Milestones, Mar. 20, 1939

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Born. To Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, 26, multimillionaire horseman, onetime "most eligible bachelor in the U. S."; and his wife, the former Manuela ("Molly") Hudson, 24: a daughter, their first child; in Los Angeles. Name: Wendie.

Born. To Sidney Beardslee Wood Jr., 27, fourth-ranking U. S. amateur tennist, and his wife: a son, their first child; in Manhattan. Name: Sidney Jr.

Born. To Laurence Stallings, 44, one-legged playwright and scenarist (The Big Parade, What Price Glory?), and his second wife: a son, their first child; in Manhattan. Name: Laurence Jr.

Married. Jack Mercer, 24, who speaks the part of Popeye in cinemanimations of Popeye the Sailor; and Margie Hines, 21, who speaks the part of Olive Oyl; at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Married. Primo ("Old Satch") Carnera, 32, onetime carnival wrestler who became world heavyweight champion boxer in 1933, later turned to cinemacting; and Pina Cavazzi, 26, postal clerk; in Sequals, Italy.

Divorced. Clark Gable, 38, all-round cinema heman; by his second wife, Maria ("Rhea") Langham Gable, 48, Texas oil heiress; in Las Vegas, Nev. Grounds: desertion. Said Cinemactress Carole Lombard, whose friendship with Gable was publicized in a fan-magazine article on "Hollywood's Unmarried Husbands and Wives" (TIME, Dec. 19): "When he gets a few days off and I am not busy perhaps we will sneak away and have the ceremony performed."

Died. Gladys Frazin Lowenstein Gilmore Lehne Banks, 38, onetime actress who played Tondeleyo in White Cargo, divorced wife of Cinema Producer Monty Banks; after a six-story plunge from her parents' apartment; in Manhattan.

Died. Ernest ("Ernie") Hare, 55, baritone half of the Happiness Boys, oldtime radio harmony team; of bronchopneumonia; in Queens, N. Y. Old hands in show business, Ernie Hare and Tenor Billy Jones were hired by WJZ in 1921 for a song-and-patter experiment. Next year, as the Happiness Boys, singing the virtues of Happiness Candy, engaging in ad lib patter and chatter, they became the first nationally known radio team.

Died. Samuel Thomas Bledsoe, 70, president since 1933 of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway; of internal hemorrhage; in Chicago.

Died. Frank Waterman Stearns, 82, Boston dry-goods merchant, Calvin Coolidge's closest personal friend and adviser; of pneumonia; in Boston.