The Fashions and Pleasures of New York

JOHN McMULLIN

ALL of smart New York now attends two performances a night. First the theatre and then the cabaret, The term cabaret has come to mean the after midnight theatre, for it is really a 1922 vaudeville show, elaborated and beautifully produced. At the Rendezvous, the versatile Miss Gilda Gray has given us a new thrill in the way of a miniature Russian vaudeville, costumed by Baron De Meyer, produced by Fokine and supported by an all star Russian cast. In her company is one of the most romantic figures in New York, a gypsy woman, who during the war was one of the famous Russian "Battalion of Death". Her strange personality and her beautiful voice are both strikingly unusual.

All of these cabarets are doing such surprising things, it is interesting to speculate as to what they will do next. What will Miss Florence Mills at the Plantation do next? One hears that she has a contract for six vears, also that she will appear in six new musical comedies at once, so extravagantly does rumour deal with

Cabaret decoration is by no means controlled by professional 'New York, Mrs. Joe Thomas has just tried her hand at fitting out a new cabaret called "The Tent", and it is so successfully and expertly done that Mrs. Thomas may be added to the list of dever women who can play the dual role of the fashionable and the professional. Fred Jones III, in his role of artist, has done the "Red Rooster," which is the latest metamorphosis of "Paradise."

Modern art is coming into its own with a flourish. Incidentally it is making much of the mediocre stuff of the day before yesterday look weak. The entrance hall at the Tent is done in the most modern manner. It is an astonishing success in decoration, after the manner of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Some of these young modern artists with no money and plenty of conviction are adopting old tricks to new uses. Miss Vyvyan Donnar, the artist whose work is seen at the bottom of this page, has revived the silhouette, By using colour, she has made of it something that the old artists in silhouette never dreamt of. She does portraits, impressions of stage sets and advertisements in this medium They are extremely decorative as well as useful for the business man who knows the value of a new idea.

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HOW little there is left of old New York. The New York of today is too great and strong and high to spare the little land marks and haunts of its youth. But if your imagination strays back to the eighteenth century and you can picture the beautiful green island that lay in the calm bay .of that day, you might stroll down East 61st Street to number 421 and you will find what used to be known as "Mount Vernon on the East River". This was the country residence of Colonel William Stevens Smith. He was an aide de camp to General Washington and General Lafayette. He married Miss Abigail Adams in 1786, the daughter of our Ambassador to England at that time. Colonel Smith became the Supervisor of Revenue and the Inspector of Customs of the Port of New York. The charm of this old house still exists despite the, fact that gas tanks and warehouses overshadow it in a most ominous way. Lawns that swept down to the river are only memories of yesterday but, despite the roar of the traffic on the 59th Street bridge, a faint whispering quiet hangs over the place. Once inside the house you you will find it filled with trappings of its day and the fragrance and beauty of our great-greatgrandmothers. You can go there any day to see it.

THE butler who, at the bottom of this page, is serving scrambled eggs at luncheon from an old glass covered chicken dish is all unconscious that he is bearing exhibit A of the great campaign of advertising that made America. Such glass dishes which abound in the antique shops of Lexington Avenue bctween 49th and 59th Streets, were originally given away as premiums with tins of Royal Baking Powder like the coupons which the United Cigar Stores now give with cigarettes. They come in turquoise and white glass. You can find big ones that hold scrambled eggs for four, and small ones for individuals.

Where shall we go from here? The next thing we will be doing is the roof garden. Of course we always have the Ritz roof with its marvelous cold buffet which we must pass on the way in, and which will get us every time; then there is the Cascade at the Biltmore, with the greatest electric waterfall ever made, the roof at the Astor which has the added thrill of being uncovered and where it is possible to dance in real, not stage, moonlight and count the stars at a table a deux.

TO dine at the Pennsylvania Roof, you should go early and get one of go get one those tables that hang over the cornice of the building and sit against the iron railing which is the only thing that prevents you from hurling yourself over in a mad delirium. Be sure sometime during the summer to go to the Marine Roof at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn. It's like riding up the Hudson in a river boat on wings. There you can have the most marvelous view of New York because you aren't looking at New York from above the city, but looking at New York from the side lines.

You know that it's very smart now to go in for your America. This statement is meant only for those blase cosmopolitans who see no other reason for going in for it. The laurels really fall to the intellectuals who started the fad.