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Show 111 1 LJ 1 1 Editor's Note: While Win-cbell Win-cbell is on vacation, Jack Lait la acting as guest columnist. Unshackled in a Garden of Eden- Best American Divorce, and j fastest, is the decree issued by Federal Judge Moore in St. Thomas, Thom-as, Virgin Islands, U. S. A. . . . It takes eight hours to get to St. Thomas from New York via plane, flying the new nonstop route. . . . By a new regulation, after six weeks' residence, the decree is signed, eliminating long periods of publication and other delays pertinent perti-nent to Reno or Miami divorces. . . . The Virgin islands are a practically prac-tically unknown paradise few tourists, best Scotch on earth at $2.50 a fifth, cigarets 50 cents a carton, shopping for native woven products at prewar prices and your buck worth 100 cents. . . . Two American hotels Hotel 829 and the government run Bluebeard's Castle total accommodations 60 j people! . . . The Virgin islands divorce decree is the only one in I the country signed by a federal judge, who is appointed by the President. ... No V. I. divorce has yet been contested by any state. Lawyers feel that the federal character char-acter of the decree, puts it above protest. ... In this tropical Capri, the city-harassed American finds j new world comforts along with authentic old world atmosphere like the South Sea islands once had. . . . Natives live in tiny huts, the beaches are blue and coral, the (water crystal clear, with vast acres wild, awaiting settlement. . . . The government local and national is eager to sell at ridiculously low figures. fig-ures. ... At Caneel bay, on St. John (one of the U. S. Virgin group), the most breath-taking beach on earth rests its spreading white arms in cool tropical splendor splen-dor with an average of three bathers a dayl Cabanas, furnished by the U. S., are usually empty. Atlantic City shut up tighter than ever. ... The cops just sent the sad word around, and the wheels stopped rolling. . . . Jack Lynch, who lost his historic club on Philly's Walton hotel roof when sudden fire regulations closed it, is hunting a new street-floor spot there; meanwhile, he wants to take over the now dark Rainbow room, in Radio City but the Rockefellers Rockefel-lers don't seem to need the money. When George White, whose "Scandals" rivaled Zlegfcld's "Follies," ran into hit-and-run trouble In San Diego, the supposedly sup-posedly bard hearted Broadway Broad-way boys called a meeting and chipped in for a defense fund. . . . Buddy de Sylva was the leader. ... The kitty went to $50,000! Faye (Mrs. Roosevelt) Emerson returns to the stage at Cape Cod. Mass., August 12, in "Here Today," a warmed-over Ruth Gordon starrer star-rer of 1934. . . . It's official-Joan Crawford's next is "Possessed." with Van Heflin, based on a Cosmopolitan Cos-mopolitan magazine novelette, "One Man's Secret," by Rita Weiman. . . . Civil aeronautics bureau may not know this: When it approved an around - the - world route for TWA linked with Northwest Air-Llne, Howard Hughes, who owns TWA, had an option on control of Northwest North-west . . . TWA is to fly N. Y. to Shanghai, via Europe; North-west North-west is to pick up there, flying to Alaska and Seattle. . . . Hughes' option was to become effective if, as and when Northwest got government govern-ment permission to fly the Pacific. ... So It appears Hughes, who broke the around-the-world air record, rec-ord, has in hand the around-the-world route he laid out on that famous four-day zoom. . . . And, with announcement of the globe-circling globe-circling license, plus the approval of the Constellations with changes. TWA stock leaped so th;,t Hughes' holdings have been rising at a rate of about $1,000,000 a day as he lies and listens to his ribs knit-ting. knit-ting. Jack Dcmpaey and Jake Amron, former Hollywood restaurant boss, have made a flossy offer for Henry Lustlg's Longchamps tax-tainted restaurant chain. . . . "Tobacco Road" earned a fortune largely be-cause be-cause Harry Oshrin doesn't go wild on payday. John Barton will draw $350 a week starring as Ject-er Ject-er Lester on tour next season, which gives you a rough idea of what the lesser hillbilly performers will rate. Saratoga bit deeply Into New York njghtlifc. ... The best and stead-test stead-test spenders have flocked to the Spa. which, with all its hopes, didn't anticipate such a gold-rush. . . . The OPA doesn't seem to have penetrated there prCei were pegged steep for a short season . . . But when the New York Influx fluxed In. the natives took up some notches In the Jacks. Now the common man with a $3 bill doesn't know whether to lay it on the favorite to show or buy a hot dg. |