Zog & "Jerry"

Thousands of fierce-faced, impoverished Albanian tribesmen last week donned their cleanest white blouses, Scanderbeg jackets & white-pleated fustanellas, hopped on their scrawny donkeys and jogged over mountain trails to Tirana, their odorous turbulent capital. They came to celebrate the wedding of their 42-year-old King, Zog I, to a half-American, 22-year-old Countess Geraldine Apponyi of Hungary. Mother and father of the Countess, who prefers her Budapest nickname of "Jerry," are the onetime Gladys Virginia Stewart of Manhattan and the late Count Anton Apponyi of Budapest.

Next to their traditional blood feuds the hard-drinking Albanians like an occasion to celebrate, and wily King Zog, who knows that many a prominent tribesman has sworn to kill him, last week kept them occupied with three whole days of celebrations. Proud Ghegs from the north, with their trousered Moslem women, bare-foot Tosks from the south forgot their feuds as they guzzled each other's mulberry brandy and coarse wine from bulging goatskin flasks. When enthusiasm lagged on the second day, the Government footed the bill for mass weddings for 150 couples and the goatskins were filled & refilled.

The royal wedding on the third day went off without anyone taking a pot shot at the King. As muezzins wailed from the minarets, the tall, dark-haired Countess, dressed in a white satin gown, mounted a coach drawn by four prancing white stallions, a gift from the Hungarian Government, drove through the mud-caked streets to the Royal Palace. Protected by a bodyguard of 1 ,000 soldiers, King Zog received his bride-to-be, escorted her into the library, where his prized collection of antique firearms covers the green and yellow walls. There Heqmet Delvina, vice president of the Parliament, united the couple in a simple civil ceremony, since Zog is a Moslem, his new Queen a Catholic.

The King's matchmaker, Jake Koci, who has had a busy time trying to find an acceptable bride for Zog, last week breathed a sigh of relief. "It's fine," he declared, "but you know the monarch of a small country such as ours had to be very careful not to get mixed up in international politics through marriage." Confidant Koci's assurance was made with tongue-in-cheek. Zog has long been over his head in international waters. Since 1927 he has been a puppet of Mussolini. Italian non-interest-bearing loans bolster Albanian Government finances, the army is Italian-officered and Italy is Albania's best customer. Thus the wedding had to have the official Mussolini O.K., and Il Duce showed that he strongly approved this latest Italian-Hungarian-Albanian tie-up by having his son-in-law. Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, interrupt his Franco-Italian talks in Rome to bustle across to Tirana to act as Zog's witness.

As the wedding gifts poured in, it was evident that the international implications had not been overlooked--from Adolf Hitler came a sporty Mercedes-Benz; from Mussolini four bronze vases that once belonged to Napoleon; a statue of a dragon from King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy; Oriental rugs from Dictator Metaxas' Greek Government; and an elaborate secretary from Spanish Rightist Generalissimo Franco.

The new Queen is the second youngest in the world--next to 17-year-old Farida of Egypt. She is the first woman of U. S. blood to sit on a throne and the first Queen of modern Albania. Zog, a former chieftain of the Mati tribe, is the first King of modern Albania, formerly Turkish territory which declared its independence in 1912. For ten years hoarse-voiced Zog, who smokes cigarets as fast as he can light them, has searched for a bride. Sunday-supplement stories had him casting about for a U. S. heiress. No millionairess is the new Queen, but an impoverished blue-blood who used to sell postcards at a salary of $42.50 a month in the Hungarian National Museum. There Zog's three sisters. Princesses Myzeyen, Ruhije and Maxhide (who recently returned from a ballyhooed U. S. visit) found her, marked her as a suitable sister-in-law.

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