Wonders

George Bernard Shaw, the world's greatest living literary figure, turned 90, and had a high old time of it. All day long a procession of literary pilgrims plodded through his Ayot St. Lawrence home near London. "I don't like this," he howled. "They've come to see the animal just because he's 90." But Shavian wit was up to the occasion. Some birthday shafts:

P:"All my life affection has been showered on me, and every forward step I took has been taken in spite of it."

P: "It is sometimes necessary to make people laugh to prevent them from hanging you."

P:"Shakespeare was not a manufactured article. He happened. So did I. We must take our luck in the matter of genius. Short of that we must get on with American mass production."

P:"A lady aged 102, when I asked her what life was like at her age, said, 'Nothing but buttoning and unbuttoning/ Not much to look forward to, is it?"

Fred Snite Jr., iron lung and all, took third prize in the Central Minnesota Bridge Tournament.

Youngsters

Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, British royal princesses, took a leaf from their sailor father's logbook. With 30 other girls of the Windsor Sea Rangers Troop, they went down to the sea for a few days in a motor torpedo boat. Elizabeth, 20, lit the galley fire, peeled potatoes, made breakfast. Margaret Rose, 15, scrubbed the deck, polished up the brass.

Akihito Tsugo-no-Miya, Hirohito's eldest son, went down to the shore for the summer. In beach robe and summer straw, running with his pooch, Jon, he looked about like any other Jap kid--except that he was a little young and soft for twelve.

Fighters

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, World War I's slick slacker, lashed himself into an offensive fury. The butler on his Downington (Pa.) estate told police all about it: when he demanded $150 in back pay, fat, 52-year-old Bergdoll gave him a quick sock in the head, then grabbed a shotgun. "I'll shoot you down like a dog," said Bergdoll. Wife Berta Bergdoll stepped in, ruled out a shooting war, let it go to law. The butler's charge: assault & battery and pointing of firearms.

Charles de Gaulle did a little horsepower trading. For his 1942 33-h.p. Cadillac, a gift from Dwight Eisenhower, a dealer gave him "something less imposing": 1) a 16-h.p. Delahaye, which le grand Charlie handed over to a relief agency; 2) a 13-h.p. Hotchkiss for Mme. de Gaulle; 3) an n-h.p. Citroen for himself.

William Lendrum ("Billy") Mitchell, late great prophet of air power, whose refusal to be silenced led to his court-martial in 1925 for "insubordination," got a token payment on the debt owed him by the U.S. The House finally got around to passing a bill--which the Senate had already sent down twice--authorizing the award of a special Congressional Medal of Honor.

Winners

Margaret Truman, who loves to sing, got a song of her own from Bandleader Herbie Fields. The title: Margaret. Some of the words:

Most fellows wanna shake the hand of the Chief Executive

But for me that would be ambition purely negative!

I'd pass it by with no regret--To hold hands with Margaret!

Olive Clapper, a Look editor and widow of Columnist Raymond Clapper, who was killed in a 1944 warplane crash in the ..Marshall Islands, won a court award of double indemnity for accidental death despite the "air clause" in her husband's $5,000 insurance policy.

John Wesley Snyder, Harry Truman's old Missouri friend and new Treasury Secretary, decided to perk up his office with a touch of Missouri. So he had the portrait of Swiss-born Albert Gallatin, fourth Treasury Secretary, hauled down from over his desk. Said he: "I was thinking of putting the President up there. He's a great man too." But Secretary Snyder hedged: "If it's going to make anybody feel bad I'll put Gallatin back."

Fiorello LaGuardia broke his UNRRA inspection tour of Italy with two musical interludes: in Milan, he spent some 20 minutes chatting with Arturo Toscanini; back in Rome he went to see Aida, spluttered to the audience at intermission that "not even in New York could we give such a show."

Linda Darnell got the cinema role of 1946: Amber in 20th Century-Fox's production of Kathleen Winsor's gamy Forever Amber. Producer Darryl Zanuck had tried hard to sell himself on 20-year-old Peggy Cummins as Amber; she looked too young, he finally decided, to know about all those things.

Losers

Charlie Chaplin and Joan Berry took their dirty linen to court for a last scrubbing. California's Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling: the famed comedian must pay $75 a week to support Baby Carol Ann (now almost 3), and must take care of Joan's $5,000 lawyer fee.

Deanna Durbin went and told (a Los Angeles court) on her sister, Mrs. Clarence Heckman. Deanna had given her a $110,000 Hollywood mansion to play house with, and now she wouldn't give it back. It was a present, replied Mrs. Heckman; and besides, Sister Deanna was an "Indian giver."

Jackie Coogan and ex-wife Flower Parry made peace out of court. From now on she will get $100 a month--instead of $60--to support their four-year-old son, John Anthony.

Bernard Kearney and George Bender, both House Republicans, stomped around Washington's Capitol Hill on crutches. Kearney had a calcium growth on his kneecap; Bender had dropped a cake of ice on his foot.

Eddie Foy Jr., who makes them laugh on Broadway, at the revival of The Red Mill, was reported doing better after an emergency operation for peritonitis.

Alexander Feodorovich Kerenslcy, Socialist Revolutionary premier of Russia for 104 days after the February Revolution of 1917, returned to New York after a ten months' stay in Australia, reiterating his prophecy of Bolshevism's doom: "I won't say in two years or five, but it cannot be much longer."

Eleanor Roosevelt and Fala had done a lot better in a lot better places. In Portland, Me., when the Hotel Eastland desk clerk explained that dogs were not allowed above the lobby, Eleanor said "All right." She and Fala spent the night in a tourist cabin.

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