The Specialist's Eye

In Manhattan, Astrologer-Numerologist Florence Anne Jensen selected the year's "ten most fascinating horoscopes." Among them: General Dwight D. Eisenhower ("headed for a hectic spring and summer as Mars conjuncts his satellium of planets in Libra"); Ingrid Bergman ("Uranus in wide opposition to her Sun at birth ... causes her to be unconventional and overemotional in her dealings with men"); Dean Acheson ("who should exercise extreme caution during ... June, July, and August . . ."); John L Lewis, "who will fare extremely well until April, when Jupiter squares his Pluto-Mars conjunction in the earthy sign of Taurus. This will cause him to become overconfident and his future to be black."

Producer Nunnally Johnson (Three Came Home) was having a minor disagreement with his boss, 20th Century-Fox's Darryl Zanuck, who thinks that Johnson ought to go to Africa to shoot a picture about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Visiting Manhattan, Johnson suggested that the picture could be made just as well in the U.S. Said he: "Patronize your neighborhood deserts."

Cosmopolitan magazine had a new solution to the problem of what to do about those short, blunt words Ernest Hemingway uses in his latest novel, Across the River and into the Trees, which the magazine is serializing. When Scribner published For Whom the Bell Tolls, the word obscenity was substituted for each bad Hemingway word--e.g., the memorable line, "I obscenity in the milk of your fathers." Cosmopolitan decided to use the word deletion in parentheses. Sample edited Hemingway line: "Every time you shoot now can be the last shot and no stupid (deletion) should be allowed to ruin it."

The chef at Manhattan's Sherry-Netherland hotel asked several gourmets to name their favorite after-theater supper dishes. Broadway Producer Gilbert Miller said he favored hot crabmeat in cream. Artist Salvador Dali liked tripe a la mode de Caen. Author Michael (The Green Hat) Arlen fancied hot Virginia ham topped with poached fresh peaches, the whole bathed in Madeira sauce.

Hattie Carnegie ran up a whole new set of uniforms for the WAC, Army Nurse Corps and Women's Medical Specialist Corps. The new military colors ranged from taupe to "a rosy beige"; the shiny brass buttons became "antiqued gold."

London's Savile Row tailors, zealous guardians of conservatism in men's fashions, were anything but happy. King George VI got two new tartan dinner jackets, was wearing them at informal parties. "His Majesty," the editor of Tailor & Cutter wrote, swallowing hard, "will bring dignity to the garment."

Sixty percent of U.S. farmers are unfit for their jobs because they hate their animals and hate the soil, Farmer-Author Louis Bromfield said in Kansas City. "A farmer to succeed needs to be part businessman, part specialist and part scientist." In Rome, Renzo Rossellini pooh-poohed reports printed by a Communist magazine that his brother, Director Roberto Rossellini, would renounce all his U.S. earnings from the picture Stromboli "for reasons of artistic dignity."

The Restless Foot

The Duke of Windsor, wearing a checkered topcoat, stooped to pet a Cuban Chihuahua while visiting the battleship Texas at Houston. The dog bit the Duke. "I think it must have been the coat," said the victim. "It's a bit noisy, you know." Later the Duke and Duchess stole the show at New Orleans' Mardi gras, especially at the carnival when the Duke bowed low and the Duchess curtsied to the floor (see cut) before King Rex and his Queen.

Sweden's King Gustaf V, 91, feeling better after a recent illness, was getting ready in Stockholm for a visit to the Riviera. Planning to accompany him on the three-day train journey: two nurses, his personal physician, his lord in waiting, his secretary, two valets.

Prince Hubertus of Prussia, grandson of the late Kaiser Wilhelm, landed in South Africa to begin a new life as a sheep farmer. "This is going to be a considerable change from my vineyards at Wiesbach on the Rhine," he told newsmen in Johannesburg, "but your country has a wonderful future. Germany today is not a very happy place."

Off to Paris: Pulitzer Prizewinning Playwright Thornton Wilder, to supervise a French production of his 1942 play, The Skin of Our Teeth.

Anxious to visit the U.S.: Artist Pablo Picasso, 68, a member of the Communist Party in France. He said in Paris that he would like to come to Washington and present a peace program to Congress.

Pausing briefly in Manhattan, Character Actor Charles Laughton explained why he was touring the country in one-night stands, giving two-hour readings of the Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Lincoln, Thomas Wolfe and James Thurber to enraptured audiences: "Where else could I get a job that enables me to play all of the roles? . . . Reading out loud is a friendly thing to do, don't you think? It's like a hot toddy or a warm glass of milk before bed. It brings everyone together as though they were rubbing their hands before a fire . . ."

Globetrotting Colonel Robert R. ("Bertie") McCormlck, publisher of "The World's Greatest Newspaper" (the Chicago Tribune) committed one of the season's greatest social blunders in Madrid. When his converted 6-17 landed at Barajas Airport, it was emblazoned with the red, yellow and purple flag of the late Spanish Republic. The official reception party representing Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Spain (a gold and red flag) stared in stunned silence as Colonel McCormick stepped confidently on to the airfield, beaming to right & left. The airfield commander finally whispered in the ear of Colonel McCormick's pilot, who explained that the flag had been painted on the B-17 in California, along with a Portuguese flag, and that nobody had noticed anything amiss. When told about the mistake, the Colonel ordered the Spanish Republican flag removed "and the right one painted on at once." To one of his aides he whispered hoarsely: "Be sure to get the name of that painter in California." A Spanish airport worker grabbed paint and brush and did a quick patchup job that made everybody breathe easier. Still struggling to regain his aplomb later in the day, Visitor McCormick made a little speech in which he referred to Franco as "the greatest European general of our times."

The Busy Heart

Irene Rich, 58, star of the silent screen who recently played the first woman President of the U.S. in Broadway's long-running As the Girls Go, was to be a bride for the fourth time. The groom-to-be: Utilities (Stone & Webster, Inc.) Executive George H. Clifford, 68, a widower.

Cinemactor Tyrone Power and wife Linda Christian announced in Hollywood that they are expecting a baby in October.

Garry Davis, 27, who tore up his U.S. passport in June 1948 to become a "citizen of the world," was trying to return to his native land. In Strasbourg, France, he applied at the U.S. consulate for an immigration visa, was told to go to Paris to get it. Davis said he was "astounded" at the news that Audrey Peters, 20, a Hollywood dancing teacher he had written to but never met, had announced her engagement to him. Dancer Peters said she started corresponding with Davis six months ago and "things got out of control . . . you know how it is . . ."

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