People, Jan. 31, 1977

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Eat your heart out, Bruce Springsteen. Take a back seat, Elton John. The "Artist of the Year," according to a poll of 6,000 Rolling Stone readers, is Peter Frampton, 26. No wonder. His latest album, Frampton Comes Alive!, has sold 10 million copies, and 2 million fans this year have seen and heard the gyrating rock singer in concert Frampton's modest explanation of his success: "I do what Jolson, Sinatra, Tony Bennett and the Beatles did—what all the greats do. I communicate." Frampton has signed to make a movie in which he will play a rock star who sings the Beatles' songs. The film's title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

They were all known as Tokyo Rose—the dozen or so women who broadcast from Japan to World War II G.I.s in the Pacific. The most notorious was Iva Toguri d'Aquino, an American citizen visiting Tokyo who was interned by the Japanese during the war and forced, she claimed, to go on the air. Several defense witnesses attested that this was true, but because D'Aquino had asked the G.I.s how they would get home "now that your ships are sunk," she was convicted of treason in 1949 after her return to the U.S. She served more than six years in prison, then moved to Chicago where she has been managing an Oriental import shop. Three times she has asked for a presidential pardon—"a measure of vindication." On his last full day as President, Gerald Ford agreed and granted D'Aquino, now 60, a "full and unconditional" pardon on the grounds that it was "the right thing to do and the proper time to do it."

Over the hill at eleven. When TV's Dennis the Menace went off the air in 1963, Terrible Tyke Jay North found the going a bit like his dog—Ruff. After some guest spots, a handful of movies and a short-lived TV series (Maya), his career simply dried up. Ready for something new, North, now 25, signed up for a four-year hitch in the Navy. The Naval Reserve captain assigned to swear him in turned out to be another former child star: Jackie Cooper, 54. Said Cooper: "I think North is making a good choice. Most of us former film moppets are drunk, dead or hidden away."

Ernie Banks has not been heard from much since he retired as an active player with the Chicago Cubs in 1971. The shortstop-first baseman, who hit 512 home runs in his 19 seasons with the team, has worked as a coach at Wrigley Field and as a roving instructor for the Cubs' farm system. But he never lost the sunny disposition that made him one of the best-loved players in baseball. "It's a beautiful day for a ball game," he would often say. "Let's play two." If a doubleheader was scheduled, he would propose to make it three in a row. Last week Banks, 45, enjoyed his most beautiful day yet. He was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, only the eighth player to be named in his first year of eligibility (five years after retirement). Even Joe DiMaggio did not make it until his third year on the ballot, and Yogi Berra until his second. Grinned "Mr. Cub": "It's the greatest moment of my life."