No Apologies Accepted
Posted by Lidian on May 17, 2008
This morning we were talking about good manners - let’s talk about bad manners this evening! I mean, really, really BAD manners. And I am not talking about poor old Bess. How about that Lucille, eh? There’s a whole little psychodrama going on in this comic-strip ad (from Chatelaine magazine, circa 1937):
Scene 1: Lucille sets up the backstory with “Has Bess let us down again?” Just how many times has Bess reneged on playing cards? Is she always using the same old excuse? It can’t always be that time of the month, you know. Bess needs some new excuses.
She also needs some new friends. Lucille is pretty scary. She’s right up there with the mother in the Lux stockings ad, and the Tussy fiends.
Scene 2: From poor, blond Bess’ point of view (this wouldn’t be Nancy Drew’s Bess Marvin, would it? she does seem like the meek type who might have this sort of problem). We can hear Lucille screeching from here. Go get some Midol, you loser, and make it snappy! Boy, what a peach. So sympathetic.
Maybe Lucille’s the one who needs the Midol. Or a tranqulizer of some kind.
Scene 3: Hot time in the city! Cards for four - I assume the blond head at the bottom belongs to Bess’s guy. Probably Lucille and Mr. Lucille have no other friends. I can believe that. Mr. Lucille says the girls can have some privacy while they “rustle refreshments.” (Oh, yuck!) And how does he know Bess has been dying to tell Lucille something?
Scene 4: Predictable ending: Bess is raving about Midol. Why, she’s never been so damn comfortable in her life! And Lucille smilingly confesses that she was “sunk regularly” until she started hitting up the Midol, too.
I’ll tell you something. If I was that Lucille, I’d watch my back. Being “sunk regularly” is the least of what she’s got coming to her.
May 18, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Very strange speech patterns as well. Did people actually talk like that back in the 30’s, I wonder?
May 18, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I thought the same thing you did: so that’s what became of Nancy’s pal, Bess. Lucille was probably her roommate at Mount Holyoke, and Bess is too wimpy to shake her off after college.
I’m not a bit surprised that she turned whiny because of Aunt Flo’s visit, either. She’s always been a Nervous Nelly. Without her butch cousin George to keep her in tow, she was bound to form a bond with another dominating woman.
Bess still talks the same, though…”thanks heaps.” And yes, Vallen Queen, this is how they talked back then. At least according to Carolyn Keene (aka Edward Stratemeyer) in the Nancy Drew mysteries.
May 18, 2008 at 11:27 pm
[...] coming to dinner! Let Bert take them out, or maybe he could tie on a frilly apron and, how did the guy in yesterday’s ad put it? Rustle some refreshments. Yeah, let Bert [...]
May 19, 2008 at 2:37 am
Vallen - I think they might have, at least in the movies. Lucille is sort of the Bette David type.
Bill - I am glad to see that you like ND as much as I do - a most instructive series of mysteries (my first mystery novels, back in the day when $10 got you 4 hardcover NDs). Bess needs to call in Nancy - I think Lucille probaby has some bodies in the basement, or some other dark secrets…The Mystery of the Monthly Martyr. Or, The Fatal Bridge Game!
May 19, 2008 at 11:40 pm
…or The Clue in the Sanitary Napkin.
My mom taught me to read with ND mysteries. I still have most of them! I wrote about them in my blog last September (or October).