People, Dec. 5, 1955

• Share

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

Deep in the heart of Texas as a ranch guest of Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Tennessee's prowling Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver showed that he can shoot as straight as Tennessee's Davy Crockett—even without his coonskin hat. Hunter Kefauver blasted at a duck with a shotgun, scored a clean miss.

But he also took in hand Johnson's own powerful .300 Magnum rifle with a telescopic sight and brought down a ten-point buck deer, at 309 paces, with a bullet right through the heart. Exulted Democrat Johnson: "The best deer killed in this part of the country this season!" Later, spic and span except for a spot of blood on his khaki pants, Hunter Kefauver met newsmen with his feat in his mouth, neatly tied the story in with his White House yearnings: "If I get down and start seeking [the presidential nomination], I hope I have that same sort of telescopic lens." After reading some of his witty, wise verses and quoting from his autobiographical i—a series of non-lectures, aging (61) Poet e. e. cummings, a solo performer in a Washington art gallery, was asked about the mystery of his aversion to capital letters. Said he precisely: "i use capitals ONLY for emphasiis. after all, that's what they were invented for, weren't they?" On departing to join "Operation Deepfreeze," his fifth Antarctic expedition, lean Rear Admiral (ret.) Richard Evelyn Byrd, 67, unwarily recalled: "No woman has ever set foot on Little America . the most silent and peaceful place in the world." By the time he reached Dallas on his way to New Zealand, lady pickets awaited him. In high good humor, they waved signs protesting his womanless haven. Explorer Byrd smiled wanly.

Movie Director John Huston, 49, mused about $20 million—the bagatelle needed, in Huston's opinion, for a gentleman to live properly: "My life span would probably be lengthened. It's only trying to make $20 million that cuts short a man's years. Spending it would be healthy." After some five years away from Broadway, Chicago-born Dancer Katherine Dunham, 45, who elevated burlesque's bumps and grinds to highbrow respecta bility as Afro-Caribbean choreography, returned with her troupe to Manhattan, drew regrets from encore-cheering audi ences that her revue is booked for only a four-week run.

—Washington's "good music" Radio Sta tion WGMS beamed out the world pre miere of a recording made in the U.S. by a recent visitor, Russian Pianist Emil Gilels (TIME, Oct. 17). On hand as the disk's jockey: Supreme Court Justice Wil liam O. Douglas, a persistent advocate of U.S. -Soviet cultural exchanges ever since his 8,000-mile jaunt about the U.S.S.R.