Big Show

Along the slim crescent of Rio's Copacabana Beach, rockets burst in the deep night sky. At midnight, booming cannon proclaimed the inauguration day of Brazil's new President. Later, under a sweltering sun. stocky, Go-year-old Eurico Caspar Dutra marched into handsome, marble Palacio Tiradentes, solemnly took the oath of office.

To the sweating, tail-coated foreign envoys (including U.S. Special Ambassador Fiorello H. LaGuardia), flower-hatted society women in the balconies, and thou sands of holidaying cariocas in the streets, Old Soldier Dutra spoke briefly, and vaguely. He promised a democratic regime, a new constitution, better living conditions.

A day late for the formal inauguration and the strutting of the red-&-green-plumed, gold-helmeted cavalry (mounted on leopard-skin saddle blankets) was the 4,000-man crew of the majestic new carrier U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Also tardy: Cinemactress Lana Turner and a traveling companion who wailed, "This is the most awful experience of our lives," as Miss Turner fled from bobby-soxers who clutched at her long blonde hair and black dress. Notably absent: ex-Dictator Getulio Dornelles Vargas, who was still rusticating on his southern ranch.

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