St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 52

On Broadway Night Club Chatter Discord Over Sour Soprano's Fortune Unhappy Geraldine By Dr. George W. Crane And Gotham Gossip By Paul Denis She Couldn't Sing a Note, but Her Concerts Were Sell-Outs Now Retired Actor and Distant Relatives Are Rivals for Her $100,000 Estate. SJr I I ''fit. ss: AX ft NEW YORK, May 12.

FRANK SINATRA leaves Hollywood after his May 16 broadcast for New York and will make his first overseas Camp Shows tour with Phil Silvers and Fay McKenzie. Louise Allbritton came in from Hollywood. Hal Fisher, comic at La Conga, insists a grinning Chinese boy knocked at his door the y'vT -I 1 rw 'l, 1 otner nigni. -x iuna said the boy. "Fulla what?" The boy answered, "Fulla brush man." Krskine Hawkins, former music and drama teacher at Alabama State College and now a star trumpeter, opened at the Blue Room with his band to a big appreciative audience.

He has a zingy, very danceable outfit. Benny Goodman's return to Broadway night life drew 2000 patrons, a record crowd, the other night at Nat Moss 400 CASE F-271: Geraldine aged 17, is a pretty blonde. "But I am so unhappy," she said. "I can't carry on an interesting conversation. "Boys ask me for a date, but then we are uncomfortable for we just sit and don't say anything.

"It is very embarrassing. Dr. Crane. I think that is one reason why I'm not popular. They don't ask me for other dates." DIAGNOSIS: There are two short-cuts to becoming an interesting conversationalist.

The first consists of remembering that everybody is most Interested in himself. "If Geraldine will talk about the boy, therefore, he'll always think she Is an interesting conversationalist, especially if her talk is full of complimentary statements. "I want to feel important" Is the Invisible motto emblazoned across the chest of every human being. Make your escort feel important, therefore, and he will then think you are rather wonderful, yourself. If he takes you to a movie, don't try to Intimate your own sophistication by saying how juvenile the players behaved or how silly you considered the plot to be.

Remember, he paid for your ticket! It cost him hard earned money, and he wants you to show delight and say as much. That will then inflate his ego and make him feel more Important. TOO MANY GIRLS become so preoccupied with trying to make a big impression, that they indirectly, belittle the favors done for them in an attempt to act ritzy or polished and sophisticated. "This is such a little theater compared to those I attend when Iisit my aunt In Chicago," says Geraldine, thinking that she is thus impressing her boy friend with her travel and wide experience. But it works the other way, for he takes her remarks as belittling his attempt to entertain her.

It deflates his ego and he feels hurt St Barry Woods and scores of other celebrities enjoyed Benny's riding the licorice stick, and the whole Joint jumped when Benny's sextet LOUISE ALLBRITTON A VISITOR FROM HOLLYWOOD. or irritated, so he decides to himself that when he can afford another date, he'll pick a girl who will enthuse over his choice of movie or a restaurant. THE REAL MEANING of the phrase "stoop to conquer" is ably illustrated by the girl who consciously refrains from trying to inflate her own ego but who studiously pays compliments and builds up the self-importance of her escort. If you wish to talk about other things than your boy friend, then, develop a formula and memorize it so that it will flow off your tongue as smoothly as the talk of a star salesman. Remember, too, that star tl- tnen don't make up their sen-tencea and paragraphs on the spur of the moment.

They have) memorized and rehearsed on MI they can say their speech backward or forwards. SEND FOR MY "Formula for Being an Interesting Conversationalist," Inclosing a three-cent stamped envelope, plus a dime. It is built around the key phrasa "Dear Home Pals" in which each, letter stands for a field of interesting conversation. Memorize it thoroughly and practice with a girl friend until you can employ it perfectly. ST.

CLAIR BAYFIELD, RETIRED VT SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR, WHO i I I 4 iff vx ft --II1 Though others howled when madame yowled, Rudely tooted when La Jenkins hooted, Mocled her Puccini with wilted Zuchini, Rewarded with spinach her tieder in Finnish, Though others did these discouraging things, Not St. Clair Bayfield! He cheered in the wings. NEW YORK, May 12. A FABULOUS postscript to the fabulous career of the late Florence Foster Jenkins, famed during her lifetime as the sourest soprano in musical history, has boon written into the records of New York Surrogate's Court, where one St. Clair Bay-field, described as a retired Shakespearean actor and opera baritone, has asserted that he ii the common-law widower of the noted hog-calleratura and No.

