i D ax oice o (fmacli aa By Dorothy Kilgallen. I ; . ; : ,,-..... FRANCHOT TONE HAS WON this season' Romeo prize as far as the Lindy's set is concerned. In the past few nights he's strolled in with Mona Knox, Nancy Berg, Geo Moore, little boy Nevada Smith. . . , Mrs. Jack Frye (formerly Nevada Smith) actually is wearing black for her dog, "Meatball," who died suddenly. k- ' Rudolph Ring'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. ' THE FELLOW BELLA DARVI likes most is a Hollywood tycoon . . . The ballyhoo for Louis Armstrong's opening at Basin Street should be colorful and funny. Satchmo will feature an Oriental motif, with his Tokyo posters pasted all over the front of the club, the Azuma Kabuki dancers at ringside, and rickshaws (rented from a theatrical prop house) available at the curb for customers who are bored with taxis . . . Ollie Matson, the Olympic track star, will waltz down the aisle with his childhood sweetheart, Mary Paige of San Francisco . . . No one is sure whether his dates with Ava Gardner had anything to do with it, but Italian comedian Walter Chiari has broken his engagement to motion piiture actress Lucia Bose . . . Dinah Washington, the blues singer, will enter a hospital around the first of June for a serious abdominal operation -. . ,. Lillian Roth's streak of good fortune at long last has a new topper: she's struck oil on the 160 acres she owns in New Mexico. - ' The recent flood of newspaper articles on juvenile delinquency has afforded a breathing spell to some of the 42nd St. 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. COMEDIAN GEORGE DE WITT and his wife, model Claire Green, have reconciled and are knitting tiny garments ,.4. Intimates feel sure Marianne O'Brien Reynolds Is tossing the big Florida wing-ding Tuesday to announce her engagement to Alf Barton, plVoV president of the swank Surf Club . . . r Desi Arnas 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 ... A Washington magazine has three ers gathering material on Porfirio Ru birbsa in preparation for an editors hope w(ll be the most all ; . . Bobby McGuire, who left "20 Questions" four years ago to go to college, is back on the panel . . . The Duchess of Kent is incenBed at Lord Beaver-brook for attacking her brother-in-law, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, in his newspapers . . Woolie Donahue's long distance calls are beamed to the Langdon on Fifth Avenue, residence of Oriental beauty Pi Maria Tsien, who is both model and tobacco heiress. (Copyrifht, 19S4.) ' Read Dorothy Kilgallen's "Voice of Broadway" column regularly In The Des Moines Register. Lisa Ferraday and Sherry Britton. (Oh, Man! Oh, Women!) . . . Aly Khan's love letters to Gene Tierney are so poetic her chums can quote excerpts from them . . Rossana Podesta, the bosomy young Italian beauty who landed the lead in Warners' "Helen of Troy," will get the Marilyn Monroe buildup from fan magazines. She's married' to a gent named Marco Vicario and is the mother of a . . . Jack Brooks, who wrote the song click "That's Amore," adores Dorothy Baker, a west coast actress. He considers her the inspiration for the ditty, which sold 1,200,000, copies and may wind up with an Academy Award Bella Darvt. report article the sizzling Duchess of Kent. lO ri of : rt a m a
