Miss Woodward Wins Pudding Plaudits

NEW YORK, March 5--In a mighty meeting of commercial minds, three blushing Harvardmen met a movie star today. Witnesses to the event included a Life magazine reporter who forgot his notebook, Mrs. Bob Considine, who is the wife of Mr. Hearst's expert on the human dilemma, and a number of press agents.

Set in the lobby of Club 21, the conclave gathered to proffer to Miss Joanne Woodward the award of Hasty Pudding Club Woman-of-the-Year. As she read a scroll citing her "great acting skill and feminine qualities," Miss Woodward murmured that she loved and appreciated "what it has to say."

"Believe me, we mean every word of it," exclaimed W. Scott Blanchard '59, of Kirkland House and Cedarhurst, L.I. There was no indication that Miss Woodward doubted his sincerity.

The two other college men who met Miss Woodward and posed pictorially with her were John D. Spooner '59, of Lowell House and Chestnut Hill, and Rupert Hitzig '60, of Dunster House and New York City.

When the three entered the well-polished portal of the "21", they caused not a little consternation among the customers who were busy looking important and paying the hat-check attendant for the privilege. In the Hasty Pudding tradition, the trio was dressed in female garb. They compounded the confusion by emitting yelps and titters that struck almost every ear-drum.

One customer, confessing to a girl that he does not always live in the Waldorf but in fact usually dwells at a California address, spun around on the balls of his feet at the intrusion. He had the look of a man whose values faced a severe challenge.

Not long afterward Miss Woodward appeared. She wore an orange coat and an orange, flowery, wrap-around hat. Miss Woodward, who is actually not Miss Woodward at all (she is the wife of actor Paul Newman), accepted with grace a suggestion from one of the Harvards that she is a very feminine person indeed. "I could hardly be more feminine than I am at the present," she observed pleasantly. She said she expects her first child in a month.

Miss Woodward was then asked whether she could compare and contrast her talent with that of other recipients of the Hasty Pudding award. The list includes Debbie Reynolds and Mamie Eisenhower. "A question like that presupposes an evaluation of their talent," she said hesitantly. "I guess to be a hostess like Mrs. Eisenhower requires talent. I certainly wouldn't want that kind of a job--but, yes, it certainly must require talent. Debbie and I talk about what we'd like to do. I'd like to play in a musical, and she wants to play dramatic roles."

By this time, the Life magazine photographer had all but run out of film. He asked a couple of observers to stand as silhouettes at the border of his prospective picture. "That'll make it look as though the picture was hard to get," he said with some satisfaction. "It's always better if it looks as though you had to shoot over the heads of people or through people."

Miss Woodward will appear in a forthcoming movie. And the Hasty Pudding has its annual show in the works.