1 claimant to her $100,000 estate. Notes of discord have greeted the self -proclaimed widower'a play for the dreadnaught diva's fortune, in the shape of counterclaims ty an even score of Ma-dame's distant relatives. It all arids up to a cacophonous courtroom coda to La Jenkins' uproarious cor.cert stage career and a promise of unexpected thrills for the host of connoisseurs of the ludicrous and dilettantes of the horrible who were Madame's ardent admirers during her musicldal lifetime. Yes, she had admirers! In number, loyalty, willingness and ability to shell out the shekels, in fact, the Jenkins following was probably the envy of many an aspiring female laureate of the music colleger whose voice has been certified by experts, but whose agents and breaks have not brought her a fraction of the fame and mazuma showered on the crow-voiced phenomenon. It was the habit, addiction or vice of La Jenkins' host of fans to turn out en masse on the occasions of their idol's annual musical soirees, usually staged at $10 the seat In ballrooms of the swankier New York hotels.

For their double sawbucks, the Jenkins devotees' got a full three-hour course in the art of the musical pogrom, including special demonstrations of how to garrote the gavotte from Mignon, flay a Flotow flower song alive, sprain Rachmaninoff's ode to Spring, disembowel a dulcet ditty by Debussy and brain a ballad by Brahms. Whenever La Jenkins paused for breath, she was egged on to gorier assaults on the ghosts of the masters by the howls of her disciples, who wailed, cat-called, booed and hissed until their idol, smiling benignly on the sea of grimacing faces, obliged with an excruciating encore. Reports that Madame was sometimes egged on with eggs have been circulated and denied, some claming that Washington Market henfruit brokers bid against each other for the sweep up privileges after Jenkins soirees, others insisting stoutly that, whatever the. material nature of the various objects tossed at Madame's feet by THE WOULD-BE DIVA IN OPERATIC COSTUME. EACH YEAR SHE GAVE AN ANNUAL CONCERT JO AN OVERFLOW AUDIENCE, WITH SEATS SELLING FOR $10 EACH.

Fables of the Famous By E. E. Edgar AN "OFF STAGE" PHOTO OF THE LATE FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS. her frenzied listeners, none of them boosted the over-all totals of her cleaner's bills. On occasion, music critics of the New York press were invited to attend La Jenkins' recitals for the purpose of judging her art.

However, when one of them, a few years back, published his opinion that Madame's iorltura were "wild wallowings in descending trill" and that her mezzo sounded like "the hiccupping of a cuckoo in his cups," the lady cancelled her free list and is even said to have hired bouncers to watch at the doors on Jenkins' concert nights to keep the critics out. The origin of the Jenkins vogue among bored social and musical elite has never been satisfactorily explained. She seems to have emerged from nowhere, about 1917, a buxom widow with a hankering, but little talent, for the career of an adulated opera 'heroine and a bankroll with which she financed the Verdi Club and contracted for the exclusive services of Cosme McMoon, a first-rate piano accompanist. The most plausable accounting for La Jenkins' fame is the tale that it grew from a gag. One of her early victims, having been talked into parting with a $10-blll for a seat to a Jenkins recital, decided not to be the only sucker, went to town.

Kay Penton, a last-minute addition as vocalist, was fine. Benny's daughter, Rachel, had a birthday party the same night and Benny was more excited over that than his opening. Betty Grable, in the movie "Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe," throws a mink coat out the window. Somebody ought to talk to her. Jackie Miles told this yarn to Gert Nieaen at La Martinique: He went into a pet shop and was amazed when a one-legged canary sang entire operatic arias.

