Judge — December 20, 1919 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HAT a fine spirit of reciprocity there is between the drama and the department store! Fifth Avenue stages in its shop-windows, with elaborate lighting and background effects, the glittering pageantof Fashion; and Broadway, inits half-a-hundred proscenium arch-frames, presents the Masque of Modes. - Aristotle’s Three Unities—time, place and action— in which Greek tragedy was corseted and which nearly squeezed the breath of life out of Corneille and Racine, have been thrown to historian ragpickers. The new Three Essentials of the stage are millinery, dressmaking and hosiery. It matters not whether the leading lady can act or sing. provided her tub frock in the first act is by Schnitzelberger Fréres, her evening gown in the second act is a Lowe one, and her crépe de chine what-you- may-call-it in the bedroom scene is by Thru & Thru, and that in the epilogue she is sable-pelted by Katz. In the midmost Middle West where people’s way of life has fall’n into the Sears Roebuck, as the bird of Avon puts it, folks sit up evenings poring over their mail order catalogue, studying the new modes in silks and silos. Here in New York we are less literary. We aren’t edu- cated up to grasping the signifi- cance of a peignoir from the print- ed page, nor can we calculate how many hands high is a kimono. For us to get the idea of a gown we must see it worn by a winsome one. Shopping is delightfully simpli- fied. No longer does milady (now that milord Steve, her hubby, has won his wad in the glue business) have to mingle with the vulgar in store aisles nor suffer the snippities of sales persons. Milady does her shopping early in the morning— about 1:30 a.M.—after she has seen the styles in the theatre and later pondered over them in the cabaret. She splashes off (see fountain pen ads) a little note to Hasenpfeffer Sceurs (pronounced Sewers): Dear Scrurs Please create me a creation like the lovely nesselrode with maraschino cherries that Miss Elsie Chatterbox wears in the second act of “The Shim: Girl.” I saw your label on the program. Style-Built Drama By Lawtox Mackaty Photo by Abbe Estette Wixwoop, as Tue Heroine or Many Hussanns,” Wonpvers 1p Matrimony Isn't Saver 1x Series THAN 1x Muttipte. And for the wistful West- ern buyer the arduousness of commerce is much alleviated. Instead of wearing his nerves- from-the-night-before by vis- iting stuffy salesrooms and worrying as to how to choose among so many rival cloak-and-suiters, he merely suf- fers himself to be led by the lapel to the Winter Garden or other display place, and there surveys the chickest of the chic. Yet not all the costumes that caper down the run- way are suitable for morning gowns for matrons in Peoria. Certain union-and-liberty effects could hardly be advertised by department stores in Oshkosh as being just what the woman of ampler figure has been looking for and puffing after. They might be perilous for perfect 56's. But there are lamps to be clothed as well as ladies; the drapery on the third girl from the end would “go great” as a piano scarf, and the bead regalia of the orien- al whirl-ess would draw crowds in the art department. The comedy of manners has been succeeded by the comedy of manikins. In‘ Hitchy-Koo,” Raymond Hitch- cock reviews a parade of models, uncloaking each with words of cheer and gratitude to the establishment that furnished the furs and finery—good-natured Gidding. If this method of acknowledg- ing benefactions were universal, then McKay Morris, as Demetrios, the snappy sculptor in air-cooled “Aphrodite,” .”’ should instead of murmuring tributes to the carven goddess (declared carven for the censor’s sake) render his ver- bal oblations to the designing in- fluence of Rowland’s Turkish Baths. But no; he is above such small details as the costumes. Besides, he may have noticed the Rev. Dr. Stratton, theatre- excoriating clergyman, was present to take a complete scrutiny of these matters, viewing them vicariously for his congregation; a veritable shield and buckler—like the un- known guardian who, to save us from sin, drank up the last half bottle of fire-water we had stored away against Eternal Drought. Dr. Stratton has given us new courage. Unfalteringly, we'll go to the deplorable shows so thatour lit- tle flockof readers may be protected. comichooks.com