Names make news. Last week, these names made this news:
In Malaga, Spain, visiting Cinemactress Rita Hay worth checked into the luxurious Hotel Miramar, which was soon fined $5 by the local authorities. Reason: the clerk had failed to have Rita write her age (34) in the register.
From his summer palace in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Pius XII announced his "blessing and benediction to employees and members of the Associated Press everywhere . . . because of the important work the Associated Press does."
In London, crowds gathered in Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II, who arrived to preside over her first command film performance--Because You're Mine, starring Mario Lanza. The new black & white "magpie" evening gown, which the Queen wore for the occasion, turned out to be a star attraction too. Three days later, West End department stores reported that a copy of the Queen's gown (price: $27) was a sellout item.
As the government in Bolivia took over his mines under a nationalization decree (see HEMISPHERE), Bolivian Tin King Antenor Patino was in Manhattan in the process of being parted from some of his fortune. A few hours before he planned to fly to Paris, he was haled into court by his Spanish-born wife and charged with being $400,000 behind in support payments. She wanted a settlement before he left the country. "I'm going to ... Paris this afternoon," pleaded Patino. "No, you're not," snapped the judge. "You're going to city prison unless you furnish bond." By evening Patino was free to leave for Paris. He had raised the $250,000 bond, high enough, said the judge, to assure a return engagement with the court and his wife's budget worries.
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Kathleen (Forever Amber) Winsor, who was touring Spain when her latest book, The Lovers, was published, announced in Manhattan that she was hard at work on an American historical novel, and would leave the country as soon as it is finished. "Not for good," she explained. "I just take a long vacation around the time another of my books comes out so I can't possibly read the reviews."
Those in search of legal aid in Washington had one more lawyer to choose from: J. Howard McGrath, fired as Attorney General seven months ago, opened an office for private practice.
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At Chelsea Town Hall, where he attended a dance for West African students and made a little speech, the British Labor Party's great grey grumbler was introduced as "The One & Only Aneurin Bevan." Said Bevan in reply: "When I heard your chairman refer to me as "the one & only Aneurin Bevan, I heaved a sigh of relief--for if there were more of me, I would be declared an illegal association."
In Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater, the audience waiting to see the world premiere of The Living Room, the first play from the pen of Novelist Graham Greene, was kept waiting for a while. Reason: Author Greene had got stuck in an apartment elevator, and was 20 minutes late getting to the theater. Next day the Dagens Nyheter critic reported: "A dull play but smartly done, almost too smartly done."
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Escorted by three court cars, two motorcyclists and his stepmother (the Princess de Rethy), King Baudouin of Belgium and his party roared into Hertogenwald forest on what the palace called an "incognito" hunting trip. A squadron of beaters managed to maneuver one wild boar within six yards of the nearsighted King, who scored a clean miss. The tally at the end of the hunt: three wild boar, one hind. The King's bag: nothing.
At the wedding of 18-year-old Raimonda Ciano to Alessandro Giunta, a great-great-great-grandson of Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, in St. Mark's Basilica, Rome, a photographer concentrated on the bride's family and produced a memorable portrait of three tense, dry-eyed, well-dressed widows: the bride's mother, Edda Mussolini Ciano, who stood in an old II Duce pose, arms folded and jaw outjutting: the bride's two grandmothers, Rachele Mussolini and Carolina Ciano.
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The name of oldtime Cinemactress Marion Davies moved to a new location in the newspapers: the real-estate page. It was announced that she had completed plans to build a lavishly modern 20-story office building on Manhattan's Park Avenue and had ordered the architects to make it "the Tiffany of all buildings."
The association of British phillumenists (collectors of matchbox labels) reinstated one of its members who had been delinquent since July: former King Farouk of Egypt (who had a collection of 150,000 items before he left Egypt) finally got around to sending in his 125. 6d. back dues.
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