He at once asked for the price of the canary and was told it was 1000. He protested: "But the canary has only one leg." "Well, what do you want," said the owner Impatiently, "a singer or a dancer?" AT THE GLASS HAT, JAY SELLER DID a Spanish dance, explaining, "If you have seen the Paso Doble, then watch me do the Impossodoble." Then he said, "I've been studying dramatics for 11 minutes, and now I'll do a play entitled 'Crime Does Not Pay As Well As It Used The Kathryn Duffy Dancers, 12 of them, also opened and they dance in lovely transparent gowns. Their prettiest is Ballet of the Roses, with one girl dressed in carefully placed rose petala. Their funniest is a Queen of the May number. BEAUTIFUL JULIE GIBSON, WHOSE stunning figure won her the title "Hollywood's Whistle Girl, was at the Glass Hat opening and I asked her about whistling.

"I think there are three main types of whistling at girls," she said. "First is the flip, friendly, 'I like type; second is the startled 'wow type; and the third is the long, low, menacing whistle." The cutest whistle she ever encountered came during the filming of "Duffy's Tavern." She was playing a sexy-looking nurse to Bing Crosby's four kids, when Lindsay, aged six, aaw her for the first time. He nudged his brothers and whistled. "It vas whistle No. 2, the type." IIHdegarde, who is such a big hit in the Persian Room, wears her chic, Adrian gown backwards.

Claims it looks better that way. And it does. Kenneth fcpencer, at Cafe Society Uptown, has won a Julius ItoMnwald Fellowship. Spencer Tracy, due In from Hollywood, will go overscan for Camp Shows. It was so crowded the other night at La Martinique that Jack Tirman, the club's press agent, and Sam Bram-on, Harry Rich man's agent, couldn't get in.

So they went to the Ethel Shutta Celebrity Night at Leon and Eddie's. 0 RITA HAYWORTH IS NOW BEAUTIFYING the San Francisco conference, sort of making up for what her husband does to it with his beaver. Louis B. Mayer's arriving to consult specialists about his broken leg. Helmut Dantine, who has been Stork Clubbing nightly since arriving from Hollywood, was introduced to comedian Lew Parker.

Parker said, "Dantine? Name's familiar. Oh, yes you make chewing gum." The Zanzibar hopes to bring in the Hot Club band, a famous jazz outfit In prewar Paris, in the Fall. Connie Bennett is in town for her new radio program. Social Problems told two innocents on he'r next concert, who each Bold two more the ensuing year, and so on. At this late date, actor St.

Clair Bayfield's bid for the fortune which his buxom and boisterous lady fair managed to improve through her unique career as the high executioner of song, reveals one touching aspect of Madame's character: She never knew how bad she was. If Surrogate James A. Delehanty will take Bayfield's word for it, he and he alone, stood between Flatting Florence and knowledge that those peculiar noises emanating from the typical Jenkins audience were not exactly applause. "Returning from a successful world tour as actor and singer in 1909," he states in his petition to be declared her heir, "I abandoned my own career to second that of Florence Foster Jenkins, both as loyal admirer and companion-mate. We pledged our undying love and went through the private ceremony of exchange of rings and lived together for 36 years as man and wife." Bayfield, who claims that he acted years ago in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's and George Ar-liss Shakespearean troupes, thus identifies himself as the life-long supporter, from a self-effacing position in the wings, of Madame's comforting delusion that her singing was acclaimed by the bored sensation-seekers, and that the few nasty words of critical appraisal in the public prints which got to the deluded diva were prompted by envy and malice.

Departing the earthly scene several months ago, Madame has left a legacy of legends. Though they tend to the unkind, these legends are as numerous and picturesque as any which attach to the names of La Jenkins sister artistes, such as Patti, Melba and Farrar. One of them purports to be a true account of a recital, when she undertook to Interpret the famous Wagnerian scene In which Siegfried listens to an off-stage bird. The hired Siegfried having taken his pose on the stage, and accompanist McMoon having given the cue a concert-hall radiator picked the breathless musical moment to go haywire and screech an unprogrammed steam-pressure solo of its own. When the hotel management got word to a sub-cellar and an engineer cut off the boiler room ballad at a master valve, the Jenkins idola-tors let loose with an ovation and would not be quieted until their heroine had taken 10 curtain calls and sung an encore.

NO writer was a greater friend of the little man than ahort tory genius, O. Henry. One evening, shortly after society leader Ward McAllister made his famous remark that tere were only "Four Hundred" people in New York worthv of being rated as "society," O. Henry attended a party at the home of a Fifth avenue matron. "I think McAllister hit the nail on the head," commented the hostess.

