| Show atu f AV by MILDRED JAKLON drawing by RY kuy W waller H 1 ANT AINT a fortuned tort fort unel all you have to do la Is to think up a new fad or craze make it popular lar and aid see that you not soni soi neona tone else gets gels the its hut but be fore yuu you start thinking listen in on this couve ration A group of young newspaper men and women advertising advert writers nn an architect a couple of artists of sorts and a wealthy woman who Is a dilettante in various kinds of expressive art who compose an informal lunch eon discussion organization were recently discussing the possibility of con concocting concoct efing ing a profitable fad to succeed the crossword cross word puzzle the two young men who had begun the argument maintained that the present trend of popular fancies was toward mental gymnastics they believed that a new kind of puzzle might be as successful as the cross crosswords words which had been such a remunerative field for many others besides the two young men simon and schuster who started crossword cross word puzzle books the girl who manages the advertising department of abarge department store promptly refuted this fads dont follow through consistently like that she said the disturbing thing about them they cant be predicted they just happen like mah hongg without rhyme or reason the number of game companies consistently trying to manufacture something to catch the public whim are evidence of that A fad la Is a variety of colit contagion aglon and its inception has a great deal to do with its ultimate success I 1 mean that if the right people that Is right for its particular expansion take it up it cin can be universal iced of course there have been a number of athletic fads pointed out the ar architect chitek who was an ardent golfer just think of the tremendous hold that bicycling had in the nineties and first ent years of this century no admitted the girl advertising manager but youre taking the most outstanding fad of the athletic type there were numberless others preceding and following it which were not nearly mearly so successful and they were no lao doubt efforts by manufacturers to rival the bicycle making plants roller skating was another form of 0 locomotion which provided mother another for social contact spooning parties or what have you then there was dlabola which was a matter of skill rather than endurance what about a new musical instrument was the next offer look at the ukulele uke lele and its accompanying mania for the twanging of hawaiian adors their insufferable nasal voices and stringed instruments good gracious what an era that was wasl I 1 every summer resort was ruined by a couple of the artists who insisted that you have cakl hula hicky 00 laboo oo oo la or on the deach beach at waikiki with every meal and at all hours of the night there was a halfhearted half hearted effort to make kazoos popular too look at the popularity of the saxophone A new noise maker would get you an army of helpless enemies and might get you your old shekels as well I 1 dont suppose in this age of jazz we could hope for the success of anything similar to the gentle old guitar or the genteelly handled banjo would you consider originating a new dance step something to follow the charleston with less hazard to life limb and property prope tyr queried another helper 1 I should think you might devise something like a resurrection of the old waltz or perhaps a polka think of all of the funny kinds of dances that have followed each othet other through the fancies of the terpsichorean sich orean inclined I 1 remember the bunny hug the grizzly bear the camel walk even before the complicated tango which was stepped with so BO much gusto to too much mustard the one step and the maxixe became popular with irene castles Cast lea bob now I 1 hear bear ann pennington Is trying to inaugurate the black bottom a fearsome set of gyrations supposedly demonstrating on the actions of negroes capering in the muddy floors of swampland go to it and beat her theres another set of fads came from another source having to do with adolescent courtship when I 1 was in grammar school every girl with any pretensions to popularity wore a friendship bracelet made up of silver links en graven with the initials of her various swains A friend of mine told old t me also of the custom in her home town of hoodoo hoo doo strings a bedroom embellishment consisting of trophies in the way of dance programs cotillon favors and all manner of trinkets denoting conquest 1 I know of two more fields wide enough of appeal to have pc alt lilt I 1 ties said the wealthy woman collecting and the various things that pertain to current events do you yop remember when you collected cigar bands pictures of baseball and movie heroes from cigarette packages golf tennis swimming and polo are also amateur athletics do you call a 1 l them fads put in the wealthy woman and then answered herself no the element of a fad Is its comparative para tive brevity and I 1 think it also has something to do with the intensity intensity y of its practice during its popularity true rue clamored another but suggest something that would be easier to promulgate than a new athletic game we want to make our first million without any capital well how would you like one of the numerous occupations for women bomea type cypel another member of the group offered in that class come all the various forms of handiwork which have attracted women periodically do you recall the atrocities that filled every china cupboard when hand painted china occupied the energies of properly brought up young ladles T and then there was the craze crate when no young roan man was waa a success unless he had at least one tie holder of burnt wood to vouch for his true loves devotion when there were glove boxes on every dresser and plaques of pocahontas or little laughing water over every mantelpiece and in the nest of every pair of newlyweds and when the curtains bains were not safe from conflagration due to overzealous plying of the interesting tools employed the later developments of such decorative alms alma are painted wood articles parchment and alak lamp shades polychrome and the sealing wax industry another branch of the same tendency of women toward creative art la Is the endless variety of needlework someone else put in beginning back baat with samplers which are now such prized possessions of their owners women have always had a new kind of sewing to offer the attic has a truckload trunk load of my dear little baby clothes crocheted within an inch of their lives tatting was a great pas ame for awhile find and look at the way all ages of women fell for the knitting t racket during the war yes scoffed the would be money makers but women dont have time for sewing these days they have time savers galore but any husband would drop dead it if he saw caw his mate sitting quietly in a chair sewing a fine seam eam its apparently a fad these days not to sew and then the latest fads have hake been I 1 think more sociably inclined diversions something that two or a group can do |
