Names make news. Last week these names made this news:

Speaking to a rapt covey of newshens, Pollster George Gallup, mindful of the time when his prophecies all but installed Thomas E. Dewey in the White House, made it clear that he will crawl out on no limb this election year. Announced hypercautious Dr. Gallup: "As I look into this crystal ball, I see a light flashing and hear a small voice saying, 'Remember 1948.' It will be my intention in this campaign simply to use the magic words, 'Let others make the predictions.' "

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In Britain, the government and the public executors of the estate of Playwright George Bernard Shaw agreed on the value of his copyrights, thus nearly doubled the provisional worth of his estate that was set in 1951. The new figure: $1,680,000, subject to whopping inheritance taxes in the 70% bracket. Meanwhile, G.B.S.'s will was soon to get raked over in court. When Shaw died at an un-mellowed 94 in 1950, he had made a bequest to provide a handsome subsidy to renovate the English alphabet. A hater of diphthongs and illogical pronunciations, Alphabetterer Shaw wanted the ABCs stretched to 40 letters on a one-sound, one-letter plan. Tart-tongued Lady Astor took one look at her old friend's idea and pronounced it ridiculous. The British Museum, one of Shaw's three institutional heirs, now wants the court to quash Shaw's bizarre bequest on the ground that a newfangled alphabet would not benefit the community. If the court concurs, the Museum, along with Ireland's National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, will start collecting royalties now pouring into Shaw's estate, plus all that is left of it in 1970.

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Practically unrecognizable in his Okinawan getup, Cinemactor Marlon Brando looked uncharacteristically scrutable on a movie location in Japan, where M-G-M is making a film version of Broadway's long-run (1,020 performances) hit, Teahouse of the August Moon.

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When A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, whose plain talk is sometimes too plain, bluntly tagged India's Prime Minister Nehru as a Communist ally (TIME, Dec. 26), U.S. Ambassador to India John Sherman Cooper sent out a hasty S O S for Meany's more diplomatic vice president, the Auto Workers' Walter Reuther, to come soothe the anger of India's trade unionists. Reuther returned to the U.S. last week after a shining fortnight's good-will mission. He had sat in as a drummer at a village folk dance, got dolled up in a turban, been festooned with countless flowers, made 118 speeches. In a Calcutta auto plant, he had eaten lunch with the workers instead of in the bosses' dining room, explaining, "Hell, I wouldn't eat with them in the States. Why should I eat with them here?" Onetime (1933-35) Russian Auto Plant Worker Reuther drew new applause from approving Indians with a well-worn point: "In America the capitalists own the factories but we workers own the automobiles. In Russia, workers may own the factories but the bureaucrats own the automobiles." Despite the personal success of his tour, however, Labor Chief Reuther came home glum: "The gulf of misunderstanding between this country and Asia is widening."

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Italian automakers in Turin were readying a fabulous jalopy for delivery to the Shah of Iran. Of a "California gold" color, the car is topped off with shatterproof glass, has solid 24-carat gold instrument casings, a refrigerator, bar, telephone and record player. Estimated cost: $40,000.

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To amuse an Eskimo friend in Washington, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, 57, got into a polar mood, hauled out a furry parka and seemed on the verge of heading north. For the first time in eight years, however, Globe-Trotter Douglas will stay around the U.S. this summer, possibly because he has run out of new terrains to conquer.

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Fiery TV Impresario Arthur Godfrey, who has fired 18 of his friends from his Friends show (Wed. 8 p.m., CBS-TV), finally went whole hog. Last week he fired everybody, including himself, as of July 25, which will be folksy old Friends' last telecast. This leaves Godfrey Friendless but certainly not jobless; with all his other programs he will still be on the air 12 1/2 hours a week.

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Just a farm boy in Manhattan to get an Albert Einstein Commemorative Award, snow-topped Poet Carl Sandburg, 78, downed some scrambled eggs and deplored the U.S.'s manner of pursuing happiness. Result of the pursuit: "Fat-dripping prosperity." Said the Illinois sage: "When the goal of a country is only happiness and comfort, there is danger. Albert Einstein said as much . . . Listen, 'To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me.' You see, he wants the element of struggle in life." What is life's main purpose? "Before you go to sleep at night, you say, 'I haven't got it yet. I haven't got it yet . . .' Take the man who invented the thermostat blanket. I hope he didn't say to himself, 'Now I'll go to Florida and sit around.' "

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Washington's Hostess-with-the-Mostes' Perle Mesta turned up as a guest traveloguist at the Woman's National Democratic Club, startled the ladies with a tale of a "birth house" she saw in Russia in 1953. Perle's theory: the Soviets brainwash expectant mothers to achieve painless childbirth. In the maternity center she had observed 20 women, "none in pain. They took one or two deep breaths and the child was born." Added Perle: "They used the same brainwash for the mothers that they used for the war prisoners and soldiers [see SCIENCE]."

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