Days at the Races

We may not have mentioned in the blog before that our family history is seeped in horseracing. We spent many happy childhood hour at the race track with Grandpa, and cutting up old clothes to make jockey’s silks for our Barbie dolls. While our hearts still instinctively race when we hear a bugle play the Call to the Post, by choice our only connection with horse racing today (besides thoroughbred rescue and protection) is in its history, and a deep fondness for 1930s ladies’ racing fashions.

Ascot 1935

Ascot 1932

Ascot 1933

A more casual look, but lovely.

Spectator sports suit, perfect for the races or polo games. 1938.

Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California opened on Christmas Day, 1934. Famed architect Gordon B. Kaufmann designed its Art Deco grandstand with its bas relief of running horses. The track was a filming location for many ‘30s movies: the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford with William Powell and Jean Arthur, the heartbreaking Broadway Bill with Myrna Loy – almost any movie set at a race track – as well as the modern film Seabiscuit, set in the ‘30s-early 1940s. A lot of Hollywood stars of the era also liked to see and be seen there – Kay Francis, Clark Gable, and Carol Lombard, Jimmy Durante, etc. The photo above, c. 1936, is from the fabulous L.A. Public Library digital photo collection.

Seabiscuit movie. Love that hat.

Virtual Travels Part I: Italy

With an unseasonably stormy weekend last week, we were able to catch up on DVDs of a couple films set in the 1920s and 1930s that we missed in their original theatrical release, both set in Italy. It’s no coincidence; we’ve been on an Italian campaign lately that Bonaparte would be proud of, screening these movies and leaving brochures casually about for Mr. About Town to notice. Watching these films was like a virtual vacation, at least. Both are visually very beautiful, and feature great period costumes.

Filmed in southern Italy's Amalfi Coast, A Good Woman (2003), starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, is set in 1930. Based on Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan: A Play About a Good Woman, from 1892, this production was filmed on location in and around the town of Amalfi (which looks like a 1930s movie set already) as well as Rome (where the villas shown in the film were actually located). It brought back fond memories of our previous visit to Amalfi. Mrs. Windermere (she’s been downgraded from a Lady and turned into an American here) shops for gloves, hats and gowns; we bought beautiful writing paper and limoncello.

The costumes, hair, and makeup are well-done; we love the summer dresses, hats, gloves and shoes Miss Johansson wears, and Miss Hunt wears some gorgeous get-ups too, like the dramatic yellow and black number below, and a blue and white outfit at the end of the film that we don’t have a picture of, but trust us, it’s darling. The two leading ladies’ costumes were designed by John Bloomfield, and for the most part fairly authentic looking.

Overall, a good production. There are many witty quotes throughout the script (not all attributable to Wilde - though he gets the credit in most reviews!), such as “Crying is the refuge of plain women. Pretty women go shopping.” (a take on Wilde’s line from the play “Crying is the refuge of plain women but the ruin of pretty ones.”). There is a lot of crying, and a lot of shopping. The play was previously filmed in 1925 (as Lady Windermere’s Fan, dir. Ernest Lubitsch).

Moving north, as well as back in time to the 1920s, there’s Enchanted April (1992), filmed in Portofino, on the Italian Riviera. Warning: this movie is Dangerous! Even while the credits are still rolling, you’ll be researching villa rentals in Italy. Based on the 1922 book by Elizabeth von Arnim, we especially enjoy the beautiful scenery and Polly Walker as Lady Caroline. She looks absolutely gorgeous, with a Dutch-doll bob and to-die-for wardrobe - we want every one of her outfits. Click here to see a video clip of Lady Caroline's introduction.

The other women, Miranda Richardson as Rose, and Josie Lawrence as Lottie, are charming, too and the production is excellent overall. Joan Plowright is funny as Mrs. Fisher. Many of the outdoor scenes were filmed at Castello Brown, above, now a museum, high above Portofino’s harbor. There is also a 1935 film of Enchanted April with Ann Harding.

A Cruise on the S.S. Lurline - 1935

If we could spend 5 days in 1935, and there was no possibility of staving off the Depression or averting World War II, we would probably spend them cruising from San Francisco to Honolulu on board the Matson liner S.S. Lurline.

Matson’s beautiful white liner was the third ship of its fleet to be named Lurline. Her maiden voyage took place on January 12, 1933. She joined her sister ships S.S. Malolo, S.S. Mariposa, and S.S. Monterey. It was pure luxury all the way - most of Lurline’s staterooms were first class, and there were games (such as potato sack races and musical chairs – for adults), sports, swimming (Lurline had 2 pools), cocktails, dinners, and dancing designed to amuse.


