Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING JULY 7 1935 Weird Toll of Traged rV But the Happy-Go-Luck- $40000000 y TinmPlale Prince Keeps Right On Cruising in Spite of His “Jewel Jinx I U 99 t a SHE OWNED THE RUBIES The Late Princess of Aaaetaiia Greece Mother of Carefree Bill Leeds Yonnf Soper-stitio- oi People Insist Her Fabulous Gems — Which She Is Seen Wearing in Above Photo — Were Responsible for the Bad Luck That Pursned Hfm and His Wife Princess Pretty Xenia of Russia at Right Their Romance Ran on the Rocks Shortly After She Inherited Her Mother - in Law’s Jewels HER BEAUTY WAS MARRED Lovely Eileen Wenzel Famous Night-CluPerformer Before the Tragic Ac aidant That Scarred Har Peeriees Features Sha Waa Smashad Up is a Motor-Ca- r Crash Shortly After Being Entertained on the “Moana” guest lists reads rata a combination of Who’s Who on Broadway and the Social Register There were joyous times aplenty on the swift trim vessel Then suddenly - yf: y ue JOLLY ocLSirs° VanS w y vT Be-th- NO LUCK WITH HORSES Rose Wentel Granlund Sister of Eileen and Wife af Nila T Granlund Notad Master of Ceremonies Following a Cruise on the "Moana” Sha Wss Twice Thrown From Her Mount end Gravely Injured Sndvlrious afternoon Carroll accepted with alacrity and set out from Miami where he was vacationing for the yacht in nearby waters With Mr Carroll went one of his most illustrious stage beauties Beryl Wallace Earl and Beryl hopped into a motor launch all set for substantial tiffin with Bill Leeds But it n le st tin-pla- te was not to be ' Off shore their gasoline supply ran out and for hours the distracted impresario and his apprehensive protege floundered around helpless in the bay Before they could be rescued from their jam both the Earl and Miss Wallace had been chilled from continued expo sure And 03 top of it all Beryl missed Mrs Codings was forced to abandon her daughter and pccompany the pair frpjrKMt 111 ft Collings' body was washed ashore at Lloyd's Harbdr Suffolk County The Kifif FehlutM Sjftdtau 1m murderers were never caught in spite of with the police Bill Leeds’ The Collings case was and still is one of the major unsolved murder mysteries of our day But Bill Leeds did more than his share to help solve it The acute reader will by this time have detected a curious parallel between g lively young Leeds and his Favorite vessel Both are speedy well endowed and given to running the gamut from the farcically humorous to matters of grave import This coincidence just recegfty was capped by an rood-lookin- the night performance of the show in of ruffians in their canoe Her captors which she was appearing locally rowing away swiftly finally deposited This misadventure of course wasn’t her in a deserted motor boat in Oyster serious But Leeds’ boats have figured Bay harbor She was rescued a few in dramatic and even deeply tragic hours later Mrs Ceilings’ weird and terrible nsr- crises what was nothing less than a On the night of September 28 1931 ' rtiv the small cabin cruiser Penguin rode piratical raid and murder on peaceful at anchor in Long Island Sound off Long Island Sound was received almost Price's Point near Northport adjacent incredulously by some of the authorities On top of the fearful ordeal of the crime to the Leeds estate itself she wee put through further On board were Benjamin Codings inof extended questioning Mean-whil- s ventor and tnechanical engineer his the main mystery only thickened Lillian wife and their Word of the sinister tragedy bad ten a daughter Barbara At half-pacanoe scraped against the craft’s stern reached Bill Leeds very soon Good and a man’s querulous voice shrilled: sport that he is and always alert he placed his fleet of assorted fast craft “I want to come aboard” The upshot of this encounter wss moored in the vicinity at the disposal of They frightful The stranger between 40 and the investigating authorities 50 and his assistant a boy of 17 seized scoured the nearby waters hoping to resand bound Colling hand and foot after cue Colling and seizs his abductors beating him over the fieadwith a milk But luck was against them bottle and hurled him into the water It was not till week hadelpsed that I I SCION However Sketch Book revues formal call one Sunday Nudie-Tycoo- TIN-PLAT- E William B Leeds Jr la Characteristically Informal Attire Such as Ha Wore During His Most Racant Mishap When His Boat Ran Into Heavy Water He Emerged Unscathed From the Ordeal happy-go-luck- They calk for brief parenthetical explanation Leeds v mother’s set of precious stones was at the time of her death unrivaled Diamonds rubies pearls emeralds--the- y filled her regal coffers with a priceless rainbow radiance But somehow these glittering rarities failed to bring the former Mrs Leeds contentment She worried about their safety: their possible loss haunted her When she passed on in nightmares the bulk of the gems went