Hearth & Home

Crooner Frank Sinatra, separated from his wife, flew to Spain, and presented Cinemactress Ava Gardner with a $10,000 emerald necklace. Meanwhile, one Mario Cabre, 34, a part-time actor, verse-writer and bullfighter who is playing in a picture with Ava, assured reporters that he loved Ava and she loved him, too. He even tossed off some verses to her. Sample:

From your fingers caresses sprout;

Of a kiss -vibrating yet remote

Your lips give rapture . . .

Sleep, my treasure,

On the roses of the kiss which lingers on your lips.

Mario also told reporters: "After Sinatra's visit is over and Ava and I are alone again, I think you will find that our love has survived . . ." Then he added: "Of course, it depends on so many things . . ." Sinatra said of Ava: "A terrific girl." Ava said of Frankie: "A wonderful guy," but added demurely: "It's too soon to talk about marriage--Frank hasn't even got a divorce."

In Los Angeles, Comedian Groucho Marx, 59, and wife Kay Dittig Marx, 29, were divorced. He agreed to pay her $134,215 in alimony over the next 10 1/2 years.

In Paris, Bing Crosby brusquely denied reports from Hollywood of "strained relations" between him and onetime Musicomedienne Dixie Lee Crosby, his wife of 20 years and mother of his four children.

Cinemactor Errol Flynn asked a Los Angeles court to reduce his alimony payments ($1,500 a month) to his first wife, Actress Lili Damita. He is now 40 years old, Flynn said, and "from the experiences of other actors, it is not likely that I will continue to enjoy a large income . . . for more than a few years in the future . . ."

In Manhattan, Judith Coplon, free on bail while appealing her convictions in Washington and New York on espionage charges, announced that she would marry one of the lawyers associated with the firm handling her appeal, Albert H. Socolov, 29, a World War II U.S. Army lieutenant.

Even for royalty, romance had its thorns:

In Paris, Iranian Princess Fatmeh Pahlevi, 21, regained her royal prerogatives when she remarried--this time in a Moslem ceremony--Californian Vincent Lee Hillyer, 24. Hillyer, who had renounced his Roman Catholic religion the week before, had the Moslem Ago Khan as official witness. Among the wedding guests: Rita Hayworth, who had a Moslem ceremony last year when she married Aly Khan. This week Hillyer and bride were off to Cannes, where he said he would finish a book titled Just Looking, Thanks.

In San Francisco, Moslem Princess Fathia of Egypt, 19, displeased her brother, Egypt's King Farouk, by marrying Riad Ghali, an Egyptian commoner and a Coptic Christian. Queen Mother Nazli, who has been employing the bridegroom as a political adviser, said that she approved of the marriage.

The Personal Approach

People get "this lord & lady business" all mixed up, complained Baron Lawson of Beamish, 68, who was a coal miner at twelve and labor M.P. for 30 years before he was raised to the peerage last February. "People come along to me and say, 'Well, you see, my lord'; then they get to, 'It's this way, Mr. Lawson'; then it's, 'Tell me, John'; and in the end it's, 'See here, Jack.' "

"Is Oxford worth it?" asked the university's undergraduate magazine. George Bernard Shaw replied: "Collegiate residence, common meals and cap & gown give a priceless social training in good manners which is shared with sailors only."

Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas lost his shoes on the Baltimore & Ohio Capitol Limited, padded off the train in Chicago in his stocking feet, took a cab to a shoe-store and bought a new pair. Then he went about his business of attending the Jefferson Day Jubilee (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

The visiting Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and his wife, the Begum, were learning about the American way of life in & around Chicago. One day the Begum, wearing her long-flowing red silk garara, visited a National Tea Co. market, shopped as carefully as any U.S. housewife, rolled a cart of groceries to the check-out counter.

The Laurels

Awarded to His Imperial Majesty, Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran, by George Washington University: his football letter (a small "G" superimposed on a big "W"), for serving as honorary captain of the team on his visit to the U.S. last November.

Named as adviser to the American delegation to the May 22 meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Florence, Italy: Cinemactress Myrna ("Perfect Wife") Loy.

Cheered by nightclubbers as she staged a comeback in Hollywood: the silent screen's Mae (The Merry Widow) Murray, who is pushing 60. She showed up in the floor show at the stylish Mocambo, glided through the Merry Widow waltz.

Given to Jerusalem's Hebrew University by Dr. Albert Einstein: the original manuscript of his new "Generalized Theory of Gravitation" (TIME, Jan. 2).

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