(2 of 2)
It has been quite a few years, after all, and a fellow can forget. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrived in New York City for a holiday, the duke made arrangements to fly to Akron to visit an old friend, Industrialist Nathan Cummings. Regrettably, the day he chose turned out to be his 32nd wedding anniversary. Still, appointments must be kept, so the duke flew off as scheduled to tour Cummings' Lawson Milk plant and address a luncheon gathering at Silver Lake Country Club. Said he, ruefully, "The duchess took a dim view of my leaving her alone on this special day." Then he hurried back to Manhattan with a gift of atonement: 32 containers of Lawson's ice cream, each a different flavor.
From Merle Oberon to Vanessa Redgrave, a host of splendid British actresses have portrayed Anne Boleyn. Now a French Canadian, Genevieve Bujold, 26, who starred in the critically acclaimed movie Isabel, is getting a crack at the coveted part. In London for the filming of the latest version of Anne of the Thousand Days, Genevieve won generous praise from her leading man, Richard Burton. "She seems to me like a very pert tart—in the proper sense," he said. "I have no doubt she will steal all the notices." King Richard also indicated that playing Henry VIII might be the capstone of his movie career, which should cheer those who think his talents are wasted in films. "Much of acting is tedium for me now," he reflected. "I've suddenly realized that doing nothing is marvelous. What I'd like to do is appear in two plays—Sartre's The Devil and King Lear—and then just disappear from view."
Arkansas celebrates its 150th anniversary as a U.S. territory this year, and Lily Peter, a wealthy, plantation-owning spinster, decided that a musical tribute would be just the thing to mark the occasion. Trouble is, she conceded, "we are as far removed from the great world of music as if we lived on the rings of Saturn." So Miss Peter, 73, persuaded Composer Norman Dello Joio to write a special work for the sesquicentennial, then hired Eugene Ormandy and his Philadelphia Orchestra to come to Little Rock to play it. She mortgaged a small portion of her land to foot the $60,000 bill, meticulously planned the concert to the last detail (even making sure that none of the musicians was allergic to magnolias). Last week the orchestra performed Dello Joio's suite, Homage to Haydn, and Ormandy himself embraced Miss Peter onstage. She is, said Ormandy, "a new lady in my life, but very close to my heart already."