People: Apr. 22, 1966

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Filed for probate in Virginia City, Nev., the will of Author Lucius Beebe left the bulk of his $2,000,000 estate to Old Friend Charles Clegg, with whom he shared ownership of mansions in Virginia City and Hillsborough, Calif. But, true to his fashion, Beebe also set aside $15,000 in trust for a favorite companion: T-Bone Towser II, his five-year-old St. Bernard. The funds may come in handy for Towser, who picked up some pretty fancy habits from his master. He pads around the mansions wearing a brandy and a créme de menthe keg (in case anyone wants to stir up a stinger), and, explained Clegg, "he does love pâté de foie gras and caviar. He drools terribly if you serve either one."

They said goodbye to the grand old lady of 39th Street with a gala wake. The farewell performance at Manhattan's old Metropolitan Opera House (1883-1966) drew 3,900 guests and three generations of conductors to reminisce through hits and bits from 25 operas. The hello to the new house had actually started with a bang a few days earlier. KER-BLAM! went the sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun fired for a sound test. "O say! can you see . . ." roared the 3,200 New York City schoolchildren in the Met's new, $45,700,000 house in Manhattan's Lincoln Center. General Manager Rudolf Bing, 64, cocked an expert ear at all the noise and reported: "We're in great shape." Then the kids settled down for a performance of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West, the first show in the new quarters, which open officially in September.

The first drive sailed into a water hazard. The sportsman then proceeded to tee up a new ball, whack it onto the green, and three-putt the par-three hole. Next he shot a seven in a par-four situation and a six on another par-four hole, winding up with a very inefficient seven-over-par. Too bad for General Francisco Franco, 73, who commands quite a few things in Spain, but not the golf courses. As he left the new links at Sotogrande near Gibraltar, Franco asserted himself. The two-hole course on his estate outside Madrid obviously wasn't rough enough, so he sent word to his gardener to find out how the Sotogrande club has come up with such difficult fairways and greens.

He had to settle for a mere polo pony, but that didn't seem to trouble John-John Kennedy, 5. He had a grand time taking his first all-by-himself ride across the pampas on the Córdoba, Argentina, ranch of Miguel Angel Cárcano, who is an old friend of Grandpa Joe Kennedy's. Jack Kennedy himself had come to Córdoba 25 years before, and now Jackie was saying: "I want my children to learn to love Latin America as their father did. This seemed to me a good beginning." Indeed it was. Flying back to Manhattan after the nine-day vacation, Caroline and John-John told Mom: "We'd like to go there every week."