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ETTA KIT

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WHAT'S MY LINE?
THE WHISTLER
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

Etta Kit is Maven's resident ettiquette expert in movies so she decided to collect some helpful tips in one place to make them easier to understand all those fashions in the movies like how to deal with those reeeeeeeallly long gloves!
She sees all, knows all, and tells all!

THE USE OF CALLING CARDS
 
     Jimmy Chan has calling cards made up for his new detective business in the 1938 movie, Charlie Chan in Honolulu, but not many of us remember how to use calling cards:
 
               "Social Cards were the voice mail of their day. 
           That is, leaving them on friends indicated that you
           had attempted to deliver your message directly
           even if you had timed the delivery so as to avoid
           doing so.  The code system of corrners bent saved
           you (and those nice white kid gloves you wore
           wore when you went calling) from having to write
           out the message.
 
          ">A card with its upper left corner bent forward
          means 'I was here, and sorry not to find you in.'
          ">A bent upper right corner means 'Congratulations.'
          ">A bent lower right corner means 'Condolences.'
          ">Finally, a bent lower left corner means, 'I'm
          leaving town, so goodbye."
 
 
     In some circles, such as the United States Army, it was tradition prior to World War II to write "p.p.c." (pour prender conge [meaning "to take leave"]) in the lower left hand corner instead of bending it.  (The Army Wife by Nancy Shea, Harper & Brothers, Third Edition, page 159.)
     It was also customary for couples to have joint calling cards as well as the officer and his wife to have their own cards.  They could leave one card and the officer leaving one of his when calling on another couple.  It could get tricky when calling on a household without joint cards or with several members of a family because the officer left a card for each person called on while his wife left cards for each lady called on:  "A lady never  calls socially on a man;  so she leaves a card for each adult woman only.  An officer leaves a card for each person called on."  (The Army Wife, page 81.)
     Business cards were given to potential clients, to send into a person's inner office by way of a secretary, etc.  Some places (at least these days!), business cards are left on community boards as one form of advertisement.
     However, one should avoid leaving them behind when building a fire to draw out a suspect as Jimmy Chan did in Charlie Chan in Honolulu!

USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
 
Even Charlie Chan had to resort to public transportation like the bus ride he took with Jimmy and Birmingham Brown in Shadows Over Chinatown.~~Etta Kit
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
     There I'll be, sitting in a bus, maybe reading the paper, maybe just staring ahead, but not making any trouble for anyone, and some woman will hit me in the head with her shoulder bag.  These shoulder bags are a menace.  They just swing right along, banging innocent people.  What can I do to put such a woman in her place?
GENTLE READER:
      No doubt you would consider putting her in your place, or what used to be known as giving a lady a seat, too drastic a measure.  Miss Manners presumes that the swinging bag was not intended as a weapon, but that its owner is simply not aware of what is happening.  To call it to her attention, you might offer courteously to hold her purse for her.  That should send her scurrrying to the other end of the bus, clutching it tightly.
 
(Judith Martin, Miss Manners(R) Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior," 1979, Warner Books, New York, Page 115.)

A Nazi Zepplin:
zepplinsnazis.jpg
This is what the one in Olympics WOULD have looked like WITH the Swastikas

NOT TO MENTION AIRCRAFT:
 
Charlie Chan traveld in aircraft - including zepplins in Charlie Chan at the Olympics [1937]) so to help out friends who want to go the Bon Voyage route . . . .  Just remember that this was written in 1982, so check your airline before buying anything!~~Etta Kit
 
DEAR MISS MANNNERS:
    What's a good, fairly inexpensivive going away present for someone flying to Europe for the first time?  I've looked at travel cases and electricity converters, but I'm not sure what he has, and I know he's planning to travel very light, so I don't want to add stuff that he won't take with him.
GENTLE READER:
     A bottle of wine and disposible cups.  The same airline workers who can serve drinks, magazines, and dinner with seconds on coffee in a forty-nine-minute domestic flight take two hours to get organized enough on transatlantic flights to get anyone a drink, let alone dinner.  During this period, your friend can make himself instantly popular by offering wine to his seat mates.  If the flight is delayed, he can drink it all himself in the airport and not mind so much.  In either case, he will be traveling light.
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
     Is it Proper to remove one's shoes in an airplane?
GENTLE READER:
     Yes, but it is highly improper not to be able to get them on again when one has arrived at one's destination.
 
