Good Copy

PRINCE MARRIES HERE, ran the Page One headline in the New Orleans Item (circ. 97,226), The exclusive story, with a four-column picture, told of the marriage of a well-to-do New Orleans woman, 36-year-old Virginia Kirk, and 26-year-old Prince Otto Wilhelm Hohenzollern, described as "youngest son of the late Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany" and heir to his abdicated throne.

Over at the rival New Orleans States (circ. 96,228), anguished City Editor Walter Cowan called Society Editor Eva Stewart on the carpet. She had heard about the story, but had not gotten around to checking up on the prince. Cowan decided that it was not too late to start.

Next day the States ran an exclusive story of its own under a Page One banner: "PRINCE" MATE OF N.O. GIRL CALLED FAKE. A long-distance call to a bona fide Hohenzollern in Texas, reported the States triumphantly, had established that "there is no Prince Otto Wilhelm Hohenzollern." So had a search of the Almanack de Gotha and inquiries at the U.S. State Department. For good measure, the States also put in a transatlantic call to Hechingen, Germany, where Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm himself denounced "Otto Wilhelm" as an impostor.

Not a bit abashed, the Item ran another Page One picture of Otto and Virginia, reported the ROYAL HOUSEHOLD IN TURMOIL. Said the Item: "The last of the purported kaisers today had apparently abdicated his throne, after using it ... to get married to a socially prominent New Orleans woman . . . The bride is becoming suspicious. 'Who is he?' she wants to know."

The prince, reported the papers, was one Rico David Tancous, wanted in Washington for housebreaking and theft. At week's end, the bridegroom had skipped town and his bride was threatening to annul the marriage. Editorialized the scoop-happy Item: "Phony princes, dubious dukes and no-count counts are scarcely strangers to the American scene ... In newspaper parlance, Otto Wilhelm von Hohenzollern ... is good copy ..."

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