Milestones, Oct. 2, 1939

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Milestone

Died. George Jean ("Big Frenchy") De Mange, 47, cagey onetime hoodlum, highjacker and bootlegger, latterly a millionaire Broadway restaurateur (The Club Argonaut, Park Avenue. Silver Slipper); of a heart attack; in Manhattan. As a Hudson Duster, Big Frenchy early opposed British-born Owen ("Owney") Madden's Gophers, later joined Owney in the liquor racket. In 1931 Owney scraped up $35,000 to ransom Big Frenchy when itchy-fingered Vincent Coll kidnapped him and threatened his life. Last week Owney was chief mourner at Big Frenchy's funeral, complete with six cars dripping with flowers.

Died. Floyd Gibbons, 52, staccarticulating, patch-eyed cinema and radio commentator, veteran correspondent of every war since Pancho Villa raided Columbus, N. M. (see p. 54); of a heart attack; on his farm at Saylorsburg, Pa.

Died. Colonel Charles Glenn Collins. 59, Scottish soldier of fortune; in Vicksburg, Miss. His career included action in South Africa with the British Army, marriage with one U. S. heiress and three foiled elopements with another (the fourth succeeded), World War decoration by England, France and Canada, extradition in 1923 to India to stand trial for an $18,000 jewelry fraud (later acquitted), eventual domestication with a third wife in Mississippi.

Died. Carl ("Uncle Carl") Laemmle Sr., 72, tiny cinemaster, pioneer producer of the first full-length photoplay, Traffic In Souls (1912), the first $1,000,000 picture, Foolish Wives (1922), originator of the publicity-bountiful scheme of calling popular actors "stars"; of a heart attack; in Hollywood, Calif.

Died. Dr. Sigmund Freud, 83, exiled Austrian, father of psychoanalysis; of cancer and heart disease; in his son's home in Hampstead, England. Throughout his last 16 years he suffered pain from cancer of the jaw, saw his books burned by Nazis, his ideas distorted by exaggeration, overpopularity, licentious application. Never lamenting his persecution and illness, he waited for death patiently, his only complaint: "It is tragic when a man outlives his body."

Died. Paddy Reilly, 12, oft-decorated, Scotch-Welsh border terrier, mascot for the Humane Society of New York; of toxic poisoning of the kidneys; in Manhattan. He had saved from drowning, fire and asphyxiation some 40 lives, mostly human, but including canine, feline, and one canary. Sometimes garbed in a straw hat with pipe in mouth, occasionally wearing a brown derby presented to him by Al Smith, Paddy Reilly would appear in front of the New York Public Library to raise funds for the Humane Society.