Ripple, Ripple, Little Stars

With a stick in the wet Florida sand, Architect Addison Mizner once drew the outlines of Spanish mansions, clients gave approval on the spot, and construction crews were soon at work on such Palm Beach palaces as Playa Riente, home of Oklahoma Oil King Joshua Cosden, and El Mirasol, where Mrs. E. T. Stotesbury ruled vacationing society. Meanwhile, Addison's brother Wilson and Super-Publicist Harry Reichenbach fleshed out the Mizner principality by adhering to a golden Reichenbach rule: "Get the big snobs and the little snobs will follow."

Last week, 35 years later, many of the great Mizner Alhambras including Playa Riente and El Mirasol had been razed to make room for an expanding society, but Palm Beach was still living by the golden rule, with some notable alloys.

Democratic Spirit. At the north end of the island, one twelve-room cottage had become the new Winter White House. At the south end, Swedish Heavyweight Ingemar Johansson was training for his return match with Floyd Patterson. And in the democratic spirit of the times, one of the season's first emerald-glittering affairs was last week's opening of a new Schrafft's restaurant in the Royal Poinciana Plaza, an event of sufficient importance to attract Joseph P. Kennedy, William Randolph Hearst Jr., and Billy Graham.

Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post Close Hutton Davies May, apostolic descendant of Mrs. Stotesbury, presided at the Red Cross benefit dance, doing her best to be the Great Galvanizer of a diversifying society. Elsa Maxwell was in town, collecting tidbits, people and invitations. Actress Arlene Dahl, new wife of Rancher-Oilman Christian Holmes, admitted that she was having a fine time trying the supposedly impossible: a walk on the tightrope between cafe society and "real" society.

"Real" society, from Charles A. Munn to the Michael Phippses, had shut itself away behind ten-ton closed doors, but cafe society and show business people were plentiful as palms. Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis turned up as guests of Joe Kennedy, Zsa Zsa Gabor was visiting the automotive Dodges (Gregg and Horace), and a string of parties greeted Jule Styne, composer of Broadway's Do Re Mi.

Younger Generation. Word appeared in the columns that Sinatra was about to buy a Palm Beach pad and a nightclub, too, so he could wage war with an established nightclub owner who had refused to offer Frankie $5,000 for a one-shot appearance. Meanwhile, the Royal Poinciana Playhouse had begun its fourth season with The Skin of Our Teeth, which will soon leave on a State Department tour of Europe, with Helen Hayes, Leif Erickson, June Havoc and Helen Menken. With Artist-Showman Salvador Dali. Bandleader Sammy Kaye, Mime Marcel Marceau, Actor-Singer Russell Nype. Hollywood Profile George Hamilton and Actress Susan Kohner also in town for highly varied reasons, there was more than ample fuel for the increasing celebrity-consciousness of Palm Beach's younger generation.

Meanwhile, in the now ancient Mizner villas behind the Poinsettia Curtain, the Old Guard was mumbling bravely into the Minton: "Palm Beach absorbs these people; they cause hardly a ripple."

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