Medford mail tribune., January 12, 1958, Image 34

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Irene Dunne
Saleslady for the UN
As alternate delegate she is
playing the biggest role of
by Joseph N. Bell
Irene dunne, who has won just about every honor
the entertainment industry can bestow, in
cluding five Academy Award nominations,
recently experienced the high point of her career.
It happened not amid the cameras and kleig lights
of Hollywood but in the somber meeting halls of the
United Nations. There, during the current session
of the General Assembly, Miss Dunne has performed
the most important role of her life, that of alternate
United States delegate to the UN.
When I interviewed her in the delegates' lounge,
her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm for the world peace
organization. Still as trim and chic as the night she
first played Magnolia in "Showboat" back in the late
'20s, Miss Dunne has found a totally unexpected
part that excites her even more and one to which
she is adding warmth, maturity, and growing under
standing of international problems.
"When you're a member of a 10-man team," she
says, "you can only get to know a small part of what's
going on at the UN. But that part is dramatic and
exciting beyond words. Nothing in Hollywood has
quite the same quality, for at the United Nations all
the problems of the world parade before your eyes."
News of her appointment came as a complete
her career, and it won't
end when the General
Assembly adjourns.
surprise to Irene. She was at her home in Holmby
Hills, Calif., when she received a phone call from the
White House.
"It was Sherman Adams, assistant to the President,"
she recalls. "When he asked me if I would serve on
our UN delegation, it was one of the few times in
my life I was almost speechless."
It took some rearranging of her busy life, but this
was one role Irene Dunne wasn't going to miss.
Soon after the call from Adams, she was on her way
to Washington for the delegate briefing which
precedes each session of the General Assembly. She
found herself in distinguished company which in
cluded Congressmen A. S. Carnahan of Missouri and
Walter H. Judd of Minnesota; Dr. Herman Wells,
president of Indiana University; George Meany,
president of the AFL-CIO; nationally known
attorneys Philip Klutznick and Genoa Washington;
plus Henry Cabot Lodge and his two permanent
associates on the U.S. delegation, James Wadsworth
and Mrs. Mary Lord.
Irene charmingly explains something about U.S.
participation in the UN that isn't generally under
stood. The U.S. delegation (except for Lodge, Wads
worth, and Mrs. Lord) changes completely each
session and is made up of a broad cross section of
Americans, representing both political parties and
every race, creed, and religion.
Selection as one of the seven alternate U.S.
delegates requires not so much familiarity with the
problems being discussed as it does outstanding
Americanism. Irene Dunne is the first entertainer to
be selected a tribute both to her charm and to the
high concept of public service she has demonstrated
many times in the past.
During the three months the General Assembly is
in session each year, the delegates' expenses and a
nominal per-diem salary are paid by the U.S. govern
ment. It means taking three months out of busy
personal lives to devote to the cause of better world
understanding and relationships.
Says Irene: "You never for a moment forget that
war and peace and life itself are at stake. When I go
4 Family Weekly. January 12. 195