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Ingrid Bergman, who has won several prizes herself, won one for Photographer Charles Welbourne by managing to look like a woman who could never understand Ingrid Bergman (see cut). The International Society of Photographic Arts voted the print the Most Provocative Motion Picture Still of 1946.
Too late for this Christmas but worth saving for next was a news photo of Denmark's Princesses Margrethe and Benedilcte* in costume, prizeworthy in any man's Christmas card division (see cut).
Among the week's most confusing performers were Singers Nelson Eddy and Lauritz Melchior.
The ingenuities of recordmaking produced an album of Hymns We Love, sung by a quartet—all the voices Singer Eddy's, which made those people who like him four times as happy.
Opera's Melchior said he would probably never sing opera in Boston again, "because . . . Boston would not allow German opera to be given here during the war." He said it was "nothing personal . . . simply a principle ... I believe that art has nothing to do with politics." Three nights later Tenor Melchior sang in concert in Boston, where the Met had given three Wagnerian operas in 1945 and Melchior had sung two in 1942.
It was no week for the fainthearted. Donald R. Richberg, onetime NRA brain-truster, rose in Philadelphia to warn the nation that unless labor was put in its place, the U.S. would be driven "deeper & deeper into a political war which may become a civil war." And Bandleader Art Mooney, pondering what he had seen from the bandstand, reported that wild dancing to hot music was ruining the shapes of American girls. He noted their "piano legs, wide bottoms, thick waists, and hefty bosoms," feared an even uglier future.
But American womanhood got a kind word from Visitor Maria Romano de Gasperi, 23-year-old daughter of Italy's visiting Premier. She had thought the girls who came to Italy—"so nice, so full of life"—were exceptions; now she found that "these qualities are peculiar to all American women." She also admired their clothes. "But I think," she added, "that American women look better when they wear sport clothes than when they try to look sophisticated."
To dress well the men had only to listen to Hollywood's Adolphe Menjou, fashion plate since the days of the silent cinema. He offered instructions. Among them: let the jacket sleeves be narrow, and the shirt cuff showing; never wear a striped shirt with a striped suit; wear suspenders instead of a belt; let the knot of the tie be loose instead of tight; let the trousers break just over the instep; stay away from jewelry. "The well-dressed man," certified the famously high-styled actor, "is never conspicuous."
Success formula of the week came from Georgia's umbrageous Dan Duke, outgoing Assistant Attorney General. Defeated by "white supremacy" champions, Duke let go from the bitter corner of his mouth with ten rules for success in Georgia politics:
"Look out for your own interests.
"Honor nobody but yourself.
"Do evil, but pretend to do good.
"Be miserly.
"Covet and get what you can.
"Be brutal.
"Cheat whenever you get a chance.
"Kill your enemies and, if necessary, your friends.