Ruffles & Flourishes

The Ottawa Indians of Michigan gathered on a bluff, pounded their tom-toms, and made Dwight D. Eisenhower an honorary member, in absentia.

In Manhattan, the Embroidery Merchants Association decided that the fitting title for Rita Hayworth was "Embroidery Queen of 1948." Rita was in absentia too (see CINEMA).

Bernard Baruch, who had acquired hardly any new honors in recent weeks, informed a Manhattan society .columnist of something rather flattering that Mary Churchill, Winston's youngest, had told him recently: when she was little she had wondered what God looked like; then she had met Baruch.

Ernest Hemingway, on the other hand, had one of the "most provocative faces in the world," declared the Artists League of America. Other faces that moved the league to exclamations of wonder: Hirohito's ("provokes pity") and Cinemactress Ava Gardner's ("provokes libido"). Hemingway's face, said the artists, "provokes annoyance."

Artists in general were having a chaotic week.

In Los Angeles, highbrow Composer Igor Stravinsky (The Firebird) sued Music Publisher Lou Levy (Beat Me Daddy) for $250,000. Levy had published a lowbrow version of a Firebird theme (TIME, Nov. 3), and described the music as Stravinsky's, said Stravinsky. He said he had positively not written it, and the whole thing was terribly humiliating.

On the road back after its wartime shattering by the Luftwaffe, Britain's Coventry was shaken with historical controversy: Should that old Coventryite, Lady Godiva, be shown riding her horse sidesaddle or astride? For years an 1898 painting by Artist John Collier (see cut) had been hanging in the city's council chambers. But it had lately been joined by Sir Edwin Landseer's sidesaddle version, and local school authorities were raising holy Ned. Children just should not be exposed to such a thing, they protested. Their objection: the sidesaddle was unknown in Godiva's day, 900 years ago; the children were being given an entirely erroneous impression of history.

Boston was shaken by some old phrases from Playwright Noel Coward. The censor banned two quaint lines from his 15-year-old Design For Living (which played Boston uncensored in the early '305). One referred to a "wanton abode," the other to an "unpremeditated roll in the hay."

Debits & Credits

Formally presented to New York's Mayor William O'Dwyer by "Miss California of 1948": one box of raisins.

Stolen from Yugoslavia's ex-Queen Marie, 48 (now studying sculpturing in London's arty Chelsea): $4,000 worth of jewels, including a diamond-studded clock.

Left by Washington's Eleanor Medill ("Cissie") Patterson: to seven newsmen, her newspaper, the Washington Times-Herald (see PRESS) ; to her daughter, Countess Felicia Gizycka, virtually all her personal belongings, an estate on Long Island, an estate in North Dakota, a $25,-000 annual income; to Mrs. Evelyn ("Evie") Robert, flamboyant Times-Herald columnist (Eve's Rib), Washington business properties, her black pearl earrings, a sable scarf; to the Red Cross, her Washington home at 15 Dupont Circle; to various charities "aiding needy children, especially homeless and orphan children," the residue of her multimillion-dollar estate; to her granddaughter, Ellen Pearson Arnold, daughter of Columnist Drew Pearson (who had long been trading blows in print with his ex-mother-in-law), nothing, "inasmuch as I have made a substantial gift to her during my lifetime."

Dedicated by Generalissimo & Mme. Chiang Kai-shek as a Christian church in Nanking: the presidential mansion. The Chiangs, who live elsewhere, had promised themselves (in 1937) that they would convey the mansion as such a gift if the Japanese were defeated.

War & Peace

Frank Jay Gould, youngest son of the late Railroader Jay and oldest living dandy of American expatriates, was having a little trouble at 70 with his wartime hostess on the Riviera. She had hidden him for eight months while the Gestapo sniffed about, declared Mme. Anne Vilbert de Sairigne, and in gratitude her wealthy house guest had written her a handsome check. But when she tried to cash it she found he had stopped payment. So last week she sued for the amount: $400,000. Expatriate Frank avoided the press. A friend spoke for him, though not much: "A most delicate matter."

Actor Rex ("Sexy Rexy") Harrison went to court to get a reduction in the $24,000-a-year alimony he was paying next-to-latest wife Noel; but Noel appealed, with a protest of her own: he was $28,000 behind in payments.

Buckingham Palace was running over with romance. While the British public was jaws-ajar over Princess Margaret (see FOREIGN NEWS), the palace announced the engagement of Princess Elizabeth's private secretary and her chief lady-in-waiting.

Spike Jones, whose band plays louder than almost anybody else's, took his new bride to Hawaii for twelve days. Spike's goal: "A little peace and quiet."

Palmiro Togliatti, Italy's boss Communist, had benefited by rest and good doctoring. He moved home from the hospital, "notably improved," 17 days after his shooting by a would-be assassin. But he was going to keep right on resting in private for a while. He asked everybody "not to ask to visit me or to talk to me even for the shortest periods of time."

Walter ("Death Valley Scotty") Scott, the West's most publicized "desert rat," was up & around again at 70-odd after a routine encounter with a rattlesnake. Struck on the thumb, Scotty doctored himself: he yanked the snake off, slashed the wound, applied serum from his handy kit, trotted home to live it out.

John L. Lewis' condition was unchanged. In Colorado Springs on a visit, he encountered reporters as usual, gave them a quick hail & farewell: "I don't want any of your insolence ... I won't answer any of your damned questions."

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