Express and News from San Antonio, Texas • Page 77

SAN ANTONIO April 30, 1972 PAGE 9-C Tycoon Among Nixon's Close Cronies ByVERAGLASERand MELVINASTEPHENSON SPECIAL TO EXPRESS-NEWS WASHINGTON A controversial and hitherto figure- in President Nixon's California circle is a female financial genius a flashy brunette recently became codefendant in a $300 million dollar lawsuit. Thrice-married Maria Helen Harmon Alvarez Ilill started out as a 16-per- week cosmetics clerk at Sears By age 30 she had -rpade millions. In 1963 she married 'Croesus-rich C. Arnhold Smith, who is called "Mr. San Diego." He reportedly raised a million dollars, including $250,000 of his own, for Nixon's campaign that year.

THE RECENTLY filed suit charges Helen, "Amis," Pool Offers Memberships The swimming pool at Antonian College Preparatory School will be open to family memberships at special rates this summer, according to Kichard Squilla, chairman of the Antonian Activity Committee. Squilla said that a person does not have to be an Antonian student or the parent of a student in the high school to be eligible for membership in the junior Olympic-size pool at 6425 West Ave. The pool will be open with lifeguard supervision after school and on weekends during May and all day, every day, during the summer months through Labor Day. Information on the membership rales may be had by calling 344-9265 or 6921048. Washington Olt'lM'at and others in the family- controlled Westgate-Callf- ornia Corp.

with defrauding stockholders. In one count Helen is accused of chiseling on $2 million dollars of antique furnishings and decorating services sold by firm, International Interiors, to the posh Westgate Plaza Hotel in downtown San Diego. Hefty lawsuits are nothing new to Helen. In the late fifties she traded charges of "fraud" with her former partner in broadcasting and oil, California and Texas multimillionaire Jack Wrather. She emerged with a $6 million dollar settlement and now must face Wrather and his wife, actress Bonita Granville, in top-level Nixon circles.

SO CLUBBY were the Smiths and the Nixons that they holed up together on election night in 1968 in the security-light Waldorf Towers in New York City, along with John Mitchell, who was to become U.S. attorney general, and adviser Murray Chotiner. The Smiths were asked to i elegant White House soirees in the ensuing 14 months. Although Smith originally offered to help bankroll the Republican Convention in San Diego, no one will breathe a greater sigh of relief if the GOP goes elsewhere as seems likely--than Arnie and Helen. The White House wants to duck out, too not only because of the ITT case, but also because it has been embarrassed by Smith's San Diego power structure and has no wish to spotlight it further.

A RECENT article in Life magazine connected Smith with illegal campaign con- "MAKING RESEARCH WORK FOR YOU" EMPHASIS 1972-1973 Mr. W. fpirtil Sin- 101 Vitt frelident Director, Bathe Research, Chairman fiache Investment Policy CommiJIee. Sponsored as a Public Service by BACHE CO. AND WOAI WEDNESDAY, MAY 3RD 7:30 P.M.

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225-5611 E. Tiite, Manager tributions, drawing the attention of Senate Judiciary probers. Other published reports indicate Smith is under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Internal Revenue Service. Arnie and Helen, who have enjoyed a favorable local press, are fighting now to keep their low prifile as investigative reporters from California dailies close in. Smith is tanned, vigorous and charming at 73.

His favorite color is beige. He wears beige suits, drives a beige car and surrounds himself with the no-color at home. "Arnie has been skating on thin ice for years," said a prominent San Diegan. "I doubt he has done anything illegal, but he has reinvested almost everything here and has ended up owning too much." HKLEN IS so, doll-faced and dynamic, but growing plump. She has a 29-year-old son by her brief teen-age marriage to Joseph Alvarez.

"She finally got a man she couldn't boss," the source said in reference to Smith. "Helen is brilliant. In her youth she was a dazzler. She is still captivating. It cost Arnie a fortune to divorce his first wife and marry Helen, but she convinced him it was worth it." Arnie had been estranged from first wife, Lois, now 72, when Helen appeared.

Daughter of a Kansas oil drilling contractor, Helen lived most of her early life in Tulsa, graduating from high school at IS with straight After divorcing Alvarez, she teamed up with John B. Hill, a sales manager, who helped launch her in the television business where she made her first million. At one point she was in business with singer Bing Crosby. When her partnership with Wrather exploded in 1958, Helen married Hill and headquartered in San Diego. Again the union was brief.

Plunging into GOP politics, she gave generously and rose swiftly, meeting Smith along the way. At the 1964 convention Helen was a Goldwater delegate. In 1968 she and Arnie, as newlyweds, attended the Miami Beach conclave. He was a delegate for Ronald Reagan but switched to Nixon. The big question now is, will the Smiths brave the Miami spotlight, should the convention move there, and will they remain Nixon intimates through 1972? NOW IS THE TIME FOR GOOD MEN! JOE RAINEY MAIMION County Commissioner Precinct 3 Paid Political Ad COCWRV NO-IRON SHORT SLEEVE DRESS SHIRTS FROM AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE MAKER, regularly 6.50 to 7.50 We'll give you the shirts right off our sleeve shirts -from America's number one shirtmaker! You can pair them up with a tie or wear them casually with open collar.

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