Names make news. Last week these names made this news:

The Marquess of Milford Haven, second cousin of the late King George VI

and best man at the 1947 wedding of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived back in England after an Italian holiday with Hungarian-born Cinemactress Eva Bartok (real name: Eva Szoke). Meanwhile, in Manhattan, the marchioness (the former Romaine Dahlgren Pierce ["Toodie"] Simpson, a Boston-bred divorcee) took legal steps leading to a divorce or separation suit. London reporters asked the marquess for comment on his wife's action, but it was too "difficult" for him to explain. As for Actress Bartok, he had met her a year ago, and "we . . . have been friendly ever since. That's all there is to it." Eva piped up: "I would like to tell you a lot about our friendship. Since I met the marquess . . . we have been great friends."

Crusty old Tom Connally, Texas' retired Democratic Senator, celebrated his 76th birthday by shaking his finger at the young scamps in the party: "The Democrats can overdo this business of bragging about their support of President Eisenhower. That sort of thing may be no help in the years to come."

From his modern hillside house outside Zurich, Switzerland, German-born Author Thomas (The Magic Mountain) Mann talked about writing. "The German language is an organ," he said, "but if I could be born again I would choose English. It opens much greater possibilities. Apart from Goethe and the other classics, the German language is not popular. It is not indecent to be unpopular, but this is the fact." How did he rate authors like Faulkner and Hemingway with the big names of earlier generations? "There is a colossal difference in size. Think of the forest of great authors we had in the last century . . . Measured by such standards, the authors of today become primitive miniatures." His opinion of present-day literature? "I do not read many modern books. It is a too risky investment in time."

Captain Kurt Carlsen, a 1952 hero for sticking to the last on the sinking Flying Enterprise II, bobbed up in the news again. His new Flying Enterprise smacked its 8,000 tons into the 7,000-ton British freighter Canara while tugs were nudging her toward a berth in Bombay Harbor, India. Damage to the Canara was "extensive," but the Enterprise came off with a mere five-foot gash above the water line. "I feel heartbroken," moaned Carlsen. "If there's one man in the world who does not want anything to happen to the Flying Enterprise, it's me."

Retired General James A. Van Fleet

was back on an old battleground with a new mission. Arriving in Seoul as part of an eleven-man welfare team of the American-Korean Foundation, he said, "I am happy to be here and deeply touched to be back with people I love so much."

New York's photogenic Mayor Vincent ("Impy") Impellitteri celebrated his 27th wedding anniversary by posing behind a double-deck cake with his wife Betty, and bussing her in a manner that would do him no harm in the city's forthcoming free-for-all mayoralty contest. That done, he and Betty, herself no slouch at politics, went off to the next event: opening up a "Women for Impy" headquarters.

Spanish Concert Guitarist Andres Segovia, last reported in a Madrid hospital for a detached-retina operation (TIME, Aug. 3), was up and about with exciting news: "My operation was completely successful, thank God, thanks to the skill of the doctors and thanks to my 'good-natured nature.' "

It was almost more than an ambitious impresario could resist, but Rudolf Bing, Austrian-born boss of Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera, loyally resisted. In Salzburg, Austria, he confirmed reports that he had been asked to take over Berlin's Staedtische Oper. "The offer was very tempting," he said, "because the Berlin Opera has a subsidy of more than $1,000,000 yearly, which makes the work there much easier than under the sad situation at the Metropolitan, where, from year to year, we must live from donations."

Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Gordon Dean, 47, married 23 years and father of a daughter, 20, and a son, 14, finished up six weeks' residence in Las Vegas, Nev. by filing a suit for divorce (charge: mental cruelty) against his wife Adelaide. He is expected to win the divorce by default in mid-September.

After Jack Dempsey, onetime world's heavyweight champion, announced the big news, photographers in Santa Monica, Calif, snapped his 19-year-old daughter Joan (by his third marriage to ex-Show Girl Hannah Williams), with her fiance, Dennis O'Flaherty, 21, a Loyola University student. They will be married this week, said Dempsey, in a ceremony (just "a few friends") in Los Angeles.

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