diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index bb490a92d..1854cec34 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -1429,6 +1429,11 @@ def _getitem_multilevel(self, key):
                 new_values = self.values[:, loc]
                 result = DataFrame(new_values, index=self.index,
                                    columns=result_columns)
+            if len(result.columns) == 1:
+                top = result.columns[0]
+                if (type(top) == str and top == '' or
+                        type(top) == tuple and top[0] == ''):
+                    result = Series(result[''], index=self.index, name=key)
             return result
         else:
             return self._get_item_cache(key)
diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
index 16ac9d78d..86f3ccbcb 100644
--- a/pandas/core/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -302,7 +302,21 @@ def __delitem__(self, key):
         """
         Delete item
         """
-        self._data.delete(key)
+        deleted = False
+        if key not in self.columns:
+            # If column labels are tuples, allow shorthand to delete
+            # all columns whose first len(key) elements match key:
+            if not isinstance(key,tuple):
+                key = (key,)
+            for col in self.columns:
+                if isinstance(col,tuple) and col[:len(key)] == key:
+                    del self[col]
+                    deleted = True
+        if not deleted:
+            # If the above loop ran and didn't delete anything because
+            # there was no match, this call should raise the appropriate
+            # exception:
+            self._data.delete(key)
 
         try:
             del self._item_cache[key]