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Iran's Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and his comely Queen Soraya winged into Madrid for what was billed as a four-day state visit. But Spain's Dictator Francisco Franco was not the notable they came primarily to see. On their very first day in Madrid, the Shah called in the dean of Madrid University's medical school, Dr. Jesus Garcia Orcoyen, an internationally renowned gynecologist, and asked him to examine Soraya. Apparently at stake was their marriage. After six childless years with Soraya, the Shah, whose only child is a daughter by his first wife Fawzia, is growing desperate for a male heir. If Soraya is doomed to remain barren, say the Shah's intimates, a divorce, despite the royal pair's deep affection, is more than likely.
Rhode Island's hale, hearty Democratic Senator Theodore Francis Green turned 89 years, 7 months, 26 days, thus became the oldest man ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. His goal: to observe his centenary while in office.
Midway in his soul-saving New York crusade, Evangelist Billy Graham will go on TV. This Saturday (8-9 p.m., E.D.T.) on the ABC network, straight from Madison Square Garden, a Graham meeting will be telecast for the first time in the U.S. Cost of the program: $300,000, underwritten by Billy's current campaign backers. After that, muses Graham hopefully, he would like to launch a 26-week religious TV extravaganza. Its sponsors would have to be content with institutional plugs, no hard sell. Though one of the hottest salesmen ever to push intangibles, Billy admits: "It would be difficult to break into the middle of a sermon and start selling tooth paste." But Orator Graham may have difficulty convincing a sponsor to accept him on those terms.
Like any prudent Congressman quick to heed even the silliest requests from a constituent, Brooklyn Democrat John J. Rooney, 53, asked the Library of Congress to ransack its stacks and files for the words to an oldtime ditty entitled The Lobster Is the Wise Guy, After AIL The library, one of the world's great literary storehouses, was embarrassed to reply that it could not locate Rooney's Lobster among its Crustacea volumes or anywhere else. At hearings on the library's budget, Representative Rooney scolded Librarian of Congress L Quincy Mumford: "I was amazed to find that [you] could not come up with the words of this song which I have heard sung since I was a boy!" Already fearful of budget slashes, Mumford unhappily allowed: "I cannot account for its absence." Hearts, heavy over their failure, some library employees set lobster pots all about the capital in hopes of snaring Rooney's elusive tune. Last week, to the everlasting glory of the Dewey decimal system, a reading-room worker made the catch, vindicated Mumford. Rooney, face red as a lobster's, had got the title wrong, owed apologies to Wise Guy Mumford. The song: I'd Rather Be a Lobster Than a Wise Guy.