Minor Mysteries; Major Espionage

This week:  a mishmash of obscurity, espionage.  

Party dresses!  Which look a lot like what I wore to school every single day through Kindergarten and first grade - a few years after this.   Then they began to disappear.  Little girls changed, too.  

You'd never see an ad for a girl's dress in today's Vogue.  In fact, I don't know when I've seen an ad for children's clothes in any magazine, except for Gap Christmas ads.  

I can find very little about R.A.R. Moppets.  You could find them at Capwell's in Oakland for what would be $86.00 now.  Here is Capwell's after the '89 quake, before it became the strangest, saddest Sears in the world.  I most recently waited while an old man returned Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with much complication.  How does that even happen?  

  

What a mess!  A long-gone perfume, Memoire Cherie.  Even The Perfumed Court has no sample.  According to this ad, and many others in newspapers across America, Memoire Cherie is the "one perfume in the world to win the treasured Coupe d'Or!"  The only other thing I can find that has won this is a French beer in the 1990s.  It is given out by something called the Comite de Bon Gout de Francais.  If they have a website, I cannot find it.  Let's get out of here!

We are looking at two spreads this week, both awful.   This is like a road trip that you start out by planning to stop at all of the little towns along the way, then after a while you just say 'the hell with it' and get back on the freeway.  Is this cheating?  

On the right, Dacron from DuPont.  It seems like only yesterday we had Orlon from DuPont.  You would think that, by now, I would know the difference, right down to molecular structure.  I don't.  

Dacron, which no longer exists, was produced from 1953 in Kinston, North Carolina, at a factory that actualy  still exists.  Although "significantly downsized," according to the city site, the factory is now bio-fueled.  

"Behind Every Olga, There Really Is an Olga."  I remember this ad slogan that ran for years with a picture of a smiling Olga Erteszek, who seemed to really understand all of your lingerie problems.  In fact, I wore Olga bras for many years.  I even worked in the office for a few days as a temp.  I remember the building on Haskell in the Valley, the address in this ad, but I have no idea what I did there.  

I don't remember ever wearing anything this pointy!  

These are the first Asian models I've seen in Vogue, or anywhere else.    I wonder how it came about.

Back to the Society Pages.  Refreshing your memory:

Facts one can find on the internet!   Somewhere in this photo is chairwoman Virginia Page Hart (Mrs. Creighton Carlton Hart), in a pale blue brocade gown.  Debs, of course are in white.  Any woman in black is a post-deb.  First Jewel Ball given in 1954.  Apparently still continuing.  It is a benefit for the Symphony and art museum - how?  Is there an entry fee - like for the Kentucky Derby?

Princess Galitzine, an attractive Italian visitor.  There were many Princess Galitzines in the last century. NYT headlines:  Princess Galitzine . . . is killed by a bomb (Catherine, 1940). . . married in London (Anne Marie, 1956) . . . records greedy-pleasure seeking (Aimee Crocker Galitzine, 1933) . . . becomes designer of Liberty of London (Shelaigh, mid 1950s).  The only Italian Princess Galitzine seems to have been Irene,  a Russian princess, not Italian.  In 1959, Irene Galitzine was already a notable Italian fashion designer; in the 1960s she would be credited for palazzo pants.  But is this that Princess Galitzine?   A prince-laden family, the Galitzines!  Russian refugees, like Prince Matchabelli. Or maybe Georgian, like Prince Matchabelli.

This could be anyone, really.

Let's Go to the Movies!

*  A melancholy vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana becomes reluctant spy.

*  Intelligent adaptation by Graham Greene of his own novel - much of the screaming sadness of the book bleached away, thank goodness.   Shot on location immediately after the revolution, which is alone worth price of admission; lovely score.

*  One of my favorite Alec Guinness roles; the surprises here are Burl Ives and Ernie Kovacs.  But the drawings of the weaponized vacuum cleaner steal the show.