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
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