Tag: 1934

Categories
1900-1949 Women

Mary Pickford’s Advice to Wives, 1934

Sunderland Daily Echo, 19th January 1934

Mary Pickford was a mega-success story – one of the biggest stars of early cinema, she co-founded the United Artists film studio, was one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Pictures and won the second ever Best Actress Oscar given by them. She was described by a silent film journalist at the time as “the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history.” Quite a claim.

One of the original career women, this is the advice she had for wives in 1934. “Be selfish.”

Sunderland Daily Echo, 19th January 1934
Sunderland Daily Echo, 19th January 1934

 

ADVICE TO WIVES

“BE SELFISH,” SAYS MARY PICKFORD

Wives should learn to be selfish.

This is the advice of Miss Mary Pickford.

She thinks wives ought to have schools where selfishness would be one of the subjects of the curriculum.

“Women,” she said, “ought to learn that kindness is sometimes the most devastating and weakening influence.

“Wives, especially, make this mistake. It is the unselfish ones who ruin themselves and everyone depending on them.

Mary Pickford confessed that she had made a New Year resolution to treat herself as well as she treats the people she likes best, says a Reuter Chicago cable.

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Thursday Fun – April 1st Party, 1934

The Home Entertainer, 1934

Happy April Fools Day! Who’s having an April 1st party? What do you mean, you’ve never heard of it?

Here’s Sid G. Hedges’ ideas from The Home Entertainer for such a party. “You must be careful, however, that all the guests are congenial and chosen carefully”, as this is not a party for those who take themselves particularly seriously. It’s a practical joke made into a party, really – motor horns under the front door mat, rubber coat pegs so your coat falls on the floor, serving fake food and luring your guests down dark corridors strewn with balloons and bells.

The games suggested are idiot-themed – “Dunderheads”, where people and professions are all mixed up and you have to identify them correctly, and “Hat Dance”, where you “Fit two players with dunces’ hats, and let them see who can first knock off the other’s.” I’m not sure if you have to use your hat to knock off the other hat like rutting idiot stags, or if you can just punch it off instead. A thought – did people used to actually manufacture dunce’s hats?

The Home Entertainer, 1934
The Home Entertainer, 1934
Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Rhubarb Charades, 1934

The Home Entertainer, 1934

From Sid G. Hedges’ The Home Entertainer comes today’s game – “Rhubarb Charades”.

It’s quite an involved version of charades, where one team picks a famous person (in their example it’s Hitler) and then chooses further famous people whose names start with each letter of the original name. The team has to act out all the people in order, imitating them by only using the word “rhubarb”. It’s a nice idea but your impersonation skills would have to be pretty decent for the other team to not get fed up by the time you finally got to the main character.

It would be a good game for “Whose Line is it Anyway?” though.

The Home Entertainer, 1934
The Home Entertainer, 1934

Oh, look! It never fails to amaze me just how much is archived on the internet now. I’ve unexpectedly found the rather brilliant minutes dating from the 1945 meetings of Rothley Youth Club in Leicestershire

They certainly played a lot of games in their meetings. Not only “Rhubarb Charades” but also “Winking” as well. Maybe they had the same book as me?

Also, this bit!

Cor blimey!
Cor blimey!

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Winking, 1935

The Home Entertainer box, 1935

Oh, look at this beauty! It’s The Home Entertainer by Sid G. Hedges, the author of my first 1930s book purchase many years ago, The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts. The chapter on self defence in that book is just the best – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/dirty-rotters/

So when I saw this I had to get it. It’s a book full of party ideas, entertaining tips and games. And I do love a vintage game (especially on a Friday). But! Incredibly, the book arrived still in the original packaging it was posted out in, in 1935. Wow, wow, wow, as my baby daughter likes saying (although she pretty much exclusively says it while looking at light fittings). The address it was posted to was number 27 1/2, which is a bit odd.

So, here’s the first Friday Fun in ages. A game called “Winking”. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to describe something as delightfully sexist, and yet that is how I find myself thinking of this.

The Home Entertainer, 1935
The Home Entertainer, 1935

(Nb – my friend Neil has just pointed out that the men and women swap places in this game after one round, which I completely missed. So, there we go, not sexist anyway.)