Babe Ruth got his annual nod from Japan: Babu Rusu Day.
Faye Emerson Roosevelt made her first bow on Broadway after seven years in Hollywood, caught the critical eyes focused on Molnar's The Play's the Thing. The Times's Brooks Atkinson noted her "high spirit and versatility"; the Herald Tribune's Howard Barnes found her "attractive and promising"; the Daily News's John Chapman, "entirely acceptable"; PM's Louis Kronenberger, "Fetching to look at... pleasant to listen to." Mother-in-Law Eleanor Roosevelt, back from London just in time to watch from the second row, told Columnist Earl Wilson that Faye looked real pretty.
William Randolph Hearst, long ailing at his Beverly Hills home, didn't come downstairs on his 85th birthday to accept the Air Force's meritorious service award (son Randolph accepted for him). Later on he struggled down to look at his cake.
Exiled Peter of Yugoslavia, visiting the U.S. with wife Alexandra and son Alexander, attended Serbian Orthodox Easter services in Manhattan. Royalists in the congregation greeted him with the Serbians' tactful cry that fits every distinguished guest: "Zivio"—meaning simply "Long live."
In Winchester, Va., General Hoyt S. Vandenberg found time in a busy week to crown Skater Gretchen Merrill as Queen Shenandoah XXI of the annual Apple Blossom Festival. Her scepter looked like a rather graceful table leg.
Mining Heiress Margaret Thompson Schulze Biddle, ex-wife of ex-Ambassador Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr., left Manhattan for London, leaving behind some literary mementos: dinner-partner cards which she had written herself for a farewell party for the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. Her tribute to the duchess:
The woman I most admire
Is worth an entire empire
She's witty, she's gay, she's sweet,
And never gossip does she repeat.
Statecraft
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson had quite a time swearing in Averell Harriman as ECA's ambassador-at-large. The two got together for the ceremony, and then discovered that a Bible was lacking. A messenger was sent for one. Also, a flag was lacking. A messenger went for one. Bible and flag arrived, but the flagstaff was too tall for the ceiling. So the tip was removed. Then Vinson discovered that Harriman's commission was missing. A messenger ran and got it, and Vinson finally swore in Harriman. He then went through the motions three more times for news photographers.
In the Senate Office Building gymnasium, Maine's 60-year-old Republican Owen Brewster and Louisiana's 56-year-old Democrat Allen Ellender struck a pose for a traditional springtime picture: statesmen keeping in trim for the cruel tussle with their responsibilities. Ellender, a statesman in the Huey Long tradition, recalled that he had posed for the same kind of picture another spring with Henry Agard Wallace, sighed wistfully: "I should have knocked Wallace's block off when I had the chance."
Domestic Relations
In Hollywood: