After Trudy

Shirley May was looking for glory, perhaps even a Hollywood contract, but last week she was seasick. On the Dutch luxury liner Nieuw Amsterdam, eastbound, a steward with a tempting tray knocked at her stateroom door. "Come back later, much later," moaned Shirley May. "How I wish I could get off this ship and swim the rest of the way!"

For a mermaid whose picture had blossomed in almost every paper in the U.S., it was very humiliating.

Nights Are for Sleeping. At 16, Shirley May France is too young to remember the 1920s, but she was making U.S. oldsters remember mah-jongg and miniature golf, This Side of Paradise, the Black Bottom and peephole speakeasies. Specifically, Shirley May intended to swim the English Channel, and, if possible, to break the women's record of 14 hrs. 31 min. set by Gertrude ("Trudy") Ederle in 1926. Since Trudy did it (and won a shower of Manhattan's pre-depression ticker tape),* other women have occasionally tried to beat her time. Only last week a 31-year-old Dutch housewife, Mrs. Willi Croes van Rijsel, tackled the 21-mile stretch from France's Cap Gris Nez. Protected against the cold water by 25 lbs. of heavy grease, Mrs. van Rijsel ran into high seas 1 1/2 miles from Dover, and was pulled from the water exhausted.

A high-school sophomore from Somerset, Mass., Shirley May France has blonde hair, blue-grey eyes, stands 5 ft. 10 in. and carries her 158 lbs. extraordinarily well. Her father started coaching Shirley May when she was six, but has now handed the job over to Harry Boudakian, who coaches sports at Somerset Hugh. Boudakian put weight on Shirley May, makes her go to bed six nights a week at 9 p.m.

Suits Are for Practice. Shirley May once swam 33 miles in Michigan's Lake St. Clair in 24 1/2 hours. Last year she wound up tenth in the twelve-mile Lake George race, and since she was the only woman who ever finished that grueling event, she was given a trophy. Three weeks ago, as a warm-up for the Channel, she swam 14 miles from Manhattan's Battery to Coney Island, going a mile or more out of her way to avoid dirty water from a sewer.

Shirley May planned to practice for a few days at Dover, before going to France for the big try. She intended to daub herself with the traditional coat of protective grease, but she did not put it so prosaically to the reporters in London's Waterloo Station. Said Shirley May: "I have brought along four one-piece suits to wear in training, but I will swim the Channel nude. I probably won't even be wearing a suit when I enter the water."

* But no fortune. After earning some $150,000 in vaudeville (hardly any of which she kept), Gertrude Ederle is now a 42-year-old spinster living in Queens.

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