"The Jaunty Corpse"

Atop the front page of his London Daily Express (circ. 4,077,835) Britain's indomitable No. 1 press lord has long emblazoned: CONTROLLING SHAREHOLDER LORD BEAVERBROOK. Last week the Express dropped the Beaver's line and announced that "the newspapers have passed out of his control." The Beaver had turned over his controlling shares to the Beaverbrook Foundation, which has been set up as a "British Empire educational trust." But the formal change did not mean that the Beaver was relinquishing any of the undisputed control he has exercised over the Express and his two other dailies.

Fleet Streeters guessed that the aging (75), still energetic Beaver was simply arranging his estate to reduce the inheritance tax. He would actually keep control of the papers through stock held by his ' son. Max Aitken, 44, and as chairman of the new Beaverbrook Foundation. Said the London Daily Mirror's William ("Cassandra") Connor: "Fleet Street was not taken in by Lord Beaverbrook's grave-faced, solemn announcement . . . Lord Beaverbrook is a practiced performer of the last and final farewell . . . There is nothing more joyful than lying concealed underneath the pew at your own funeral service--safe in the knowledge that the coffin lid can be easily unscrewed from below and that willing and faithful hands will be at the cemetery at midnight to welcome back the jaunty corpse."

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