Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1963)
We Met Such Interesting People in 1963 We strongly disapproved of some; others inspired us; we cried with some and laughed with others but they never, never bored us By THE EDITORS MADAME NHU "If there were an attack on the palace, the last one to go down shoot ing would be Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, and when she did both guns would be blazing." A British diplo mat said that shortly before the South Vietnam army did attack the presidential palace in Saigon and kill Madame Nhu's brother-in-law (the president) and her husband (reportedly the power behind the throne). Madame Nhu, however, was in a Hollywood hotel at the time, resting from a world-spanning monologue during which she shocked many by referring to Buddhist im molation as "barbecuing" and by calling American officers in Vietnam "little soldiers of fortune." Was she the "Dragon Lady" or Joan of Arc? Or just a woman who talked too much? In the waning weeks of '63, she was just a widow, but experts predict she will emerge from mourning "with guns blazing." YOGI UERRA Interesting people are not al ways the winners. The New York Yankees perennially win, yet drew only 100,000 more fans In '63 than the hapless New York Mets. Only one "character" entertained the payees: Yogi Berra, he of prehis toric physique and ridiculous rhet oric. ("Nobody goes to that restau rant any more. It's too crowded.") Maybe that's why the Yankees pushed dour Ralph Houk upstairs, named colorful Yogi as manager of the gray-pinstriped Yankees. Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle wired their pal: "We would like our unconditional release to be come professional golfers." LIZ TAYLOR AND RICHARD BURTON "Where's my husband?" cried Elizabeth Taylor in a melee at Mont real airport. Actually, Eddie Fisher was 1,000 miles away in Nevada (often with actress Renata Boeck). What Liz meant was where is trav eling companion Richard Burton, whom she was accompanying to Mexico to make a movie. The confu sion was international and year long. Twice headlines announced the couple would seek divorces from their legal spouses : twice they huffily denied it. In Mexico, would Burton further confuse matters by discov ering the charms of costar Sue ("Lolita") Lyon? Apparently his mind was elsewhere. "The other night," he told a reporter, "I totaled 21 (glasses of tequila) before I stopped counting. It was at the beach, and Elizabeth and the others were covered with bites the next morning. I had none. I think 1 have discovered something." ROGER STAUBACH They call Navy's star quarter back "Jolly Roger" Staubach, but "jolly" doesn't describe his per sonality. He is a serious, modest Middie until Saturday afternoons, when he becomes a daring, danc ing pass master. Roger wanted to be a priest; then he wanted to go to Notre Dame. The Navy was vir tually third choice, and its curric ulum is so tough for him that he has no time for "jolly" undergrad uate high jinks. Besides, the junior classman gets up long before the early-rising Navy so he can at tend 6 a.m. Mass. Says Roger: "There's lots to be thankful for." The Navy says, "Amen." A 1 . GEN. CHARLES DeGAULLE To most of the Western world he is a cartoonist's delight who goes around upsetting applecarts. To most Frenchmen he is Le Grand Charles, the soldier who took power in 1958 when the country, a "me too" nation in the shadow of the United States and Britain, was verging on civil war. Gen. Charles DeGaulle changed all that and never more noticeably than in these past months. He barred Britain from the Common Market; he dog gedly went ahead with atomic test ing; he scotched plans for a NATO nuclear force. Closer to home, he played South Vietnam against the United States and set out to take over our leadership in European military defense. Why? Some say he is a man who holds a grudge. During World War II, the U.S. initially refused to recognize his Free French government; he felt personally insulted by both Church ill and Roosevelt. There may be some smallness in this great, tower ing man, but those who believe in him say his motivations are solely those of a patriot Only one person, however, has absolutely no doubts about what DeGaulle is up to that is DeGaulle himself. "Nobody else can become the master of our destiny," he says. "We are the best judges of what we ought to do." DR. MARIA MAYER "The Beauty in Gottingen" was how they referred to her during undergraduate days at that Ger man university. Nowadays she is Dr. Maria Goeppert Mayer, and when she attends faculty parties at the University of California at La Jolla, observers note that "men still collect around her." What makes her an especially interest ing woman, however, is that she won this year's Nobel Prize in physics (with J. Hans D. Jensen of 4 Family Wetkly. DecmbtT !t, 1X3
