Capitolists

Of Chester Davis' new job as the nation's food czar, Brother Lewis Igo Davis happily murmured: "I'm glad it's his headache and not mine." Happy Brother Lewis is a Los Angeles butcher.

An hour before the plane was due in Chicago, the pilot found the landing gear stuck, informed his shipload of brass hats of the choice before them: parachute or a crash landing. While the passengers worried away an hour preparing for the next-to-worst, the mechanic got the gear unstuck. Among the relieved passengers: WPBoss Donald Marr Nelson.

Up rose Michigan's punctilious, little-known Congressman George Anthony Dondero, 59, to tax his fellow Congressmen for their manners. Out went cigars, down went newspapers and cocked feet as he cried out against smoking, reading, foot-cocking, and the horrid practice of calling one's fellow statesmen by their first names. Two year ago dogged Congressman Dondero made virtually the same speech.

The Inheritors

Heiress Marjorie Gould Drexel Gundry, 27, great-granddaughter of Jay Gould, daughter of Philadelphia's Main Line Anthony J. Drexels, offered no defense against charges that she had stolen a yacht captain from his wife, who thus won a suit for alienation of affections. Mrs. Axel Julius Danielson, wife of the yacht captain, who worked for Mrs. Gundry, asked $100,000 damages.

New postmistresses at Granogue, Del. (pop.: 96) were Du Pont heiresses Eleanor du Pont Rust and Sophie du Pont May. They learned that the post office was about to close for lack of a mistress, took the job for a joint salary of $600 a year.

Working as a securities salesman from 9 to 5 in a Wall Street brokerage office was 38-year-old Archduke Franz Josef of Austria, who rumbled to work by subway from the swank Savoy-Plaza. He explained he just wanted something to do.

New settlers in Junction City, Kans. were "Mr. & Mrs. Edwardson" (Gloria Vanderbilt di Cicco and husband Corporal Pasquale), who let it be known that they were trying to avoid publicity.

Where They Are Now

Annette Kellerman, shapely shocker of yesteryear, one-piece bathing-suit pioneer: now 55, trouping for the Australian Red Cross. From Sydney she wrote to show business' trade paper Variety: "I've been booked solid for three years on the V. S. Circuit [Voluntary Service--Red Cross theatrical unit]. We don't even get doughnuts ... [I am] writing my own show, words & music. . . ."

Jack Johnson, first Negro heavyweight champion (1908-15); now 65, living in insecure comfort in Los Angeles. He went to court last week with his pretty white wife Irene, defeated his white landlady's attempt to evict them. Ebony-bald, plump but fit, he was smartly dressed, had a prosperous air, told reporters he was "retired."

Mme. Chiang's Tour

Fresh in Hollywood's memories was a reception at which self-possessed Madame Chiang Kai-shek sat on a dais, received a hundred-odd noted filmsters playing bit parts. Among them: Joan Bennett, first to be presented; Marlene Dietrich, who hovered long at the Madame's side; Gary Cooper, who chewed gum and stood with his hands in his pockets; Fred Astaire, who blushed when she spoke to him; Producer David Selznick's wife Irene and Orson Welles, who gazed gravely and long (see cut). In Hollywood Mme. Chiang spoke to an overflow crowd at the Hollywood Bowl, held what may be her last press conference in the U.S., then headed back east.

Money Talks

Yam-nosed, publicity-wise Jimmy Durante let it be known that he was insuring his neb for $50,000.

Button-nosed, publicity-wise Sonya Henie applied to Lloyd's for $250,000 worth of insurance on her last five pairs of skates.

Spud-nosed, publicity-wise W. C. Fields, charged with stealing $20,000 worth of ideas from Writer Harry Yadkoe and using them in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, appeared in court with a keg-shaped thermos from which he refueled from time to time.

Pin-Up Pinned

Sarongstress Dorothy Lamour, tireless troop entertainer, whose picture is a pin-up favorite of far-flung Army barracks, decided to marry a soldier whom she met on tour. He is Army Air Forces Captain William Ross Howard III, 35, peacetime Virginia lumberman, onetime Maryland state legislator. Captain Howard and the onetime elevator girl applied for a license in Los Angeles. She had a little difficulty filling out the application, consulted her agent when she came to the space marked: Occupation. Said the agent: "You're a movie actress, remember?" The marriage will be the second for each: her first was to Bandsman Herbie Kay, the captain's first was to Louise Brooks, daughter of Mrs. Lionel Atwill, who was the first wife of General Douglas MacArthur.

Warriors

Twenty-nine years after he made his first solo flight, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, honorary Air Commodore, won his R.A.F. wings. Said the citation: the Prime Minister's part in the creation of the R.A.F., his "30,000 miles of flying on duty during the present war," his work as Minister of Defense "constitute unique qualifications."

Back from the South Pacific for a month's rest was Lieut. Commander Henry ("Robert") Montgomery Jr., malaria convalescent, slightly pale and 22 Ib. lighter than when he left Hollywood. He had been with his wife and two children only five days in two years.

New candidate for Spain's naval academy was a 17-year-old hereditary Admiral of the Indies--Cristobal Colon, descendant of the original.

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