Word: gravel
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Died. Thelma Ritter, 63, Brooklyn-born character actress; of a heart attack; in Jamaica, N.Y. Her voice was purest Greenpoint gravel and her visage was forever screwed into the city dweller's skeptical query: "Who ya' tryin' to kid, buster?" She began her career, as she once put it, on the road as "an obnoxious child actress-the poor man's Cornelia. Otis Skinner." She married in 1927 and settled into domesticity, but in 1946 resumed her career in Miracle on 34th Street, portraying an irate mother haranguing a Macy's Santa Claus...
Died. Tallulah Bankhead, 65, the iridescent and irrepressible empress of show business, whose gravel-throated cry of "Daaahling!" was part of the language for nearly half a century; of pneumonia; in Manhattan. Beautiful and honey-blonde, the daughter of a wealthy Alabama Congressman, Tallulah could count only three genuine hits in a career that encompassed literally scores of plays and movies: Broadway's The Little Foxes (1939) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) and Hollywood's Lifeboat (1944). Yet even to the flops she brought the kind of fierce power and impish delight that captivated friend...
...Wallis) and other do-gooders inevitably seem insipid trifles. But even the knaves are topped by two performers: Bill Sikes' companion, a mangy, miserable mongrel, is the least appealing, most memorable dog since the Hound of the Baskervilles. And Jack Wild, 15, as The Artful Dodger, has polished gravel for a voice, a Toby jug for a head, and the suggestion of fame for a future. As well might be. The last boy to play the Dodger onscreen was a cockney-of-the-walk by the name of Anthony Newley...
Died. Greet Hofmans, 74, Dutch faith healer whose influence on The Netherlands' royal household made headlines around the world in 1956; of unknown causes; in Amsterdam. In 1949 the gaunt, gravel-voiced spinster, who claimed that God had invested her with supernatural powers, was summoned by Prince Bernhard to work her miracles on the young and partially blind Princess Maria Christina. The ministrations failed, and in 1950 Prince Bernhard ordered the faith healer from the palace-though Queen Juliana continued to consult her and allowed her to have meetings on Queen Mother Wilhelmina's estate. Rumor held Miss...
Alaska. Massachusetts-reared Maurice Robert ("Mike") Gravel, 38, has been in Alaska only since 1956, but he upset veteran Senator Ernest H. Gruening in a tough primary battle. Gruening's angry ensuing write-in campaign and a vigorous challenge from Republican Opponent Elmer E. Rasmuson made the general election a cliffhanger, but now Gravel, onetime speaker of the Alaska house, will have a chance to speak for his state in the Senate...