naturally to Pnncess Xenia her daughter-in-laAnd shortly after the younger woman acauired them her Idyllic domestic life with Bill Leeds began to develop serious fissures® Divorce was inevitable as it may Bill still had the He was a lavish host 'yacht Moana aboard her and the personnel of his ishment of all his friends he turned up not much the worse for wear When the elemente lowered and skiee turned black millionaire had made the the best of a bad business with his customary tang froid He had taken a little Ashing trip on the side as it were in one of the Moana’ launchea All thie time he had been the subject of extensive teareh by amphibi ans planes cutters and Federal border patrolmen Bill characteristically took the episode in his stride Though hoaree from a cold and muscularly sore he was In his usual good humor when he appeared back at Miami Heavy seas had kept him fr m landing at Bimini 10 “we just went to Gun Cay and stayed there for the night” The casual attitude waa basically Leedsian They’ll tell you tall stories—the super-etitiowill— of diamond WTlat watches lost overboard from the Moana of accidents to provender in the scullery of a thousand and 'one bits of trivia that bear out the dictum of Bill Leeds’ mari- -' time What they won't toll you is the rather charming fact that dainty Olive Hamilton' has never had a part in any of the minor or major Moana mishaps She’s a former Miss Hamilton? Broadway show girl who time and again bas been reported engaged to BUI and who certainly engagement or no engagement is one of his most cherished pals Gall It luck Call it fate or coincidence or just a happen-s- o but the weird toll of tragedy and accident in the wake of Leeds’ yacht has passed Olive uncompletely by Every toward occurs Olive’s elsewhere One hazards that Bill’s just as glad at that No saga of this vivacious youth’a maritime adventures would be complete without reference to hie hilarious Aqui-tani- a voyage Bill went down to the big ship to see some friends off for Europe And before you could say: “Forty knots” he was on the other side of the Atlantic! Considerable mystery of a genial nature has always surrounded this exploit Bill landed on the Aquitanla in tails and minus luggage But when he got to lo! he wai magically Cherbourg equipped with two suitcases and an valet Where and bow he got these useful no one really knows or commodities why he bo suddenly decided to go abroad The most sensible explanation was offered by his aunt Mrs Henderson Green of Montclair New Jersey “Billy had an awfully bad cold” she vouchsafed "and he thought the sea air would do him a world of good” high-epirit- “things” began to happen In 1932 Leeds invited two outstanding beauties of stage and night-clu- b fame to accompany him on a Mediterranean cruise They were Rose and Eileen Wenzel sisters and perhaps the best known show girls of Manhattan Rose had married taciturn lantern-jawed Nils (N T GA Granlund celebrated master of ceremonies Eileen was unwed The pleasure cruise was an immense success But a few months after the voyage ended disaster struck Rose was thrown from her mount while riding near her home and seriously injured She recuperated quickly but some weeks later suffered a repetition of the accident An even tougher break fell to the lot of Sister Eileen No great hand at “dates” the demure little beauty had been finally prevailed upon by Playboy Louis Ehret Jr heir to the brewery millions to take a ride with him in a swanky car On their way through Central Park at a speedy clip the car careened and struck a lamp post Eileen was hurled out grazing death by a matter of inches They took the “Girl with the Angel’s Face” to the hospital There forty-seve- n stitches had to be taken in the pitifully marred countenance' Her nerves on edge and her health generally impaired Eileen Wenzel sued Ehret for $250000 No court decision had been damages reached when this was written Meanwhile the Moana continued on y her way with Bill Leeds still the j°vil host Last Winter he AnadtaSiS'S b occurrence which seemed to portend disaster but which as it turned out was a sheer comedy of errors heir hadbeen cruising The around somewhat aimlessly off the coast of Miami his favorite floating ground when he ran into what mariners call “rough water” His objective bad been Bimini Harbor But tossing seas impeded his progress On shore alarm was felt for his safety and after 24 hours had elapsed with no word from Bill President Roosevelt ordered a general search for him by Navy and Coast Guard of speedy There was a grand turn-ou- t vessels and the waters off the Florida coast were thick with cruising craft by with piercing searchday and Even airplanes took lights by night risky flights scouring the face of the deep for the popular missing milliontin-pla- aire Hope for Leeds’ recovery had been abandoned when greatly to the aston- - ill-lu- honest-to-goodne- ss ' |