top of page

Marion Writes to Betty-September 25th, 1921


 





Editor's Notes

According to IMDB Francis Halliday was an actress in the thirties known for her part in "Going Spanish"


Send to Mother

Sunday Sept. 25th 11:30 p.m.


Dearest Betty:

Such a nice time yesterday! I wish I could tell you about all the wonderful things we saw yesterday along the boardwalk. We left here about 9:00 o'clock and left Atlantic City on the 11:00 o'clock. Mrs. Wettstein, the old dear “wasn't going” right up to the last minute and we had to just drag her away. Miss Kaufman, the child welfare nurse, stayed with Elizabeth (Mrs. Wettstein 's young sister who lives with her) and slung the hash.

The day was perfect, absolutely. And the ocean and the air made you feel so good. I'd give anything to be down there, but I guess you have to be some teacher to get there for they have a wonderful system.

We saw sweaters and shoeators (?) and I surely ought to have some ideas on them. Have you seen any of these new ones where they knit in all kinds of colored Indian style figures? We saw lots of white ones with blue and red and green and black figures all through them. They make you look like head Big Chief but are rather cute after you're used to them. I'll get you some yarn when you think you'll have a chance to knit one for me. All the kids down here have them with the rows of drop stitches through. Every kid from kindergarten age up goes along the street or into the movies or sitting in school knitting away.

Another new thing we saw was that Florentine jewelry. Have you seen any? They have bracelets, charms to wear on ribbon and pins in it. They have sort of the effect of little wooden things painted with shiny black background and some with white ivory backgrounds and then the gayest little flower designs raised up on them. Have you seen the new dress over blouses?-georgette blouses that come way down long and look just like a dress-I saw a stunning one with all drawn work and fancy gold and dull green embroidery and the floppy, fancy new sleeves that could be worn beautifully for a dress over a silk lining and was only $25. It would have made a dress that would look like about $50 or $60. Got all kinds of ideas for underwear, handkerchiefs and collar and cuffs. I just love being in those little shops with all the cute painted things, handmade things and vases and candles and pillows and such like. You know, all along the boardwalk are just those adorable tiny shops fixed up with attractive color schemes and filled with things you'd love to buy for gifts if you were a millionaire. The kind of shop you decided last summer that I should have. I didn't buy a thing, but some tiny fillet inserts for underwear.

Most exciting-The ocean was real rough and a fellow got out where he couldn't get back because of the undercurrent or something, and we saw him get rescued by a young fellow who was a wonderful swimmer. The lifeguards were off duty.

In the afternoon we went to the theater and saw “Blossom Time”, a semi musical comedy. Just being tried out before playing in New York, so we got very good seats for only $0.65. Most exciting, one of the eight leading ladies was a Delta Zeta, whom Miss Eulestein had just met at luncheon in New York. So after the show, Miss Ellenstein went back of the scenes to see her and we met her and talked with her for quite a time. She's from Miami University. She has a sister who is a Theta, taught school for two years and hated it and now has been married just six weeks. The other girl whom we met with her and who played the part of her sister was so nice looking too and her mother who was with them was just lovely. The Theta’s name is Francis Halliday And she played in Syracuse, in “Floradora” and the other one played in that and in “Irene” there last winter. They showed us their beautiful gowns and we watched the whole transformation of taking the makeup off and getting into their natural skin. Did you know that I found…

[letter ends]

[from Marion]

 



If you're new to this project, please consider going to our site and catching up with a few letters from the 1900-1910 era. The letters only take 3-5 minutes to read and you'll find the characters more fully develop if you read the letters chronologically.


John has excellent handwriting. However, in some instances, I cant decipher it. If I can't, I simply mark the spot with "xxx"s to signify thank the word isn't decipherable.


Check out our article in the New York Times!


Comments


bottom of page