People, Feb. 17, 1958

Names make news. Last week these names made this news:

Mystery Spinner Erie Stanley (The Case of the Glamorous Ghost) Gardner, 68, customarily dictates his thrillers at a rate of up to 10,000 words a day, often working on as many as seven at the same time. Last December the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, reviewing two of them, hinted that such mass production could come only from a factory, implied that A. A. Fair, Gardner's best-known pseudonym, was a real, live ghost. After Gardner's indignant publishers, William Morrow & Co., all but put Lawyer Perry Mason on the case, the newspaper this week politely allowed that it had erred. Just to make sure that its author will not be thus dematerialized again, Morrow has posted a $100,000 reward to anyone proving that Gardner's output is not all his own. Said Morrow's President Thayer Hobson: "It would be worth $100,000 and a lot more just to find someone who can write like Gardner."

Pakistan raised diplomatic eyebrows by putting its money on horsy Playboy Aly Khan as its permanent delegate to the United Nations. Aly's appointment struck some as a consolation prize for his failure to succeed his father as the top (Aga) Khan. A citizen of Iran, he promised to take an "active interest" in his new job.

One of the prettiest campaigners in British politics, twinkle-toed Cinemorsel Moira (The Red Shoes) Shearer, made her maiden speech in Rochdale, England, was rewarded with such hearty applause that she predicted: "I'll be Prime Minister yet!" But Ballerina Shearer plugged for votes "as the candidate's wife and not as a political speaker." Her candidate: Writer and onetime TV Newscaster Ludovic Kennedy, standing for Parliament on the Liberal ticket.

In Philadelphia, not far from the scene of their first battle for the heavyweight boxing crown in 1926, Manassa Mauler Jack Dempsey, 62, and Gentleman Gene Tunney, 60, met again, looking remarkably well-preserved—and strikingly alike. They received plaques from the Brith Sholom lodge for "their notable achievements and outstanding contributions in the sports world and for devoted service to American youth." Pingponging compliments with the man who beat him twice in the ring, well-heeled Manhattan Restaurateur Dempsey turned to Millionaire

Connecticut Businessman Tunney and said: "I'm happy to share this award with Gene—and I'd be just as happy, if need be, to share my last dollar with him."

New York Daily News Capital Columnist Gwen Gibson reconnoitered the Washington front, reported a withdrawal in many quarters. The foremost reducers: Vice President Richard M. Nixon, 164 Ibs. (down 20 Ibs. in a year); Attorney General William P. Rogers, 170 Ibs. (lost ten); New York's Republican Representative Kenneth B. Keating, 155 Ibs. (down ten). Champion slenderizer: Oregon's Democratic Senator Richard L. Neuberger, now a skinny (for his six feet) 163 Ibs.—30 Ibs. less than he weighed about four months ago. —