"I doubt that there are even 400 New Yorkers who are worth noticing." "I believe, madam," said O. Henry, "that there is one man who has proved the contrary." "And who is he, may I "The census taker," calmly replied the author. Indifference: For a number of years, the late Archbishop of Canterbury was a golf enthusiast. One day, for no obvtoun reason, he gave up the game completely. "Why did you give It up?" asked a friend.

"It affords you Just the type of exercise you need." "I know," agreed the prelate, "fort I began to wonder why I should care whether the ball The Perfect Home Manicure By Patricia Lindsay 1 OleuJts Coofi match- stage, a stagehand laid a detaining hand on him. "I wouldn't go on that way, advised the scene shifter." "But, why, what's wrong?" Inquired Rubinstein perplexed. "Who ever heard of anybody worth his salt going on stage without blacking his face for the show?" Helpful Defect: American Poet Alfred Kreymborg, who has been on many lecture tours, waa asked for advice by a newcomer in the field. "Don't you get nervous looking at those hundreds of faces in your audience?" he asked. "Doesn't bother me a bit," replied the poet.

"You are a brave man," eried the other enthusiastically. "No, not brave," explained Kreymborg, "just nearsighted." RETORT: New York City's Park Commissioner Robert Moses has stepped on many important toes in bringing about his extensive changes in the city's landscape. "Moses is nothing more than an appointed public official," growled one of his political opponents, "and I'll bet he couldn't even be elected dog catcher." "No doubt you are right," replied the Park Commissioner, "but that's only because it never occurred to me to run against you." JAaJx went Into the hole or not. I decided I didn't. Besides," he added with a smile, "the ball usually didn't go In anyway." APOLOGY: Adm.

William F. Halsey arrived late to a football game. In squeezing by the excited cheering fans, to his seat, the Admiral accidentally stepped on a sailor's foot. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" growled the possessor of the trampled foot, without taking his eyes off the game. "I'll knock your block off, you blankety blank!" Then an expression of horror spread over the sailor's face as he looked up and recognized Halsey.

"So sorry, sir," he pleaded. "Please step on my other foot! Here it is, sir!" PROPER DRESS: When America was still in its musical infancy, Russian Pianist Anton Rubinstein, in this country on a concert tour, was scheduled tc appear in a small Western city. Just as the great musician was about to step on- By Emily Post feres with a permanent wave. No scalp ointment or tonic or other medicant should be used for one month before the white-haired woman plans to get a new wave. Then all traces of sulphur must be removed from the length of hair before the wave.

This is done by shampooing the hair thoroughly with pure liquid castile soap, rinsing and then washing with a solution of calcium hydroxide (lime water) which may be purchased in a drug store. The hair then is dried with towels and air. Do not dry under a dryer. The next day wash the hair with a soapless oil, rinse and wash again with the lime water. Then a test curl should be made.

If the hair discolors the shampoo method above must be repeated for two or three more days before it will be safe to give the hair a permanent. Naturally most hairdressers cannot afford the time for this preparation of the hair, so it should be done at home. There is no reason at all why white hair cannot be beautifully curled and remain white. But it does take preparation and care while the hair is being curled. Dear Mrs.

Post: OUR family physician has just sent us a card announcing the removal of his office on a certain date to another address. Is it customary to send flowers on that date to the new office? TIME was when a woman used a steel file to shape her nails, scissors to cut the cuticle away and a steel scraper to scrape down under the cuticle. Today beauty, science teaches us that no metal should touch the nails other than an implement called a "nipper." The perfect manicure depends more on softening oils and creams than on steel manicuring aids. If you went to your cosmetic counter, and bought these aids, you woufd be equipped fully for many a home manicure: A sturdy bristle nail brush, a bottle of cuticle oil or cream, a jar of hand cream or lotion, a package of emery boards, a pair of good steel nippers, a package of hard orangewood sticks, with narrow tops and bottoms, and nail polish. You may desire a polish base and a bottle of the new instant-dry oil, but they are not absolutely essentiaL After the hands have been brushed in warm water and soap, they are dried.

