The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

Maureen O'Sullivan Gives a BRIDGE PARTY and tells you how to do it on five dollars 4^1 Old-fashioned, homemade Irish bread (a real novelty for your friends), dainty sandwiches, small sweet cookies and tea make a delightful menu. As told to KATHERINE HARTLEY I SHALL never forget the first bridge party that I gave. I made so many blunders that I'm sure that you can profit by my mistakes, and from what I have learned, give a much more successful one. In the first place, I remember that I thought it would be very nice to make some candy myself, and to put it around in tiny dishes on the bridge tables. Well, I made toffee. Marvelous, rich, sticky toffee, with the result that before a half hour had passed I had to rush out and buy a complete set of new cards. You know how disagreeable it is to play with a sticky deck of cards. So, point No. 1 is the selection of a "practical" candy. I have several in mind, and will give you a recipe for one later. Another mistake I made was this. I had thought I would have my guests in for luncheon before the bridge. And, bending over backward to give them a good luncheon, I fed them so heavily that they were practically all asleep the rest of the afternoon. So if you do have your guests come for luncheon first, make it a light, dainty luncheon. However I think a bridge party is much more successful when you invite your guests to come at two or two-thirty, and begin to play bridge at once . . . while you are all fresh and eager to start. Then serve tea afterward. The tea picks you up after a long afternoon of bridge, and sends your The New Movie Magazine, June, 1935 guests away feeling happy and fresh, and it's the last note of a party that your guests carry away with them. Also you will find that serving refreshments after bridge is a much less expensive procedure than serving lunch before. So let's get right down to business now, and see how far we can make $5.00 go in planning an afternoon bridge for eight people. One of the items which occurs to me first is the bridge prize. No party is complete without that. And I think it is much more important to give one good prize, rather than inconsequential first and second and booby prizes. And if you gave three prizes, they would have to be inconsequential if you are to get them, and the refreshments, and the decorations too, out of $5.00. So here's what I have in mind for your prize. A set of six ribboncovered hangers with a sweet-smelling sachet tied on each hanger. This sort of gift is something which few women will sit down to make for themselves. And the ready-made covered hangers and sachets are quite expensive, so we seldom buy them for ourselves either. But it won't take you more than two or three hours at the most to make an attractive set. I often make them, for myself and my friends, usually while I'm on the set, waiting for my scenes. In the first place the hangers will cost you nothing for you probably have dozens of them around . . . hangers on which your clothes have come back from the dry cleaners. But here's what you will have to buy for six hangers: Each hanger will take twenty-four inches of two-inch ribbon for covering. That means that four yards will do the six hangers. And I am very certain that you can buy a nice grade of ribbon, with a satin finish, for 10 cents a yard. You can choose any color you like, of course, preferably one of the light pastel shades or white, which is my favorite. Buy an extra half yard of this ribbon for covering your sachets. Which brings the total of the twoinch ribbon up to four and one-half yards, or fortyfive cents. Then you will need some very narrow ribbon of the same shade — not much more than a quarter of an inch wide — for covering the handles of the hangers. Each handle will take about sixteen inches — you want to have enough left for a tiny bow at the base of the handle — or three yards for the half dozen. At five cents a yard this only adds fifteen cents to the cost. The tiny sachets in cake form are the best ones to use. And these can be purchased for ten cents a piece. So, allowing sixty cents for the sachets, the cost of your prize now becomes a mere one dollar and twenty cents. And I'm sure you couldn't buy six such hangers with sachets — as nicely as you will make them — for anything less than two or three dollars. First you cut your wide ribbon into lengths (six of them) of twenty-four inches each. Now you take one of these lengths and fold it in the middle, the long way, so that you have a twenty-four inch piece of double ribbon an inch wide. Then measure off the center of this length, and, right at the folded edge, cut a very small hole, which will allow the handle of the hanger to pierce through. Starting at the hole you use a running stitch, about one-sixteenth of an inch beneath the folded edge, gathering a steady (Please turn to page 59) 33