Voice of Broadway By Dorothy Kilgallen Rudolph Bing's decision to reduce the size of the claque at the Metropolitan Opera has caused more of a furor among the stars than first reports indicated. Many of the irate foreign names, who consider the claque "as necessary as bread," are shrieking that they will never come back after this season . . . Holly? wood has a new scandal, still at the whisper stage but liable to hit the front pages. Tha manager-husband of a famous film actress caught her in the arms of an English actor and gave her the beating of her life. Comedian George DeWitt and his wife, model Claire Green, have reconciled and are knitting tiny garments . . . Intimates feel sure Marianne O'Brien Reynolds is tossing the big Florida wing-ding March 16 to announce her engagement to Alf Barton, president of the swank Surf Club . . . Desl Arnaz decided to say no to the "Marco Polo" movie Leo McCarey is shooting in Spain this summer. Because there wasn't a part in it for Lucy. Franchot Tone has won this season's Romeo prize as far as the Lin-dy's set is concerned. In the past few nights he's strolled in with Mona Knox, Nancy Berg. Cleo Moore. Lisa Frrraday and Sherry Brltton. (Oh. Man! Oh. Women!) ... A well-publicized local lawyer has left the country to dodge the heat soon to be cnirendcred by a former client Involved in a vice case. Young Jack Seabrook of the frozen food fortune was in Barbados when he heard about the strike of laborers In MontfRO Bay, flew over to confer with the lenders, and settled the strike In half a dny . . Alt Khan's love letters to Gene Ticrney are so poetic her chums can quote excerpts from them . . . Tammany loaders are holding a klckoff dinner for Congressman FDR, Jr.'s gubernatorial try at the Waldorf on March 21. Rossonti Podesta, the bosomv young Italian benuty who landed the lead in Warners' "Helm of Troy." will get the Marilyn Monroe buildup from fan magnines. She's married to a gent named Marco Vl-carlo and is the mother of a little boy . . . Woolie Donahue' long distance calls are beamed to the Lang-don on Fifth Avrnne. rrMdrncc oT Oriental beauty Pi Maria Tsien. who J both model and tobacco heiress. Watch out. Birln! Mr. John's list of the 10 worst-hntted women tn America comes out this week. He doesn't bother with the 10 best because he thinks female learn faster from bad Uncle Ef J3 examples than from good ones . . . Joe Loco's quintet, currently playing at the Sahara in Las Vegas, won so many thousands at. the dice table they're pooling it to invest in a rhumba spot out there. A Washington magazine has three reporters gathering material on Por-f irio Rubirosa in preparation for an article the editors hope will be the most sizzling of all . . . Bobby Mc-Guire, who left "20 Questions" four years ago to go to college, is back on the panel . . . Nick Prounis of the Versailles is hospital-bound for a checkup, possible surgery . . . The Duchess of Kent is incensed at Lord Beaverbrook for attacking her brother-in-law. Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, in his newspapers. Ina Claire must know the secret of how to fascinate your man and in a big way. Her husband, William Ross Wallace, had to fly to San Francisco for his law practice while she remained in New York in "The Confidential Clerk." But glamor triumphed over Gladstone: Mr. Wallace started yearning while still in flight, never left the airport at Frisco, and came back to Gotham on the next available plane. Jack Brooks, who wrote the song click "That's Amore," adores Dorothy Bakti , a West Coast actress. He considers her the inspiration for the ditty, which sold 1200,000 copies and may wind up with an Academy Award . . . Mrs. Jack Frye (formerly Nevada Smith of the girl shows) actually is wearing black for her dog, "Meatball." who died suddenly. The recent flood of newspaper articles on Juvenile delinquency have afforded a breathing spell to some of the Forty - second Street movie houses, usually plagued by the wild ones. Many of the most troublesome of the switchblade set are making themselves scarce for fear of being picked up while "the heat" Is on . . . Ollte M.itson. the Olympic track star, will walu down the aisle with his childhood sweetheart, Mary Paige, of San Francisco. No one is sure whether hi dates with Ava Oardner had anything to do with it. but Italian comedian Walter Chiarl has broken his tn-gn cement to motion picture actress Lucia Bose . . . Dinah Washington, the blues singer, will enter a hospital around the first of June for a serious nbdominnl operation . . ' Lillian Roth's streak of good fortune at long last ha a new topper: shea struck oil on the 160 acres she owns in New Mexico. The fellow Bella Darvl likes most I a Hollywood tycoon . . . The ballyhoo for Loui Armstrong's opening at Basin Street should be colorful and funny. SaUhmo will feature an Oriental motif, with his Tokyo posters pa Med all over the front of the club, the A urna Kabukl dancers at rmeside. and rickshaws i rented from a theatrical prep house) available at the curb for customers who are bored with taxis.
