The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-25
CHAPTER ~TWENTY-SEVEN

t2n0iQ CdlllSl dS bSh45
IRE in this modern age of ingenuity
and invention, Maid to Measure
was reviewed p~ictorially in tn e
newspapers on the day after the
play.
A full page of publicity they
could never have afforded was Civ
en- the amateur cast in n big att
ernoon daily. 1t seems that a staff
photographer had been in the
audience with super-sensitive film.
His page layout therefore carried
no stilted poses.
Full length of the page-20
inches-was a side view OF Gayle
Dixon, snapped at the moment
when she had stood in a bathing
suit beside a faxed swimming pool.
about to olive" That had been in
Act /, where the hero, Ted, had
discovered her. A great many other
gentlemen about the city, young
and old, discovered" Gayle when
this big portrait of her was printed.
Gayle had what the boys refer
to as everything. She was ESQ the
caption revealed about five feet
six inches tall. Hair was a straw
to-honey color. straight by nature.
but curled by experts. Her weight
was 126 pounds. Her figure was un-
deniably s%tatuesque, erect, beauti-
full.
The caption added with reason
able accuracy that Miss Dixon was
a devotee of swimming. tennis, bad
minton and golf. She had never
touched a golf stick, but she was
fair at the other sports; or had
been in school when she had a lit
tie time for them.
This paper also pictured the
other lead in the cast. Mr.. William
Ward Bailey, who also directed the
play The caption gave Bill quite
a bu;ld-up also. mentioning his re-
cent All-American rating in col
lege football and predicting big
things for him on the stage if he
wanted it 0 Bill was shown with
his m around a bespectacled
oWl-eyed young man who had acted
d small bit in one of the Genes
That. the caption said, was Mr.
Jer4my Tucker. grandson Of the
distinguished philanthropist. Ben.
ianin ". Mortified. and heir to
the Lerrifeld millions.
Arrayed in sundry positions
around and behind these three per-
sonages from Maid to Measure
were photographs of the six lovely
girls There was a scene in a rope
swing where Tempe Hyde's short
but shapely legs pointed upward
as the arc Of her swing took her
well out toward the audience. This
added unmistakable "oomph" to
the picture layout. There was a
snap of Lola Montesa with her gui-
tar, her dark Spanish eyes and
slender beauty staged adroitly I'M
der a bower of spring blossoms.
There was a group shot in which
four girls we're singing; the music
had been mediocre but the beauty
superb.
The city's one tabloid newspaper,
a sheet never bothered much with
scruple, lacked anything startling
for its early editions that day after
the play at The Oaks, so it brewed
sensation of it's own.
Capitalist Tempts Grandson with
Girls the front page headline read.
Moreover, it was partly true, even
though indelie. Fortunately noec
though indicate. Fortunately n O
copies of this particular paper ever
reached Mr.. Merrifield or any of
those in his household. But it did
circulate generously in various
levels of city society.
Upshot of all this attention was
the fact that ''everybody'' re-
sumed talking about the Merrifeld
Little Theater movement and ac-
tivity in the Mortified home in
general. That is, interest that had
already been created now began to
multiply. Social re-opening of The
Oaks had been one thing. Success
full drama of youth was another.
Gossip builded in where facts were
lacking.
Of our the nine young people
now at The Oaks were responsive
to all this. Youth normally flour
ishes under attention anyway, and
Bella LANAN-COURT RE