Arriving in our stateroom (”Lovely!”), stewards would be rushing in and out, delivering telegrams and floral arrangements. We’d quickly scan the passenger lists to see if anyone we knew was sailing, or a movie star – maybe Bette Davis, or Ginger Rogers – then dash to secure deck chairs for best choice of location. Finally, it’s Bon Voyage!



The horse race game was played aboard Lurline. With real betting, such games were popular on transatlantic ships as well.

In the evening, there would be the Captain’s Champagne Party, with a sing-along. Evening meals were elegant, topped by the festive Aloha Dinner. After dinner, meeting friends for cocktails and dancing in the Verandah Café.

We might try a Matson Cocktail:

1/3 shot kümmel
½ shot cognac
1 sugar cube
Chilled champagne
Piece of lemon peel
Chilled 6-oz martini glass.

Pour kümmel and cognac over crushed ice in a shaker and shake gently. Place the sugar cube in the glass. Strain kümmel and cognac into glass. Add champagne to fill. Float lemon peel over the top. Sip slowly and stay far away from the ship’s rail.


Or maybe we'll just retire to a chaise lounge on our balcony and gaze romantically out to sea and trying out our "Wallis Simpson" look.

Matson ad, June 1934. Matson provided its passengers with suggestions for what to wear: "Clothing of linen, white drill, pongees, or ‘Palm Beach’ are popular all seasons with visitors to Hawai’i and the South Seas. Ordinary light-weight clothing of the mainland will be found entirely satisfactory for visitors to Hawai’i. Warm wraps should be taken for the higher altitudes…A raincoat will be found useful” (quoted in To Honolulu in Five Days: Cruising Aboard Matson’s S.S. Lurline by Lynn Blocker Krantz and Mary Thiele Fobian.

Arrival in Honolulu was exciting. On “boat day” practically the whole city came to meet and greet the arriving Lurline passengers. We’d be dazzled by the colorful leis, handmade on the shore by Native Hawaiian women. Beautiful! Souvenir photo taken at Luke Photo Studio, 1240 Nuuanu St., Honolulu , 1930s


From the ship, Matson’s crew would whisk us and our bags over to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the “pink palace” built by Matson at Waikiki Beach in 1927. Here, amidst gorgeous grounds, we’d be able to dance on the beach or at the neighboring Moana Hotel, and listen to Harry Owens’ Royal Hawaiian Band – familiar to mainlanders due to their popular radio broadcasts.

We could learn to hula (or just watch the experts in action), or learn to surf – like tobacco heiress Doris Duke did when she was here with husband James Cromwell on their 1935 honeymoon. Or we might go horseback riding, tour the Dole pineapple plantation, or take a motor tour around the island. Oh dear - our time in 1935 is up way too soon!




Cruising to Hawaii in the movies:
William Powell and Kay Francis in One Way Passage (1932) –remade in 1940 with George Brent and Merle Oberon as ‘Til We Meet Again.

Below: Bing Crosby and Martha Raye in Waikiki Wedding (1937).

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Moana Hotel (now the Moana Surfrider), though dwarfed by modern highrises, are still the queens of Waikiki Beach. Doris Duke enjoyed her visit so much, she decided to build a home there. Her Shangri-la (built in 1937) is now open to the public (www.shangrilahawaii.org/).

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter to all! If anyone needs us, we'll be in the Bonnet Bar.

Those Flapper Doggie Mascots

These 1920s toy doggies are so intriguing! Clara Bow has one in It (1927), below; Louise Brooks posed with one, c. 1927 (top), and Colleen Moore carries one as a purse in Her Wild Oat (also 1927 – barely visible in her arms, lower). We’ve also seen obviously well-loved vintage “doggie” purses show up for sale now and then. What was up with these? we wondered.



Writer Basil Wonn, in an “exclusive dispatch” direct from Paris, reported on August 7, 1927: “The slogan ‘A Dog for Every Woman’ has captured Paris society.” Noting that not every woman had room for a dog, or a place to walk one, “It was left to a bright Paris dressmaker, as usual, to solve the problem. At his last showing a few days ago, he excited sobs of admiration from the assembled ladies by presenting a line of dogs for every size, variety, color, coat, and age. They were stuffed.”

By fall, the “doggie mascot” idea had caught on – and how. “Mascots,” ran a typical report on October 19, 1927, “which have made such a hit as automobile ornaments, are spreading to nearly all fields or ornament in England. They are made as jewelry, as ‘doggie’ handbags, as tops for umbrella handles…” One wag of the period suggested that if anyone were to dare to suggest a mascot for flappers, it should be the “Peekin’ knees.”

While Colleen, Clara and Louise’s pooches appear more carnival prize than pedigreed Paris pups, dogs seems to have been everywhere in 1927.