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A date with a movie star on ten dollars? Think it can't be done? Here's how one writer did it!
I'LL bet she wouldn't do it." "You couldn't take Carole Lombard around the block for $10." "You can't take any girl out in New York for $10." ."She wouldn't do it anyway, but I'll bet you haven't the nerve to ask her."
I had provoked these challenges at a stag dinner-party by asserting in very positive tones that Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow and a number of the other feminine screen stars were really "good fellows" who could have a thoroughly enjoyable time on a $10 date in New York.
With a bet of four dinners at stake, I prepared the case of Carole Lombard and Escort vs. The High Cost of Dates. The appointed day for the hearing arrived and the hour of four in the afternoon found me thirty-six stories above Park Avenue in a regally appointed suite of the Waldorf-Astoria. On a 17th century chaise longue the blond movie ingenue reclined in all her loveliness, wearing a silver cloth lounging pajama ensemble, with a long tight-fitting and high waisted coat and high collar which made her look like a princess out of a story book. Here was beauty and personality and bewitching charm which would have made the knights of old rush out and fight dragons.
"I suppose I'm Joe Doaks Number 38 today," I remarked as the formalities of the introduction were completed.
"You're wrong," she replied, "You're the first Joe Doaks all day, up to now. I haven't seen anyone except Lizzie Doaks. But I've been on the interview griddle all day and, let me warn you, one question about my being selected as the best dressed woman in Hollywood, and out the window you go!"
"Have no fear," I assured her. "I have no intention of interviewing you. What I want is a date. And what's more, the date mustn't cost more than $10." Then I went into the whole story, explaining that I wanted to prove to four very strong-minded young bachelors that Carole Lombard, the movie star, could have fun on a $10 date. "It will be an experiment," I said, "the results of which young swains can show to their best girls and offer as Exhibit A to prove that if Carole Lombard can do New York on $10, then half that amount should be enough in Backhomeville."
TWO nights later, with ten well-creased one-dollar bills in my pocket, Carole and I climbed aboard a west-bound cross-town bus at the Waldorf corner of Park Avenue and 49th Street. The great social experiment was on and she was not shy in admitting, "I think this is grand and loads of fun," even before we really got going. "And let me warn you," she continued, "no extravagance and no money for taxis. We'll ride in buses and subways or anything else that keeps the overhead down."
Two dimes, three minutes, and four blocks later, we hopped off the bus at Radio City Music Hall, Carole breathing a sigh of relief that (Please turn to page 57)
John Casey, whose stories for New Movie you know, dated Carole Lombard. He swore he'd do it on ten dollars or not at all. They had dinner, they went to the movies, they danced, they took a ride on a bus, and they took a ride behind a horse in New York's great Central Park. And John found that Carole was one of the grandest sports he'd ever met. How did he spend the ten? Read this story.
Decorations by Charles Mulholland
The New Movie Magazine, July, 1935