Monday, Jun. 13, 1960

In the July-dated issue of Motion Picture, Hollywood Gossipist Hedda Hopper wrote a bare-fanged ''open letter" to Cinemactress Marilyn Monroe. Excerpt: ''Have you a complex about losing babies? You lost two unborn children, one in 1958 and the other in 1959. Is it true that, in sorrow, you even put vodka into your bouillon?* Marilyn, don't drink . . . It won't bring back the baby."

Ill lay: Mamie Eisenhower, 63, recovering in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center from an attack of acute asthmatic bronchitis, an illness that has plagued her previously and may prevent her accompanying Ike on his Far East tour this week; Philadelphia Builder John B. Kelly Sr., 70, mending after an operation for intestinal adhesions and buoyed up by a visit from his daughter, Princess Grace of Monaco; Eugene Dennis, 54, chairman of the Communist Party in the U.S., bedded in a Manhattan hospital after surgery for lung cancer; Cinemactor Gary Cooper, 59, whose prospects for recovery were "good" after he underwent major intestinal surgery for an undisclosed ailment in a Hollywood hospital.

In the years following her rise from a Puzzuoli slum, Italian Cinemactress Sophia Loren accumulated fame, fortune and upwards of $500,000 worth of jewelry. Last week in England she had fame, fortune--and only her wedding ring, which she wore when she left a rented chalet near London and drove to meet her husband at the airport. In her absence crooks invaded the chalet, escaped the notice of three occupants, swiped all her other gems. Wailed Sophia, currently working on a movie version of Shaw's The Millionairess: "It is so unjust. My jewels meant so much to me. They were a diary of my success, each one a milestone. They were proof that I would never be poor again."

Britain's honeymooning Princess Margaret, shipmate of Photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones on the royal yacht Britannia, was still dreamily island-hopping in the Caribbean amidst calypso rhythms, dusky skins and steel bands. Landing at Dominica, largest of the Windward Islands, Margaret and Tony had hoped to motor about quietly. But the islanders--some 5,000 of them--turned out in force to cheer them and present the princess with a bouquet as wild as her unruly locks. The half-royal couple will return to Britain next week, leaving behind a wistful rumor that Margaret may be the next Governor General of the two-year-old West Indies Federation.

"Depressed"' by the public reaction over his partnership in a Manhattan public relations firm that made a $287,000 deal with Fidel Castro to promote U.S. Negro tourism in Cuba (TIME, June 6), ex-Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis, a paunchy 46, announced that he will quit the firm unless it cancels its Cuban contract immediately.

The net estate of Sportsman William Woodward Jr., shotgunned to death in 1955 when his wife Ann mistook him for a burglar, was disclosed in Manhattan to amount to $9,327,026. Costs of Woodward's funeral and administrative expenses lopped a whopping $1,030,840 off the gross estate. Ann Woodward, 43, and her two sons, William III, 15, and James, 11, each get the income from a third of the residuary estate. Ann, who has not remarried and largely abstains from the Manhattan social whirl these days, also got a cash bequest of $2,500.

With his White House hopes, never bright, all but gone now. New Jersey's two-term Democratic Governor Robert B. Meyner is making other plans for his political future. Asked what he will do when his gubernatorial term expires in 1962. Meyner, barred by law from succeeding himself, wryly looked ahead: "Inasmuch as there's been so much speculation on the subject, I want to disclose that I'm thinking of having Mrs. Meyner run for Governor, while I entertain tourists at the Governor's mansion."

The world's No. 1 mountaineer, New Zealand's Sir Edmund Hillary, crouched shakily inside a red, draw-tight Himalaya tent with a fierce wind howling outside. But Hillary was atop no sky-piercing peak. He reposed in relative comfort on the gravel roof of Chicago's monster Merchandise Mart, which he had ascended by elevator. Cameras clicked and newsmen popped questions. The press spectacular was arranged by the World Book Encyclopedia, whose public relations director had sold his bosses on sponsoring (for about $200,000) Hillary's next Himalaya expedition in September.

From Washington the New York Herald Tribune's Earl Mazo reported a yarn that illustrates the conviction of the Kennedy family that Jack will be the next President of the U.S. On the night of Democratic Candidate Kennedy's victory over Hubert Humphrey "in the West Virginia primary, Crooner Frank Sinatra, popularizer of a Kennedy campaign song that parodies Sinatra's recording of High Hopes, telephoned Jack's sister Pat in London to relay the glad tidings. "Guess what?" cried Sinatra. "Oh, I know,'' replied Pat. "We'll be rolling eggs on the White House lawn next Easter."

When Nikita Khrushchev withdrew his invitation to Dwight Eisenhower to visit the U.S.S.R., it was assumed that Grandson David Eisenhower, 12, also invited by K., along with Ike's other three grandchildren, was just another social casualty of the unsociable summitry. Though it is all academic now, it developed last week that David would not have made the trip anyway. Reason: David talked over his dilemma with grandpa, decided that Little League baseball was more important to him than going to Russia. Playing for the Moose team of the Gettysburg Little League. David is the regular second baseman, sometimes pitches.

Why is Sugar Ray Robinson at 40 still the world's most feared middleweight boxer? Hoping to find out, London Daily Express Sportswriter Desmond Hackett visited Robinson at his Harlem bistro, popped the question. In reply, Boxer Robinson, who hopes to win back his title this week in Boston, produced a one-gallon can, lectured: "This may sound gruesome, but it is scientifically ethical. This container holds beef blood, which I have delivered each week from the slaughterhouse. I drink three cups a day whenever I am preparing for a fight, and I obtain the maximum vitamins this way. This way I can fight, if I so wish, for another five years."

* A mixture that, served cold, is known as a Bullshot.

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