The Walker

Like many a bridegroom, honeymooning Joe DiMaggio, no mean idol himself when he batted for the New York Yankees, went virtually unnoticed last week as Japanese by the thousands swarmed to meet his bride, the former Miss Marilyn Monroe of Hollywood, Calif. At Tokyo's International Airport, Marilyn's fans pressed so thickly about the arriving couple that both were forced to scramble back into the airplane that had brought them, escaping later through its baggage hatch.

Later on, at the Imperial Hotel, 200 police were called out to restore order as Monroe fans, craning for a sight of the bride (currently Japan's No. 1 foreign box-office draw), pushed each other into fish ponds, jammed themselves solid in revolving doors, broke plate glass in the hall and boulders in the rock garden alike with the sheer weight of their enthusiastic numbers. "With this woman," moaned one cop, "we must take more precautions than we did with Syngman Rhee."

At a press conference in the hotel that night, a few sportswriters doggedly stuck to questioning Outfielder Joe, but as usual, Mrs. DiMaggio stole the show. "Hey, you should ask me about that," called Joe when one reporter asked Marilyn about her hoped-for six children, but another reporter leaped in with an even more pregnant question: "Do you agree with Kinsey san's report on women?"

"I do not," replied Marilyn judiciously, "fully agree with Kinsey's conclusions."

"So sorry," said a third, changing the subject a little. "Do you sleep naked?"

Like an old politico, Marilyn parried that one with a "No comment," but the newsmen were crowding in.

"Excuse, please, very rude question," piped one: "Is your walk natural or is just for movies?"

"I've been walking," said Mrs. DiMaggio firmly, "since I was six months old."

"One more ungracious question: Do you wear underwear?"

"I'm buying a kimono," said Marilyn primly.

At a radio forum later on in the week, several of Tokyo's most learned radio pundits discussed the latest phenomenon. "The Japanese will probably not discard their underwear as a result of the visit of the Honorable Buttocks-Swinging Actress," said one, "because it is much too cold. But because our people are quick to adopt fads, I'm sure that they will soon start swinging their buttocks."

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