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of the Isles, she was tagged “a second Marlene Dietrich.” Back on Broadway, she appeared in a series of dismal flops, mediocre flops, and three or four plays that rated no score at all. She finally hit her stride as the predatory Regina Giddens in Lillian Heilman’s “The Little Foxes,” again as Sabina in Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” and came off with the New York film critics award for her portrayal of a newspaper woman in the Hitchcock film, “Lifeboat.” Glamorous, Unpredictable By the time she stampeded into radio via NBC’s “The Big Show” she had worked up a reputation for being “fabulous, incredible, tempestuous, a character,” which she resents vio¬ lently. She talks endlessly, in paragraphs rather than sentences. She shows a distinct preference for prancing over walking. And she can throw a tantrum at the block of most any whim. This particular talent was perfected at the age of five when Daddy took sister (Eugenia) off on a picnic and left Tallulah home. Tallu flung herself on the floor, “got purple in the face and screamed blue murder.” Grandmother squelched both the tantrum and the young Bankhead with a bucket of cold water. Her voice is her trademark, and al¬ though she sings in a virtual bass, she claims perfect pitch. “The gags about my voice didn’t just happen,” she con¬ fided. “I haven’t always sounded like the low end of a foghorn. But by the time I was six, I had the croup, whooping cough, pneumonia, mumps, tonsillitis, measles; everything settled right here in my chest.” She pounded, proving its whereabouts. “I figured Durante has his nose, Benny has his miserliness, I w'ould have my voice. But Bob Hope clinched it. He introduced me on ‘The Big Show,’ saying that I was going to sing, ‘Give My Regards to Seventh Avenue.’ I corrected him, ‘You mean, Broad¬ way, Bob.’ He told me, ‘Tallulah, you’ll always be a block away.’ ” During the tour of “Windows,” so named because it has 75 of them, Tal¬ lulah pointed out her prized posses¬ sions, ranging from her Augustus John portrait, which she values at $100,000, to Precious, the puppet de¬ signed for her by Burr Tillstrom. She displayed her Myna bird, Cleo, and asked it to repeat her name. “Say Tallulah,” said Tallulah. “Birds can’t talk,” said Cleo. Except Maybe Rosselini At the door, Tallu charged, “I’ll bet you’re going home to write that I’m utterly mad, just like people expect me to be. It’s that stupid typing.” But though she defies being typed, and a trillion other natural laws, she con¬ ceded, “It’s true. If it had been me who ran off with Rosselini, no one would have given it a thofight.” —Katherine Pedell She swaps gags with Bert Lahr on comedy show but does just as good a job in a dramatic role.