, but this isn't a real McGuffin."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.