It was a farewell, but the theater was filled with "hellos." In the rear of the orchestra, watching the final curtain ring down on Hello, Dolly! was the original Dolly, Carol Charming, who opened the show on Jan. 16, 1964. Hello, Dolly! went on to become Broadway's longest-running musical, with 2,844 performances (My Fair Lady is second with 2,717). Channing was followed in Dolly's role by Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller and, finally, by Ethel Merman, who belted out the final hellos last week and then took the final curtain calls. "I feel sad and happy," said Ethel, "it's a bittersweet ending."

Rumors of a royal rift between Princess Margaret and her photographer husband of ten years, Lord Snowdon, blossomed again last week. In her Washington Post column, Maxine Cheshire reported that "Snowdon is the one, according to informed sources, who is insisting upon freedom. On recent trips to New York he has been taking out a Vogue magazine staffer." That was enough to shake Buckingham Palace, which ordinarily maintains a stony silence in the face of gossip about the royal family. "No, it's simply not true," retorted the Princess's press secretary. Lord Snowdon's private secretary was more equivocal. "I do admire the Americans," she said, "but they are naughty."

If words were punches, it would have been a real donnybrook. But the exchanges that took place between Muhammad All and World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier when they met to sign for their March 8 championship fight were strictly verbal. Frazier was contributing little to the buildup of the fight, Ali said, because "Joe Frazier never wrote no poems, never did no shuffles and never did no predicting. He don't look like a champion, he's flatfooted, he's got no rhythm and he ain't even pretty." Retorted Frazier: "Shut up, will you. Somebody call a doctor. I don't want him to have a heart attack." Frazier had reason to be concerned. If the bout is held as scheduled, each fighter will receive a fee of $2.5 million.

Alert and active as ever, Cellist Pablo Casals celebrated his 94th birthday in San Juan, P.R., by joining Violinist Alexander Schneider and Pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski in a performance of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D Minor. Rhapsodized Schneider: "Don Pablo played it as beautifully as he did ten years ago--no, 40 years ago." Later, at the official mansion of Puerto Rico Governor Luis Ferre, it was Casals' turn to hear other musicians give a recital in his honor. "It was all wonderful music," he said. Casals was eminently qualified to be a critic; included in the selections were Poeme, an elegy he wrote in 1935, and Reverie, which he composed when he was only 20 years old.

No director could have elicited the look of pride on the veteran actor's face as he hugged his son during a break on the Hollywood set. John Ethan Wayne, 8, had just stolen a scene during the filming of The Million-Dollar Kidnaping in the role of grandson to his real father, John Wayne, 63, and Actress Maureen O'Hara. Said Richard Boone, cast as the leader of the bandits who kidnap the boy: "Duke, you and I know acting's hard, but nobody told the boy--he just went in there and did it."

The face had not been seen lately in first-run moviehouses, and the figure was more svelte than in recent memory. Still, there was no mistaking the identity of the female lead in the glare of the klieg lights at Shepperton Studios near London. Ten pounds lighter and back in front of the cameras after an absence of nearly two years, Elizabeth Taylor is currently filming Zee and Co. with Co-Star Michael Caine. "The unfortunate thing is I enjoy acting, but I'm slothful," said Elizabeth between takes. "I'm so bloody lazy. I think I should retire. I should quit and raise cats." But would that be enough to support the family autos? The Shepperton Studios parking lot is enhanced these days by a green Rolls-Royce belonging to Liz, a black one owned by Caine--and a white model registered in the name of Richard Burton, who was in London filming Villain.

When Tennessee Williams stepped off the S.S. President Wilson last week after a three-month Pacific cruise, he had a scoop for the San Francisco Chronicle: he had just completed his last "long play," "a tragedy with humor" about "alienation." But from now on, he vowed, his work "is going to reflect the society around me"--particularly the new family structures. "I don't think I could live in a commune myself, or even what they call a 'triangular' marriage--you know, one guy with two chicks. I'm too jealous by nature." As for allotting his time, he declared: "I've done 90% of the work I'm going to do. Mostly I'm just going to take sea trips."

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