People: People, Sep. 24, 1945

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Things to Think About

Salvador Dali, surrealist painter and publicist whose trademarks are droopy watches, meandering cyclists and gangrenous torsos, promised Manhattan a show this winter, and assured the world that art could do much "to promote greater understanding between nations; it is the only international language that people can understand."

Ilka Chase, professional wit and author (In Bed We Cry), advised women to marry younger men, explained: "Men, poor things, age so quickly after they're married. . . . The older wife is the ideal combination of what every boy craves: she's mother-wife-mistress, the 3-in-1 bargain package."*

Andrew Jackson Higgins, colorful New Orleans boat builder (PTs and landing craft) who toils and talks at fever heat, returned from a Pacific tour to announce a two-man crusade (with Admiral Nimitz) to get American men into cooler and fewer clothes. "First thing I did after leaving Honolulu," he said, "was to take off my tie, open the top two buttons of my shirt, and chop my pants off above the knee."

Milton S. Hershey, purveyor of chocolate bars and philanthropy (some $60,000,000 worth to orphans), observed his 88th birthday in the Pennsylvania town that bears his name, and revealed his own rich recipe for success: "Late to bed and late to rise."

Bernarr ("Body Beautiful") Macfadden, still full of beans at 77, hired Manhattan's Carnegie Hall to get a few things off his manly chest. Before a healthy audience of some 2,000, he flailed clerical prudery, plumped for the healthy life and for good clean sex ("The sexes were never made to be separated.") and explained Cosmotarianism, "the Religion of Happiness." The white-maned publisher, clad in suit and shoes to match, did push-ups and headstands (calculated to prolong life from ten to 25 years), warned women: "Beauty must be associated with a good digestion."

Royal Prerogatives

Frances P. Bolton, Ohio Congresswoman now exploring the Middle East, told Bagdad reporters that King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia had broken precedent by permitting her, a mere woman, to enter his private council chamber in Riyadh. Said the King: "No tradition should be allowed to stand in the way of good understanding."

The Duke of Windsor & his Duchess sailed from Manhattan for France, where she will remain while he goes to England to visit Queen Mary for the first time in nine years. The ex-Governor of the Bahamas admitted that a new job might be in the offing: "Though I'm past the half-century mark [51], I still feel that I can be useful." (Columnist Walter Winchell waved the couple a warm goodbye: "Good riddance to them both—the snobs.")

Princess Elizabeth, niece of the Duke of Windsor whose equestrian mishaps were stock gag fodder in the '20s, came a cropper herself on the Balmoral Castle grounds in Scotland, got some nasty leg bruises when her horse threw her against a tree.

Discoveries & Disclosures

Heinrich Himmler was found to have compiled a Who's Who for automatic arrest in the event of a German invasion of England. The Gestapo blacklist, discovered in his Berlin headquarters, ranged from Winston Churchill to Noel Coward and David Low.