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Cinemactress Joan Fontaine, hard at work in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, found time to announce to the press that she would have her first baby on or about Oct. 22.
Between exhibition games, Leo ("The Lip") Durocher and wife Laraine Day were granted adoption of a four-year-old girl after a ten-minute court hearing in Fort Worth. The child already had a name (Charlotte), but the proud foster parents planned to give her a fancier one: Melinda Michele.
Retired Opera Star Maria Jeritza, twice married but young-in-heart at 60, announced in Manhattan's El Morocco nightclub that she would presently marry a Newark manufacturer, Irving P. Seery, who had been courting her for five weeks.
Little Mickey Rooney's big second wife Betty, having tried two trial separations in a year, decided to get a divorce.
Lois Andrews, 24, model-about-town who married 50-year-old Comedian George Jessel in 1940 and divorced him in 1942, went nightclubbing with him in Hollywood. Next day she announced that she had separated from husband No. 3—on a trial basis. She explained: "A lot of little things were coming up when we were together. Maybe we can work them out apart."
Frances Heenan ("Peaches") Browning Hynes Civelli Willson, the '20s' pet child bride (at 15, of the late "Daddy" Browning, 51), got a three-minute divorce from fourth husband Ralph N. Willson in Redwood City, Calif. He already had a Reno divorce, but she did it again in California just to be on the safe side.
Joe Louis was tagged with a $500,000 alienation-of-affections suit by an out-of-work Baptist clergyman in Chicago. The Rev. Matthew C. Faulkner charged that the champ had pegged $35,000 worth of gifts (including $15,000 in cash) at his wife, Carolle, a model, and had broken up the Faulkner home. Said Joe, about to come home from Europe with wife Marva: "No truth in it." Said Carolle, in a Manhattan apartment with her two young (4 and 3) sons: "Not a bit of truth. . . ."
Affairs of State
Illinois' Adolph J. Sabath, who has been in Congress for 42 years, attained the age of 82, said he felt fine (except for his arthritis), but declined to celebrate his birthday—"not with conditions as alarming as they are." Yes, said Sabath, he would run for reelection. "About a year ago the doctors and Mrs. Sabath thought I should give up. But my friends asked me to run. . . ."
Ohio's Governor Thomas J. Herbert and Vermont's Governor Ernest W. Gibson obliged the citizens of rural Chardon, Ohio, by making a public blindfold test with maple syrup, to determine which state's was better. Herbert approved Vermont's and Gibson approved Ohio's, then each learned that neither had had a taste of his own state's.
Louisiana's Governor-elect Earl Long, whose victory cry was "Happy days are here again and the Longs are back in the saddle," was more than ready to resume the duties of his old office in May. He saw some saddles he liked, and bought an even dozen. A photographer gave the world a glimpse of the future (see cut).