People: Sep. 21, 1970

Dolly did it. Last Wednesday, with its 2,718th performance, Hello, Dolly! passed My Fair Lady's record as the longest-running musical on Broadway. Way back on Jan. 6, 1964, Carol Channing opened the show. After nine months, Ginger Rogers took over; then came Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey (and an all-black cast), Phyllis Diller, and now Ethel Merman, who has extended her contract to Dec. 26, 1970. Considering Dolly's longevity, the question arises, who's next? Producer David Merrick has it figured out. "Liberace. And we can call it Hello, Bruce!" He was not entirely kidding. He has already offered the part to another man —Jack Benny. "But," said Merrick, "he turned it down. He told me he could see why I offered it to him—because of the way he walks."

It's back to school for Julie and David Eisenhower. The President's younger daughter announced last week that she will attend education classes at Catholic University in Washington while her husband goes to Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I. In opting for a teaching career, Julie chucked her earlier ambition to make documentary films. She explained that she did not want to trade on her name. Noting that mother had once been a teacher, Julie said: "Teaching is a great career for women. You never get dissatisfied."

Twas love and ambition, not politics, that prompted the current grand jete of defecting Soviet dancers. Natalia Makarova of the Kirov Ballet, according to rumor, managed to fall in love during the Kirov's London performance and may be offered a leading role in Rudolf Nureyev's new ballet,

Life of the Great Nijinsky. Meanwhile, 5,000 miles away in Guadalajara, Mexico, two dancers from Moiseyev's Russian Classical Ballet also defected, they too for love. Giennadi Simonovich Vos-trikov took his Mexican girl friend Christina with him when he went to apply for asylum, while Aleksander Silippov left no doubt that his fascination with Brazilian Dancer Lucia Tristao was the main reason for his staying. For Lucia he has given up his wife, mother and the homeland to which he still professes loyalty.

It will take a while for a cliche line to beat Frank Sinatra's parting shot as he stormed out of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The singer wanted the baccarat stakes raised from $8,000 a hand to $16,000 and he wanted more credit. Turned down, he began cursing and throwing chips; whereupon a hotel executive drew a pistol. Sinatra left, snarling: "The mob will take care of you." The law responded with a couple of old saws of its own. Sheriff Ralph Lamb ordered that before Sinatra may sing in Las Vegas again, "he must come downtown and get a work permit." District Attorney George Franklin Jr. added: "Now I'd like to have a little talk with Mr. Sinatra. I'd like to get together with him on the subject of his friendships with members of the underworld."