(Judith Martin, Miss Manners(R) Excrutiatinly Correct Behavior, Warners Books, 1982, New York City, page 667.)
Loretta Young in a Hideous Outfit But With Gloves
lorettayounginlonggloves.jpg
Click on Picture for Flirting with Gloves and More!

OLD-FASHIONED IMMODESTY I
DEAR MISS MANNERS: 
     Having watched a delightful movie with Loretta Young and Ronald Coleman, we were stumped by the young people asking why Miss Young were almost shoulder-length white gloves when in evening dress.  Those of my age saw nothing odd in it, but the young people, were truly curious as to the reason for such attire.  Certainly it was not for modesty, for the dresses were extremely low-cut.
     We do not mean to imply that your age is such that you would have worn such gloves but think that you probably will know the reason, if anyone does.
GENTLE READER: 
     Miss Manners is hurt that you think she would not have worn such gloves.  You never know when you will insult people, do you?
     The reason for the gloves is immodesty,  a principle that young people brought up to run about half-naked, do not understand.  The idea is the lower the dress,  the higher the gloves.  Miss Young very properly did not want to put on an extremely low-cut dress only to have people stare at her bare elbows.
 
(Judith Martin, Miss Manners (R) Guide to Rearing Perfect Children, Penguin Books, 1985, page 262.)
 
EIGHTEEN-BUTTON GLOVES
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
     What are "Eighteen-button Gloves?"
Gentle Reader:
     These are white gloves that come above the elbow and make a riveting show when the wearer slowly peels them off  before she can take a drink.  They are called eighteen-button gloves because they have three pearl buttons at each wrist.
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
      Now doubtlessly this is a stupid question, and I am demonstrating my unfitness for respectable society, but why  doesn't a pair of eighteen-button gloves have eighteen buttons on it, or even eighteen buttons a glove, for a grand total of thirty-six?
GENTLE READER:
     Yes, indeed, this is a silly question, because everybody knows that there are buttons and buttons, and white eighteen gloves have three small pearl buttons each at the musketeer (which everybody knows is the opening at the wrist).  There are indeed, eighteen buttons on each in length.  That button is a standard of measuring of approximately one inch.  The aproximate part is because it is a French standard of measurement.
     If you begin measuring at the base of the thumb, you will find that four-button gloves end about the wrist, eight-button below the elbow, ten-button about the elbow, and twenty-six, the longest, up to the arm pit.  Naturally, this system only comes out right on French arms.
 
[Why carry on about gloves?!  Easy. 
Just google a search for Rita Hayworth as Gilda
in the 1946 movie of the same name . . . . 
You'll never think of long goves
in the same way again!]
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
     Since we are geared into high fashion now, what about the etiquette of gloves?  A lady with standards shouldn't take off her gloves when shaking hands, should she?
GENTLE READER:
     Indeed not, unless she is a lady subjected to uncontrollable bursts of enthusiasm for direct human contact, in which case Miss Manners prefers the naked handshake to the promiscouous and noisy kissing of near-strangers.  Truly unforgivable behaviour when wearing gloves consists of eating, drinking, smoking and saying "Pardon my gloves."
     Gentlemen remove their gloves  when shaking hands.  Please do not expect Miss Manners to justify this discrepancy on any basis of logic, morality or equal opportunity.
 
(Judith Martin,  Miss Manners(R) Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Warmers Brothers, 1982, New York City, page 548.)

Seamed Stockings
seamedstockings.jpg
Old-Fashioned But Still Effective!

OLD-FASHIONED IMMODESTY II
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
     Have you seen the seamed stockings?  I'm crazy about them, but my mother remembers wearing them--she even remembers drawing lines down her legs with eyebrow pencil during World War II when "nylons" were impossible to buy--and says it was a bore always to be straightening the seams.  I read in a fashion magazine that straightening the seams is sexy, but it doesn't say how to do it gracefully.  My mother says adjusting lingerie is not sexy, just sloppy looking.
GENTLE READER:
    Your mother probably knew what it was to have to straighten a girdle, and may you and future generations be spared from ever finding that out.  Rearranging one's stockings is an activity of recent origin for respectable women wishing to make themselves conspicuous, as something was certainly needed to replace the dropped lace hankerchief.  Here is the method for straightening seams of stockings:  Look shyly over one shoulder, while slowly extending the corresponding leg--remember  to keep the posterior tucked sideways and under--until reaching the heel.  Then move the hand slowly back up along the line of the seam, undulating it under the pretext of straightening the seam.
 
(Judith Martin, Miss Manners(R) Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Warner Books, 1982, New York City, page 545.)