Evening star., 1938-05-08
Manhattan Mirror
"The Theater of the Streets"
Elsa Maxwell Throws
Another Party.
). By Grace Hendyick Easfis-

~ SAaAAkAASAtkA AS&N VA sAA> ReSNA~"
of the Worlds Fair that took
place last week end, the Fifth
4 Avenue Association, an organ
ization composed Of all the business
interests in the Fifth avenue Sec
ton, which also comprises Madison
and Park avenues, gave an award
to the best shop window which
used the Worlds Fair as its theme.
This excited our curiosity about
the show window business. How
Is it run? Who does the windows?
Consequently we spent most of the
week scurrying in and out Of the
big stores to discover that We had
struck a gold mine. This new, ex-
citing field of well-paid work has
all the competitive intensity OF the
theatrical business in that each
store creates new windows at least
once q week. The New York School
Of Display alone has produced TOO
graduates in the few years 1t has
been going and the stores have
staffs up to 10 window dressers and
helpers in addition to all the car
penters and electricians who help
on the displays.
It all entails tremendous phys
ical work, taking from IL to 36
consecutive hours to put in new
windows. The workers stop only for
coffee and sandwiches (no Sleep
and because, like priests in a
Buddhist temple, they cannot wear
shoes, they slip Walters window
socks over their stockings. 1t Is
hot in summer, very cold in win
ter and they frequently catch heavy
colds from running out into the
street to get a bird's-eye view OF
their creations.
Space permits us to describe
only one Of these master crafts
men, so we picked the most color
full character in a field of live
wires. His name is Dana O'Clare,
q big shot in the game. He comes
from Montreal; is beautiful crea-
ture. He started life, after art
school, in the Bliss Play Studios.
In those days, back in the mid
twenties, the store he works for
like most Of the others spent vast
sums of money having their show
windows done for them by outside
FIRMS who do nothing but dress
windows. Bliss Play Studios han
dies q lot of this particular stores
business, and O'Clare soon got to
be known and admired by the au-
thorities. The modern business Of
dramatic displays, using show
business technique, was just be-
ginning and O'Clare had distinct
talent for 1t. He was hired 10
years ago and has done their win
dows ever since.
He has o north-lit little studio
on the seventh floor, of the ad-
vertising promotion offices. It is
tiny. containing only drafting
board, a few gadgets, that he has
used or is about to use in win
dows-e. 6. terra Gotta head, q
very modern blob OF paintipg set
in a panel Of mirror, etc., and
o notice bulletin on which are
thumb-tacked about 80 business
cards. These are the addresses Of
the places he goes for special jobs
of all sorts. papier-mache bells,
metal stars, anything that his
stores carpentry shop cannot pro-
vide or he himself improvise.
But this is only his editorial den.
Downstairs (you 60 back of the
little counter on the right of the
store as you enter and duck. like
Alice, through a small door and
down q steep flight Of stairs) he
has his workshops. There, actually
under the Fifth avenue sidewalk,
with crowds stamping over his
head, he has the Fifth avenue win
dows lowered on big hydraulic ele-
vators. First they 60 all the way
down to the carpentry shops, two
floors below the street, to have the
big pieces put on. Then they are
raised to the first floor, where.
surrounded by mannequins and
cardboard and all sorts Of odd
stage properties, he works from S
pm. until dawn, twice o week.