Monday, Dec. 05, 1949
Married. Sylvia Gould, 31, great-granddaughter of Jay ("Robber Baron") Gould who piled up one of the first great U.S. fortunes as a Civil War speculator and railroad tycoon, daughter of a onetime Italian governess in the Gould family; and Lieut. Commander (U.S.N.) Ernst Hoefer Jr., 29, of Sheboygan, Wis.; she for the third time, he for the first; after a false start two months ago when she broke the engagement on grounds that he refused to sign away dower rights to her estate; in Seager, N.Y.
Married. Sacha Guitry, 64, France's jack-of-all-theatrics, wartime favorite of the Nazis, but officially cleared of collaboration charges; and Leading Lady Ecaterina ("Lana") Marconi, 26; he for the fifth time, she for the first; in Paris.
Died. Luther ("Bill," "Bojangles") Robinson, 71, longtime master of old-school (non-acrobatic) tap dancers; of a heart ailment; in Manhattan. Grandson of a slave, Robinson ran away from his home-town Richmond at eight, shined shoes, worked as stableboy and waiter, danced for nickels & dimes in beer joints before he rose to millionaire stardom (as high as $8,000 a week) in vaudeville, movies (The Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel with Moppet Shirley Temple) and musicomedies (The Hot Mikado). A natural dancer who never took a lesson, he gave lessons to Eleanor Powell and Ruby Keeler, originated the widely imitated stair dance, danced down Broadway to celebrate his 61st birthday. Twice married, Bojangles credited his stamina and success to vanilla ice cream and teetotaling, lived sumptuously in Harlem, gambled and generously gave away his earnings (between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000), was finally hospitalized on a benefit fund.
Died. George Morris Dorrance, 72, surgeon and soup magnate (Campbell's board chairman), socialite, specialist in cancer research, early plastic surgeon, originator (during treatment of World War I casualties) of an operative technique that has helped children born with cleft palates to speak more clearly; in Philadelphia.
Died. Baron Reijiro ("The Archer") Wakatsuki, 83, Japan's democrat, onetime head of the old Minseito (peace) party, twice prewar Premier, helpless opponent of the army's 1931 march into Manchuria (he resigned shortly after); after long illness; near Ito, Japan.
Died. Gargantua the Great, twentyish, for twelve years Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey's "frightfully fiendish" star gorilla; of double pneumonia, cancer and complications; in his $10,000 air-conditioned cage in Miami.
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