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Eleanor Jenemann Thompson, 26, wife of the philandering Pittsburgh sergeant who fathered quadruplets (three lived) in wartime England, finally sued him for divorce, opened the way for his marriage to the quadruplets' mother, 24-year-old Norah Carpenter. Grounds: "indignities." Cried ex-Sergeant William H. Thompson: "Hurray!" Mother Norah, still in Derbyshire, promptly inquired about transatlantic plane fares, bubbled: "Boats are too slow for me now."
Past Masters
General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery had two new titles—one that recalled the past, another that thrust him into the future. He was now Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, and new Chief of the Imperial General Staff.* His job was to tailor Britain's Army to the shape of the atomic age.
Michael Arlen (old name: Dikran Kouyoumdjian), who bounded to fame & fortune in the early '20s with his best-dressed tales of smartly ruined women and ruinous men (The Green Hat, May Fair), and who then relaxed into well-cushioned obscurity, decided that the best was yet to be. A man's 40s and 50s are his best years, he declared, "because he knows what he can do and can't do."
Prewar dweller on the Riviera, he hoped to return "in about a year," meantime dwelt in Manhattan with handsome, Greek-born Wife Atalanta (the former Countess Atalanta Mercati), Son Michael John, Daughter Venetia. Now 50 and quite grey (but with wavy and slickly groomed hair), Glitterateur Arlen was trying to grow a stomach to earn the children's respect. Said he: "In my house everyone goes around nude ... so everyone peers at me, looking for the corporation. But it's not there!"
Other brilliantined Arlenisms:
¶"I hate writing. And I really mean it. Most writers say they hate it, but they really don't. I do."
¶ "I like Hollywood. Yes, I know most writers say they don't like Hollywood. That's because it's fashionable not to like Hollywood. But I like it."
¶ "Most novelists are very unattractive. They have to base their knowledge of women on conversation, or having slept with the housekeeper."
¶ "I am looking forward to reading Remarque's new book, Arch of Triumph, but I don't suppose I shall like it, because it is indignant. Everyone's indignant about something nowadays."
Arlen, who is now writing his third play, The Humble Peacock, views with alarm "the squalid enthusiasm with which countless men, women and children of America and England insist on writing novels, plays and stories."