You-Rent-lt

It is just past midnight. The 300 guests have emerged from the gaily trimmed dining tents, and are now doing the cha cha cha on the wooden dance floor that covers part of the lawn. A champagne fountain burbles into the hollow-stem crystalware. The hostess snuggles her mink stole over her airy Howard Greer original. The host pats his cummerbund and stares expansively at his Thunderbird convertible in the drive. Then he surveys the whole scene and realizes that he is not the master of a blessed thing he surveys. The tents, the chairs, the band, the dance floor, the artificial grass, the champagne fountain, the cummerbund, the T-Bird. the mink, the dress are all rented. Only the guests, the wife, and the bill are real. But in Hollywood, and all over the U.S., more and more people are leading the You-Rent-It life.

One of the biggest outfits in the booming renting business is United Rent-All Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., which was started by Unemployed Railroad Worker D. R. Patton in 1947. Today, Patton's company sells franchises to more than 300 dealers, who buy their equipment from United. The Hertz car-rental firm last year got into the act with three Chicago stores, and more planned. These two companies, as well as scores of independent dealers, can supply customers with anything from antique candelabra to concrete mixers.

Subways. While many articles are rented for the purpose of borrowing status (a mink stole, from Manhattan's Consolidated Laundries for $35 a night; a Rolls-Royce, from Buckingham Livery for $9 an hour) or showing off (an elephant, from Fred Birkner for $500 a day), most users rent things that they can afford but require only for a short time. Thus it makes sense for the home gardener to rent the electric hedge trimmers that he needs only three times a year ($1.50 for a few hours), or for the host to rent five dozen highball glasses ($7.50) for New Year's Eve. Says a Los Angeles housewife: "We give a big party once a year, and even if it costs a little, I'd rather rent the china and silver I need than ransack the neighborhood borrowing extra cups and plates." Few customers show any signs of embarrassment. Explains a Chicago hostess: "No one would try to pass off rented silverware as her own. It would be like introducing the caterer as your butler."

Manhattanites, gregarious types that they are, can rent a subway if they have use for it (500 members of the New York Telephone Co.'s Retired Club chartered a five-car subway for a trip to Coney Island this week). Jean's Silversmiths supplies fine silver place settings, to match the renter's own, at about $50 for a dozen six-piece settings, or fine crystal goblets at $24 a dozen (but the renter may have to pay $240 for the whole set if one goblet breaks). The New York Circulating Library of Paintings rents out its collection of contemporary works (Brackman, Segovia Jr., Purdy, etc.) for as little as $8 a month. And anybody who has everything but the kitchen sink can get that at the Lee Sam Plumbing & Heating Supply Co. in Manhattan.

Furniture? In Los Angeles, in addition to artificial grass, the well-to-do often rent their minks when they travel to cooler climates. "I can't mention any names," says Rent-a-Mink's Lillian Feinberg confidentially, "but a lot of our furs went to Washington for the inaugural." Many stars rent automobiles, for as business and professional men learned long ago, renting meant none of the headaches of car ownership, and the monthly statements make for handy documentation of business expenses. Some people who have difficulty obtaining automobile insurance have no such problem with rented cars. Claims Nate Rosenberg of Alert Car Rental (T-Bird, Cadillac convertibles, Continentals, etc.): "The stars make so much money they can't afford a car. I got 'em all: Yul Brynner, Sal Mineo, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Bob Kennedy, Peter Lawford, Conrad Nagel. It's a million-bucks-a-year business."

The likelihood is that more Americans will make the rent-it business even bigger, as home ownership and leisure time increase. The boom may well be symptomatic of a new aspect of the American character--the loss of price in acquisition and ownership of material things in exchange for an appreciation of practical convenience. Says United Rent-All's Patton: "I think the time is just around the corner when we'll be able to convince people that it's foolish to go out and spend a lot of money buying furniture. They'll be renting it--all new and all of top quality--and for an investment much less than the cost of buying."

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