People, Mar. 21, 1938

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

Two years ago, Hollywood’s Samuel Goldwyn imported pretty Sigrid Gurie from Norway, secluded her in a Hollywood Hills bungalow till she learned English, then put her in The Adventures of Marco Polo. Last week, Miss Gurie and her husband, a small businessman named Thomas Stewart, were in the Los Angeles divorce court, and a few perfunctory questions brought out that she was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. Said Mr. Goldwyn: “The greatest hoax in box-office history … I am a very happy victim. …”

Wishing to take a vacation incognito, Britain’s popular ex-Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden disguised himself, passed through London’s thronged Victoria Station, entrained for the Riviera (see p. 21)unrecognized. His disguise: a brown felt hat instead of curled-brim black Homburg.

Novelist Ernest Hemingway, refereeing a Negro prizefight at Key West, Fla. was counting out one of the fighters when a Negro second threw in a towel. Referee Hemingway threw it out. The second jumped into the ring, swung at the referee. Mr. Hemingway gave him a left jab to the chin, twisted his ear. Said Referee Hemingway, “He must have lost his head.”

In a recent film British Actress Grade Fields, who makes a reputed $750,000 a year, sang “You’ve Got to Smile When You Say Goodby” from the top deck of a departing liner. Recently, as her father and mother sailed from Southampton on the Berengaria, Gracie standing on the dock suddenly burst into “You’ve Got to Smile When You Say Good-by.” The astonished crowd around her, liking Gracie much more than they did the proprieties, clamored for an encore. Gracie obliged: “Little Old Lady,” for her mother.

An impertinent reporter wrote impertinent George Bernard Shaw: “How long do you think you are going to live?” Shaw replied: “I cannot tell you the exact date of my death. . . . You must be content to know that as I am in my eighty-second year, my number is up, and the cremation furnace may make an end of me at any moment, to the great relief of many worthy persons.”