To strengthen the nails and to help them to grow into attractive oval shapes, take a half-moon out of the center with the nippers and then smooth down the sides with an emery board. This may shorten your nails by a quarter of an inch but it is worth the sacrifice. Apply cuticle oil or cream around each nail base and leave it on while you closely examine your cuticle and "nip" off any hangnail. Never cut cuticle. Push it back with an orange stick and try not to break it.

If it looks a bit thick the first week, forget about It. Soon the dead, dried cuticle will brush off with the nail brush. Girls, Tomorrow You Will Wear beauty problem the tendency of white hair to turn yellowish after a permanent wave. Here are a few suggestions that should prove helpful: White hair should not be allowed to cool on the curling rods. The rods should be removed as quickly as possible by the operator: If some discoloration has taken place during the curling, immediately apply a mixture of peroxide and lemon juice.

One noted hairdresser claims it is even better to apply the bleaching liquid to the hair while it is still on the rods. Answer: Although certainly not an obligation, there should be no objection to one's sending flowers. It would depend upon the circumstances, however. If he is opening his office on that day, flowers would be very welcome, but if the place is cluttered with packing cases and in complete disorder, it would be better to wait until the moving has been completed. DEAR MRS.

POST: A word from you might change the whole inconvenience of having to reach across a dinner plate in order to eat salad placed at the left, Instead of at the right where I think it would be preferable to put It. Evidently there is a hard and fast rule about placing the individual plates of salad on the left side of the dinner plate, for I can't imagine why else so many people would be such sticklers for putting there. Again brush the nails with soap and water and dry each finger separately, pushing down toward the finger joints. Now you are ready for your polish base and polish. Any nail looks prettier if you leave a small 'moon at the base and a hairline of the nail uncovered at the tip.

Practice will give you an accurate hand. To save precious moments, you may apply instant-dry a moment after the second coat of polish has been painted on. This new crystal clear liquid has the power to dry polish instantly and it also adds a nice gloss. Finish your manicure with a hand massage keeping away from the freshly painted nails. Bear in mind that your nail polish should be as flattering to your skin tone as your lipstick and they both should match in shade.

And now let's turn from the care of the hands to another ruffled and ribbon-trimmed. A reversal of the usual theme in shirtwaist and skirt is printed skirt with black blouse, cool looking and smart for city streets. Separates and dresses both use this idea. More and higher bloused crowns, with the dome crown suggested for fall. It is smooth and round, with more width than height, and will be worn on a narrow cloche or sailor brim.

Bloused-back coats for fall, a variation of the tunic coat for spring. This very new type will be found in both fabrics and In thin, supple furs, worked like fabrics. Raincoats with waist-deep arm-holes, to accommodate the new suits and coats with ever-deepening armholes. FURS that were once bulky are now soft and drapable, and are now used as a fabric in winter coats. Hudson seal, for example, is made with nipped waist, wide armholes and rounded shoulders.

Satin trimming on fall's fur coats. A collarless coat will have a bow of satin at the neckline, matched by tight inside sleeves to keep the chill winds from blowing up the wide cuffs. WTool fabric as contrast on fur coats. It makes sleeves, or sleeves and skirt section, and is sometimes in a different color, such as white wine fabric with black fur. White lace hats, crisp with your summer prints and with suits of spun rayon or butcher linen.

They are simple sailor shapes, or are Drab, dull hair can be restored to life and loveliness by a series of home treatments which are fully described by Patricia Lindsay in her leaflet L-19, "Reconditioning Tired or Neglected To obtain a copy send 5 cents in coin and a stamped self-addressed envelope to her, care of this paper, P. O. Box 99. Station New York 19, N. Y.

No chemical hair restorer or medicated rinse should be used on white hair prior to the permanent waving. For instance a sulphur scalp ointment which is excellent for the hair and scalp will cause white hair to discolor when permanent waving solution is put on it. Am-moniated mercury also inter Answer: According to formal correctness, salad should not be put on the table until the dinner course has been removed. Those who choose to serve salad and the meat course together may do whatever they individually prefer. There is a preference for putting this or any other extra plates at the left.

This is probably because the glasses are on the right. I can think of no other reason. PAGE 2H EVERYDAY MAGAZINE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, MAY 15.