People

On the Job

The job of hostess to the Vice President-elect was filled. Possibly spurred on by applications from eager ladies ("I didn't know whether they wanted to marry me or hire out to me"), Alben Berkley named his daughter, Mrs. Max Truitt.

In Hollywood, Bing Crosby, 44, was named the nation's favorite movie star, according to the annual poll taken by the trade magazine Boxoffice. Bing barely edged out Ingrid Bergman, 31, who had won the top spot for the past two years. Other favorites, in order of their popularity: Gary Cooper, 47, Claudette Colbert, 43, Clark Gable, 47.

In Austin, Tex., boogie-beating Pianist Hazel Scott flounced out on a scheduled concert before a segregated audience of 4,900. Said she: "Why would anyone come to hear me, a Negro, and refuse to sit beside someone just like me?"

In London, U.S. Ambassador Lewis Douglas contributed to good Anglo-U.S. relations by bringing a touch of horse opera into Mayfair. A startled horse, ridden by a lady on her way to Rotten Row, began to rear and plunge in front of Douglas' car. Rancher Lew (he owns some wide acres in Arizona) jumped from his car, caught the ornery critter by the bridle, led it to the safety of the bridle path. Then, in true western hero style, he shyly left the scene without even asking the name of the rescued lady.

On the Go

The long tour (nine months in the Antipodes) of Sir Laurence Olivier and his Lady, Vivian Leigh, came to an end at Tilbury Docks, with the most adroit curtain call of the week. The veteran troupers managed to impart a little of their own sure charm to what would otherwise have been a routine ship-news photograph.

Back to Britain, where she has become "a visitor most dear to British hearts," went Eleanor Roosevelt to receive from Oxford an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.* Introduced by the Public Orator as "a pillar of world affairs," Mrs. Roosevelt herself made a memorable target for photographers as she walked with Vice Chancellor Dr. John Lowe in the academic procession, properly garbed in the traditional squash hat and flowing academic gown.

Back to Havana from a luxurious four-year exile, mostly in Florida, came Fulgencio Batista:, moonfaced onetime strong man of Cuba. Elected last June on the Liberal ticket as minority senator from Las Villas province, he was coming home to serve his term.

Also down to Havana, but only for a visit, went beauteous Rita Hayworth. Her friend, the Aly Khan, happened to come along in the same plane from Mexico City, but Rita said it was only a coincidence (he is still married to wife No. 1; her divorce from husband No. 2, Orson Welles, has just become final). Rita's trip, she announced, was merely "to see the sights and rest." On its front page, the local Prensa Libre burbled: "She weighs 118 pounds, all curves and the most extraordinary sex appeal ever imagined. She and the Khan traveled all over Europe and Mexico like brothers." Fed up with excited reporters, the Aly snapped at one: "Look here, old boy. I like to answer your questions, but how can I when they are so embarrassing?"

On the Tip of the Tongue

Dr. Samuel Green, Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan, told the Georgia Tech Technique what nice people the Klansmen are, really: "We don't hate anybody, but most everybody hates us." For example, "It doesn't make me mad because I can't join B'nai B'rith, but it makes the Jews mad because they can't join us ... We don't hate the Jews. Some of my best friends . . . are Jews . .. And then there is the Knights of Columbus organization. They won't let me join their group either, but it doesn't make me mad. I am not prejudiced because I can't join, but they are prejudiced because they can't belong to the Klan."

Marlene ("Legs") Dietrich pooh-poohed a popular myth: "The average man," she confided, "is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman with beautiful legs." But she conceded that beautiful legs "help."

Philosopher Bertram Russell, 76, who reluctantly renounced pacifism in 1941, reluctantly warned a London conference of students and teachers that the West must either fight Russia before she has the atom bomb, or "lie down and say 'Come and govern us, have concentration camps, do as you like.' " It would be a sad decision, he admitted, because "there are only two independent states in the world today--Britain is not one of them. After an atomic war only one would be left."

Mrs. Oksana Stepanovna Kasenlcina, now feeling "very, very good" and able to walk a little with a cane, checked out of a Manhattan hospital (in a wheel chair) 100 days after her leap from a third-floor window of the Soviet consulate. Before she left she gave a little party (strawberry shortcake) for her friends at the hospital, and received the press. Her plans? Perhaps she would write a book, maybe go back to schoolteaching, but she intended "to serve the Russian people by telling Americans of the hardships the Russians suffer under Soviet dictatorship." And "I would be proud if I could become an American citizen." As for returning to Russia: "Never, never ... I want to be in America and no place else ... I have no fears of the future."

Elizabeth Bentley, beloved of the tabloids as the onetime "Red spy queen," made a little speech in Rochester, N.Y. to some 1,200 people. She pleaded with her onetime Red comrades to "come out," and urged her listeners to "be patient" with them when they did: "Sometimes the greatest sinners make the greatest saints." Earlier she had told the press about her conversion to Roman Catholicism. In a way, she supposed, it was inevitable: "People who are genuine Communists, as I was, aren't the lukewarm type. They can't go into a vacuum if they give up Communism. They must have something to tie to."

Mae West reminisced about her ten months in Britain, where she revived her 20-year-old Diamond Lil: "I was quite a social success, as well as with my show. I met the King and Queen. I guess I met everybody there was to meet. I even had a lot of the Oxford boys after me." The boys were "quite exciting" and "I had twelve proposals." Mae concluded that her own attractions are universally appreciated: "I have the masses, I have the classes, I have all types of people."

John Nance ("Cactus Jack") Garner, back on his feet ("I had the gout for two weeks after Harry Truman was here"), and spry on his 80th birthday, issued a prickly statement to persistent newsmen for the occasion: "I'm in favor of every man reaching his own conclusions and his own confusions . . . There have been too many statements by too many people."

* In 1941 Oxford gave Franklin Roosevelt the same honorary degree.

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