Models & Mice

In Chicago last week an expensively gowned and highly perfumed audience crowded the Hotel Stevens ballroom to watch the annual St. Luke's Fashion Show. One hundred and eight young women, wives and daughters of Chicago's socially great, acted as models. The audience clapped appreciatively as Miss Josephine Templeton, in tweed, drove a golf ball into the gallery. Applause thundered forth as Mrs. Solomon B. Smith appeared in Mrs. J. Ogden Armour's own wedding gown.

In New York last week an equally expensive audience attended the Green Ball at the Waldorf, watched Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Donna Marina Torlonia, Mrs. James Russell Lowell, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton and Clare Boothe Brokaw stalking about the stage in green evening dresses.

These two fiestas were typical of dozens taking place in dozens of other cities throughout the country. What made them newsworthy, however, was not the display of feminine finery but the angry resentment they kindled in the breasts of the most beautiful young women in the U. S. Bitterly the professional models and mannequins have protested the continual hiring of society models for fashionshows and smart advertising displays.

In Chicago the battle of the mannequins was waged most politely. Professional models, from their headquarters on East Wacker Drive, sent an appeal to the Gold Coast to refrain from this ruinous competition on the grounds of sportsmanship. Touched, many debutantes promised that they would.

"I only hope," said Mrs. Connie Seaman, director of the Models' Registration Bureau, "that the society girls will show by withdrawing from the field that they mean what they say. You see when they're trading on their names, it's not fair to us. That is competition we can't meet. We haven't names, but we have everything else."

In New York the battle was more bitter. Posing for fashion shows, testimonials, photographs is a not inconsiderable source of income for debutantes and divorced duchesses. Amateurs and professionals alike are paid $10 an hour for posing, more when they allow their names to be used in advertisements. Since the debutantes' names are chiefly in demand they almost always get more. They are also allowed to buy the dresses they pose in at cost, a saving of at least 50%. For those too sensitive to accept cash, there are always handsome presents.

The New York society girl most in demand this season as a model is Miss Mary Taylor whose sleek figure and expression of aristocratic disdain are just what modistes and manufacturers desire as a symbol of the superiority of their wares. Twenty years old, a debutante of 1932, known as "Mimsy" to her friends, Miss Taylor is the daughter of Bertrand L. Taylor and the present Mrs. Francis H. McAdoo. She is careful to avoid posing for any of the more intimate feminine accessories, but she is always available for such publications as Vogue, such smart shops as Jay Thorpe and Saks Fifth Avenue. From them she asks and gets $50 an hour. Most of what she makes she spends on dramatic lessons.

Spokeswoman for the society models was Mrs. Harold E. Talbott Jr. (New York Social Register--page 775). As Peggy Thayer of Philadelphia, she was one of the most popular debutantes of the F. Scott Fitzgerald generation. Mrs. Talbott never models for money, but stanchly defends the right of other socialites to do so. In her cool and lovely voice she explained:

"The professionals try to look like ladies. If those who run fashion shows choose, instead, those who really have a society background, isn't the reason obvious?"

These were fighting words to the professionals. Forty of them, their bright eyes flashing, assembled last week in the Mayfair Mannequin Academy to sign a petition and listen to a campaign speech from their director, the forceful, rather masculine Gertrude Mayer.

"There is a rodent in our midst," cried Miss Mayer, "nibbling away at our very profession, and we are here today to get together to buy a mousetrap to catch this animal! . . .

"If picketing doesn't work maybe we'll have to fight fire with fire and actually invade the society sanctums and steal the young debutantes' boy friends away. Looking over you beautiful girls I don't think we'll have such a difficult task!"

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