Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-11-08
Blanche Thebon Discusses Facts,
Fancies and Folklore of Long Hair
BY MARJORIE SAMUEL
Contributing Writer


When Metropolitan Opera
Mezzo Soprano Blanche The
bonn appears at Constitution
Hall next Sunday, the audi
ence will not only be hearing
one Of the great concert
artists of the day, but will
be seeing a prima donna
famous not only as a beauty.
but as the possessor of the
longest hair in show bust
ness.
Miss Thebom is 5 feet 7
inches and, when loosened
from the pins that conflne 1t
in the daytime, her hair
trails the ground behind her.
She didn't start out to be
the longest-haired person in
show business. 1t just hap
pened-and is still happen
ing for that matter. She let
it grow originally because
she thought long hair would
suit her lit doesD and be-
cause, she says with en-
gaging candour and an
amused CLINT in her green
eyes, the opposite sex finds
it fascinating.
"A man with a notorious
eye for the ladies once told
me-" she says, that nothing's
more provocative than a
woman with long hair /.
the sight of it confined in a
formal hair-do makes him
yearn to know how she looks
with it loose about her
Do you know" she leaned
forward for emphasis, why
women wear hats in church?
Because our forefathers be-
lieved the sight of a lady's
hair was enough to take
mems minds off more spirit
ual matters"
History
On the history of long hair
and the whole matter of
hair-do's, Miss Thebom says,
why. from the first moment
a stone-age female tied long,
strong grass around her hair
and made a bow so she'd look
pretty and at the same time
keep it out of the stewpot
while stirring the family
dinner over the campfire,
women have contrived vari-
GUS ways of doing their hair.
"CoiffureS at the court of
Louis XIV sometimes tow
cred as high as three feet,
and were ornamented not
only with combs and pins of
precious metals, flowers and
ribbons, but with miniature
enameled boats and castles,
or jeweled figurines. And
if you think tinting the hair
is a new departure, let me
tell you it was done in Gle
opatra's day. Maybe not as
well as today, or with as
wide a range of color, but
with just as good results in
catching a mans attention,
as anyone who's ever read
Anthony and Cleopatra
knows"
There must be something
in this alleged provocative
ness of long-haired ladies,
for Miss Thebom points out
that in primitive tribes maid
ems often wore their hair
loose about their shoulders,
but once they were wives, it
was cut short or bound up.
One of the reasons Miss
Thebom likes long hair for
herself is because it's con-
venient. once fixed in the
morning. it stays neat all
day." she points out, "and
since I wash it myself, I
don't have to spend long
hours in a beauty salon."
Not that there haven't
been problems. For one, she's
never been able to find a
bathing cap big enough to |
cover her hair, and perforce |
has developed her own spe-
cial swimming Stroke-a kind
of Australian crawl that
doesn't require submerging |
the head. For another, it
has presented certain per-
Torrance hazards.
Once in a performance of
"Mignon," she wore it flow
ing free over a negligee in
a scene where Mignon is
supposed to fall in a faint
and be revived by the tenor.
II fell gracefully to the
ground in as romantic a
Swoon as you've ever SEEM"
she remembers, ''but in
kneeling beside me the ten
or. Giuseppe di Stefano, in
advertently knelt on it."
Get Off My Hair!
when he tried to raise me
to my feet, he nearly scalped
me! Get off my hair I Kissed,
thereby becoming the first
person in history to hiss q,