Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday She stripped off her gloves and began to open some letters that were addressed to her personally. "How is everything?" Harley was standing beside her with a troubled expression on his wide face. Bowman had halted at the end of the desk with his hands upon the edge of ir. "Why don't you sit down?" she asked, glancing up at them. " George! Is there something wrong?" Harley dropped into a chair before he answered. "I hate to spoil your homecoming," he said gruffly, "but things are not so good. Crandall's is being ruined bv a—bv a whisper." "By a what?" She stared at him. hold- ing a paper-knife shaped like a dagger "A whisper," he repeated. "They're saymg that our products contain poison." The paper-knife fell upon an outsize in blotting-pads. " George Harley, talk sense!" she cried "I ain talking sense," he returned miser- ably. "I can prove it by cancelled orders —hundreds of them." "All caused by whispers." added Bow- man, who had not shifted his position. BOY'S CINEMA it! "she retorted. "Fred, have a state- ment published from the Pure Food and Drug people that Ihev have anahsed our product and find it pure." "That." protested Harley. "would only be admitting that we know we're accu.scd of turning out poisonous products." " Deny it! Take a page in every big newspaper in the country!" "That's worse," Harley contended. "Anyone who hadn't heard the whisper would be sure to take notice of it then." She flung herself down in her chair again. "Well, we simply can't stand bv and be ruined!" she stormed. "Something must be done! I've given my life to Cran- dall's!" She clasped her hands and meditated while they watched her nervously. "This is what we're going to do." she decided at last. "You're going to engage the most beautiful demonstrators that money can buy and arrange to have them work in Clifton & Sawyer's window " "But, Laura," objected Harley, like that is absolutely useless." "This isn't a stiint." she told him severely. •• This is bait! " Messrs. Clifton & Sawyer's depart- mental store occupied a prominent posi- tion in Broadway, near the intersection with Fifth Avenue and Twentv-third har.shne.ss. It is soothing, cooling, cleans- in"' ' Laura Crandall mingled with the crowd many times during the first day of thi^ exhibition, hoping that she would over- hear some nuiiark thai would set her upon the trail of Crandall's traducers. She was completely unsuccessful, but Virginia Daniels was in Npw York, and on the seccjnd day she joined the crowd. One of the demonstrators in the window was enjoining tlie onlookers to notice the cleansing quality of Crandall's face cream as she removed it from a lovely face when Laura heard a voice exclaim : " You couldn't pay me to use a Crandall product! I've heard they all contain a large amount of lead! " She was not sure who had spoken, but she knew that it was someone in her immediate vicinity, and she opened her handbag and ostentatiously took from it a Laura stood by the end of her desk while he dealt with the dictograph or the cabinet just beyond the chair "But that's ridiculous!"' she expostu- lated. "Floods ruin business and so do inferior products, but not whispers! You'll have to think of something else." "But, Laura, that's it," moaned Harley. "That's the truth." She knitted her brows at him. "Ai'e you serious, George?" "Yes." "I can't believe it! "Why sliould some- one want to ruin us?" She looked up at Bowman. "How did it start?"' "We don't know." he lied. "It just started somehow. Spread across the country like wildfire." She jumped up indignantly. "VVhat have you done about it? " she demanded. "Have you continued to advertise?" "Boss," Bowman replied "I've been spending your dough bv the yard! " "But what have you done to offset these rumours—whispers—or whatever you call them?" "There's nothing we could do," said Harley. "You can't stop a whisper." "Well, if we can't stop it we can fight Street, and its immense plate-glass windows always attracted crowds. One of those windows was rented and converted into a sort of beauty parlour, the plate- glass was removed, and feminine demon- strators, remarkable for their good looks, posed as beauty specialists and patrons. Women flocked around this window, day after day, to watch creams and lotions being applied to skins that needed no treatment and to listen to the voices of the " specialists.'" They heard that the House of Crandall products contained no irritating alkalines. or acids, or any other ingredients harm.ful to the most delicate of tissues. "There is nothing so stimulating and cleansing to milady's face as a liberal application of Crandall's face cream," declared one of the operators, as she anointed the perfect skin of a girl in a chair from a pot she had displayed. "Note the smooth creamy texture, free from all lipstick labelled " Crandall"' and began to apply it to her own lips. Virginia perceived an opportunity not to be missed, and edged over to her. "Don't tell me you still use that?"" she murmured "What's the matter with it?" countered Laura. "I don't know for sure, of course, but I've heard the Crandall products are poisonous." Laura laughed mirthlessly. "Well, mavbe if I use enough of it,'" sh-^ said, "I won't have to keep locking for a job any more." She turned away with a gesture of hope- lessness, and secretly was delighted because Virginia followed her from the crowd. "Say. wait a minute!" The dark-haired girl faced her as she stopped. " You're kidding, aren't you?"' "About the job? " asked Laura. "Yes." November 25th, l?33.