O.O. McIntyre
Wilmington Morning News/September 14, 1920
NEW YORK, Sept. 13.—New York bachelors are beginning to believe that after all there is something in the bromide about two living as cheaply as one. The price of those luxurious bachelor apartments on Central Park South for monthly rental has been tripled in the last year.
And with champagne what it is, and Japanese valets growing haughtier every day, the outlook is something terrible. Although the New York bachelor apartments are exclusive and the beet of references are required, the tenant is permitted more privileges than in the ordinary high class apartment.
One bachelor expressed it by remarking that while his apartment was superbly ultra, the landlord was kind and permitted guests to smoke opium in the elevators, but had warned all that murder was not allowed in the halls. In other bachelor house areas over town rents are volplaning.
A modest two-room apartment and bath rents for $4000 yearly. But only the bachelor bookworm takes such cramped quarters. Most of them take a flock of rooms, make them soundproof and live happily ever after.
In one bachelor house on Madison Avenue there are fifteen tenants. The other night they were having a friendly game of draw. The subject of incomes came up—all were remittance men. They agreed to put down the annual amounts received on blank strips of paper and deposit them in a hat. Afterward they were totaled. The sum was more than two mlllions. Only two had ever done a day’s work.
It set them to thinking. A gift they rarely indulged. Each decided in some way to share their riches among the less fortunate. The first was delegated with a promise to report inside of a week. He reported that he had found a very unhappy musical comedy coryphee whose tragic outlook upon life had touched him. He bought her a platinum lined limousine.
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It was Charles Frohman who made the unwritten law among stage artists that the employment of a personal press agent meant instant dismissal. This punishment was meted out to one of the most famous of the male stars of that day. It still remains an inflexible rule. A South American dancer—a Baroness—landed in New York recently and was engaged in a production scheduled to open several weeks later. She had saved several thousands and decided it would be a good investment to use it in making her name well known. But on the opening night she was notified that she was not to appear.
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There are diverting moments in the grip of the home-going crush headed for the station on Forty-second street. Nerves rubbed raw in the grind of business all day find expression in amusing outbursts. An old gentleman, with a wry outlook upon the world, was stepped upon twice by a pretty young girl who looked like an office worker. “Get off my feet! Can’t you see?” he shouted. She smiled with tired resignation. The old gentleman looked at her for several moments, took off his hat and soon they were walking along together. And at the station he stopped and bought her a flower from a vender.
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The answer to why strong men now and then take to drink may be found in the following in the New Amsterdam Theatre program: “What the man will wear: The close-fitting waist, the flowing skirt and the full-gathered drapery, which makes the frock so engaging a mode, are retained, but the waistline has been lowered, the hem rippled and the sleeves widened, after the manner of the French redingote.”
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