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

Her voice cracking, Songstress Judy Garland husked out two songs for her audience at Ben Maksik's huge (2,000 capacity) Town & Country Club in Brooklyn, then said: "I'm sorry, I have terrible laryngitis. But it doesn't matter anyhow because I have just been fired." With that, Judy vanished to her dressing room. Fired or not, both Judy and irate Ben Maksik had had enough. Claiming that he had advanced her $40,000 (not so, said Judy) for her scheduled 3 1/2 week act at $25,000 a week, Maksik argued that his star had reneged on her contract, rushed in Singer Denise Darcel as a replacement. Holed up at a Park Avenue hotel, Judy admittedly broke, was seen dancing with Husband-Manager Sid Luft, whom she is suing for divorce, at expensive Manhattan night spots. Then came the law. After she failed to appear at a hearing on an $8,673 tax bill, New York State agents arrested her, took custody of her jewels and costumes (worth an estimated $55,000) because Debtor Garland could not raise the cash for a $10,000 bond.

Ageless Charmer Maurice Chevalier offered in Manhattan a restrained Gallic comment on le rock 'n' roll americain: "It belongs to the fever of this time, but it will pass because you can't spend a lifetime doing that, you see."

As grim as ever he looked during Britain's finest hour, Old (83) Warrior Sir Winston Churchill, victor over an attack of pneumonia and pleurisy, returned to London with his wife after eleven weeks in Southern France. To cries of "Good old Winnie!" from an airport crowd, the onetime Prime Minister unbent for a grin and wave, bundled himself into a car flying his standard of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, drove off for more rest at his country home, Chartwell.

As the guest of ample, agile Bessie Braddock, Labor M.P. from Liverpool, Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson turned up for a quiet session of Britain's House of Commons, and on his tour parried questions with the noncommittal skill of a Cabinet minister. What about attacks on boxing? "I wouldn't like to make any comment," said Floyd. "But don't you agree," asked Fight Fan Braddock, "that boxing for every physically fit boy gives him balance, judgment and sportsmanship?" Replied Patterson, after deep thought: "Definitely." Viewing the Thames, Visitor Patterson delivered a judgment on the great grey river that any Englishman would accept: "Mighty cold."

In West Palm Beach, Fla., aging (49) Glamour Boy Porfirio Rubirosa, a sometime auto racer, was caught by police with his Ferrari down, charged with speeding, making a wrong turn and driving with an ear-ruffling muffler, haled to headquarters, where he paid a $25 fine. Huffed Rubi: "I was only trying to reach the bank in a hurry."

When his frazzle-pated Actress-Wife Elsa Lanchester flew into London, Cine-mammoth Charles Laughton was on hand to greet her, clapped a connubial paw about her shoulders for the press. Current project for the oft-paired (Witness for the Prosecution, Henry VIII) acting Laugh-tons: supporting roles in a sex-drenched play (The Party), described by Welsh-born Author Jane Arden as about "the kind of people who have, too much to give the world and end up in psychic wards." Added Laughton: "Franchise Sagan's sex is an empty kind of sex. This is full of life. Quite different."

Garbed in a grey pin-striped suit, grey shirt > and black knitted tie, the Army's onetime missile chief, outspoken Lieut. General (ret.) James A. Gavin, 51, appeared at a Manhattan press conference held to announce his new job: a vice president and director of Arthur D. Little, Inc., the oldest industrial-research firm in the country (founded 1886). Old Soldier Gavin, who refused to augment his criticisms of the Administration's missile program (TIME. Jan. 13-20), pointedly gave one reason for joining Little: "I wanted nothing to do with any firm doing big business with the Defense Department."

Less than a week after he was dragooned into an appearance on Hollywood's Oscar-awarding TV show (TIME, April 7), rugged Cinemactor Clark (Run Silent, Run Deep) Gable sounded off about television to Irv Kupcinet. saloon-peeper for the Chicago Sun-Times: "It's a monster, the mortal enemy of movies. I won't presume to tell other actors what to do, but so far as I'm concerned, this is a bitter war between movies and television. And I'm strictly a movie man."

David Sarnoff, 67, bouncy board chairman of giant Radio Corp. of America, at long last earned the kudos he had been waiting for. Although he holds 21 honorary doctorates (among them: D.Sc. from Notre Dame, LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania), Russian-born Tycoon Sarnoff left school after the eighth grade. Last week at a special assembly, Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School awarded him an honorary diploma (his first) for "outstanding achievement in science, industry and public affairs."

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