The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-30
Charm Is
Essential
in Home
Delightful Hostess Has
Achieved Allure,
Singer Says.
BY CYRENA VAN GORDON

as your own home.
Until you have learned to be a
mistress of home, you have not
mastered the art of being really al
Turing. An easy, delightful hospital
ity is, l believe, charms greatest
achievement.
Not every person can, of course,
dispense hospitality with the largess
of our gracious minister to Den
mark, Ruth Bryan Owen. If Mrs.
Owen likes you-and her reactions
| to people are immediate and last
| ing-she is as apt as not on first
meeting to ask you to come to Den
mark, and then she will show you
the best time you ever had in your
life, for her hospitality is like her
self, cordial, breezy. exciting.
You know large, elaborate par
ties don't necessarily mean per-
feet hospitality. A cup of tea with
single friend can be truly hos
pitable occasion.
Personally. prefer small parties,
as informal as possible They are,
1 have found, more generally sue
cessful.
I've known people of real tai
ent in some other direction who
actually dreaded having any one
but their nearest relatives and
friends visit them. Not because
they might find cigaret burns on
the upholstered furniture the next
morning, but because they mis-
trusted their own powers and skill
as hostess.
Party made" by Those Present
Giving successful party or SIM
ply being hostess to few friends is
a simple matter if the few really
rudimentary rules of hospitality are
observed.
What makes successful party?
The answer is simply the persons
who are there-the host and hostess
and the guests. So bring together
men and women of kindred interests
and you have the first essentials of
a highly successful party.
Never invite too many to one
party. Restrict the guest list to per-
sons who have interests in common
or who, if they have feud with
some other guest, can drop their
quarrel at the front door and leave
it there for the duration of your
party. If they are incapable of such
suavity, don't bring them together.
Above all, choose your guest list for
congeniality.
Congeniality. however, does not
always mean similarity in profess
sional or business interests or even
in mode of life. have found that
society dowagers are sometimes more
at home with Bohemians of the art
world than with some of their own
social set.
Choose Company With Care
There have been instances where
one member of grand opera board
was poison to another. Better make
a point of remembering who can
sit in the same room with various
ones.
Then, and this is just as impor-
tant as the guest list, keep the at
mosphere informal, the refresh
ments plain but good, distinctive
and plentiful When I entertain,
and all opera singers are expected
to entertain a great deal, I serve
the same kinds of food that my
grandmother used to serve when I
was child in Hamilton, O.-fried
chicken, baked ham, homemade ice
cream and cake. City people love
it.
Lynn Montanne is one of New
York's most successful hosteSses as
we'll as one of its most talented
actresses. She knows how to bring
people together, keep them circu-
lating and interested in one an
soul is left stranded in a corner by
himself.
Home-Life of Lunts Perfect
Miss Fontannes hospitality is
part of her phenornenally happy |
marriage and home-life. Of course, |
Alfred Lunt. her equally famous
actor husband, should get some |
credit, too. Nevertheless, their
friends never fail to point out Hiss
Fontanne's devotion to and abb
sorption in her husband and his |
interests They won't accept parts
in different plays, and she often |
takes very minor role just so that |
they can work together.
Norma Shearer is another actress
who makes a special point of being
charming in her own home and to
her own husband. She has never
allowed her success on the screen |
to interfere with the success of her |
married life. She once left a pic
ture in the middle of it's filming
because her director husband was
sick and needed a vacation away
from HOLLYWOOD. She interrupts her
career to have babies, too.
"You have to work for success
and happiness in marriage just as
you have to work for success in
anything else Miss Shearer once
said. Il never thought the job was
done when the marriage ceremony
was over'
Be Charming to Mate Too
And certainly, whether you are
a great actress or plain Mrs. Su-
burbia, your husband has as much
right to expect you to be charming
for his benefit as for the benefit of
your friends.
just because the first blush of
welded bliss is past and you are
thoroughly familiar with the gen.
eral trend of one another's
thoughts and reactions is no rea-