The Bright Future

When a reporter started to question him during a pancake breakfast in Savannah, Old Miner John L. Lewis refused to be interviewed and majestically said why: "There is nothing so valueless as the curbstone utterances of people passing through."

A former tenant, Eleanor Roosevelt, toured the renovated White House. Her reaction: except for the Green Room, where the color was not quite right, everything was "lovely . . . more convenient and comfortable." Furthermore, said she: "The third floor is so much better arranged and nicer for guests. The closets are a great help."

From his Philadelphia headquarters Father Divine sent out invitations to his sixth wedding anniversary, which he has referred to as "The Marriage Feast of the Lamb," and proclaimed "an international, universal, interracial holiday ... to universalize democracy, Americanism, Christianity and Judaism." This year the invitation asked that there be "no smoking, no drinking, no profanity, no obscenity and no vulgarity."

Sir Leslie Boyce, Lord Mayor of London, was promised some spring finery. The Court of Aldermen met in Guildhall and voted to spend $1,750 to buy His Worship a new black robe decorated with gold leaf and lace. The old one, used by the past six mayors, was too large, worn threadbare and the gold had become tarnished.

In Hollywood Cinemactress Jane Russell announced that she was tired of posing constantly for bathing-suit scenes. Said she: "After all, Ethel Barrymore doesn't have to pose for cheesecake." Furthermore, she said, "I can't stand to see myself in pictures where I snarl, whine or whimper. I'm not like that at all ... I never whine at home."

In Madrid, Otto ("Scarface") Skorzeny, 43, Nazi paratroop commander who rescued Mussolini from his mountain prison in 1943, felt secure enough to let his picture be taken. Said he: "There is no reason for secrecy." At present, he is promoting his engineering talents in Spain; as for the past: "I am not ashamed of what we did and how we did it."

A Sea of Troubles

Young Prince Charles, 3 1/2, went to his first Sunday service in the Royal Lodge Chapel at Windsor. He enjoyed it very much. After combined efforts on the part of his mother, father, and Aunt Margaret to shush his piping voice, his grandmother took him out.

At Sea Island, Ga., Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands tried his hand at some animal husbandry. While cycling along the beach, he found a sick scaup duck which he carefully carried back to his hotel and lodged in the bathtub. Before morning, despite the tender care of the Prince and several aides called in for consultation, the duck died.

In Hollywood, the shooting of Snows of Kilimanjaro was held up by an untoward accident on the set. Star Gregory Peck, who was supposed to carry Heroine Ava Gardner over some rough ground, was doing splendidly with his burden when his leg buckled. The doctor's diagnosis: several torn ligaments and a ruptured blood vessel in his left knee.

Actor Franchot Tone, whose down payment on his 6 1/2-month marriage to blonde, sometime actress Barbara Payton was a broken nose, a hospital bill and tabloid headlines, reeled under another blow. Barbara filed for $1,500-a-month temporary alimony to keep her going until a divorce was granted.

Badge of Merit

Notre Dame's famous football coach Frank Leahy posed with his wife and personal Irish squad of eight little Leahys, now ranging from two-month-old Chris to 15-year-old Frank III, for a family picture. Furthermore, said Frank Jr., "we're still on the offense."

In Chicago, after looking over the political field, Old Boxer Joe Louis announced that he would back Harold Stassen over Bob Taft. Said Louis: "My people might just as well vote for Senator [Dick] Russell of Georgia as for Taft. I been to Cincinnati, Taft's home town, and it ain't no different than Atlanta."

In Atlanta, on his way to Mobile to take command of a new Flying Enterprise, Captain Kurt Carlsen, besieged by reporters, asked them: "Why . . . pay any attention to me? I'm just another plain jerk. Maybe a bigger jerk than anybody else, when you get down to brass tacks." Asked about a pin in his lapel, he explained: "I'm an honorary member of the Girl Scouts of America ... I understand now the Boy Scouts are going to give my wife a bid."

In Manhattan, the New York Drama Critics Circle announced its annual awards: for the best American play, John van Druten (I Am a Camera); best foreign play, Christopher Fry (Venus Observed); best musical, Rodgers & Hart and John O'Hara (Pal Joey); for the "most distinguished and original," George Bernard Shaw (Don Juan in Hell).

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