Tallulah's Triumph

U.S. sensation-seekers and eyebrow-lifters were tantalized almost beyond endurance three weeks ago, when Tallulah Bankhead's grey-haired, 59-year-old ex-maid, Mrs. Evyleen Cronin, went on trial for larceny in Manhattan. Mrs. Cronin's attorney loudly promised to prove that his client was forced to buy "marijuana, cocaine, booze and gigolos" for the actress, and that she raised Tallulah's checks only to pay for her employer's excesses. But though Tallulah paced like a fevered tigress, in her desire to testify, the defense, equipped with windy oratory rather than facts, refused to cross-examine her. The sensation petered out from sheer lack of evidence. Last week it collapsed completely. The jury found Mrs. Cronin guilty on three counts of second-degree larceny, and the judge, steaming with suppressed indignation at the defense's sleazy tactics, set a hearing to decide whether Defense Lawyer Fred G. Moritt was guilty of contempt of court. Cried Actress Bankhead with unconcealed jubilation: "I've been exonerated by the jury ... in resisting--I mustn't use that word, but I will--blackmail!"

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