During the fair, the newly married Marjorie Hillis Roulston chaired the Brooklyn branch of the National Advisory Committees on Women’s Participation, which culminated in a special “women’s week” in May 1940. (Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library)
When Marjorie Hillis married wealthy widower Thomas H. Roulston at the age of 49, she submitted as gracefully as she could to the media’s gloating. Her happiness, she said, outweighed any embarrassment at having finally capitulated to matrimony. (Wide World Pictures)
By 1967, when her final book was published, Marjorie Hillis looked like a wealthy dowager—but her advice for single widows and grandmothers still insisted on a life full of pleasure and fierce independence. (Photo by Frances McLaughlin)
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Abbott, Berenice, Changing New York, 23–24, 180
Abdullah, Achmed, For Men Only, 143
abortion, 249
Ad Council, 218–19
Adrian (designer), 192
advertising industry, 218–21
advice columns, 26, 43–44. See also specific authors and columns
affairs, 71, 275–76, 309–10n
African Americans, 18, 199–201
African American women, 18, 199–201, 214–15, 216, 255
Double V campaign and, 216
industrial labor and, 214–15
marriage and, 255
in New York City, 195–99, 200–201
postwar prosperity and, 243
and World War II, 215–17, 239
African American women, 18, 199–201
Double V campaign and, 216
industrial labor and, 214–15
marriage and, 255
Agent Carter, 185
alcohol, 89, 143–52, 190. See also Prohibition
Alfred A. Knopf, 198
the Algonquin, 189
Algonquin Round Table, 168, 189–90
Ali, 13
Allard, Leola, 95
the Allerton, 183
American Institute on Family Relations, 59, 255
American Review, 85
American Woman’s Club, 183
American Women’s Association, 188
Andrews, Regina Anderson, 199
Anthony, Susan B., 43
antidiscrimination legislation, 216, 217
antisuffragists, 17–18
apartment dwelling, 113–14
apartment hunting, 37
appearances, keeping up, 74
appliances, 137–38, 247
Arden, Elizabeth, 83
Arno, Peter, 145
Arrowhead Springs resort, 121–22
“arts and graces,” 99
aspiration, 74
Astaire, Fred, 177, 192
atomic bomb, 223, 241–42
Auntie Mame, 27, 257–61, 308–9n
Auntie Mame, 257–61
The Awful Truth, 147
baby boom, 25, 240
Bacall, Lauren, 185
Baldwin, Faith, 173
Baltimore Sun, 161, 191
the Barbizon, 183–85, 200
Bardot, Brigitte, 260
Barton, Clara, 43
Bauhaus, 126
Beecher, Henry Ward, 51, 53
Before and After, readers’ reports, 222
Bennett, Constance, 208
Bergen, Candice, 185
Berkeley, Busby, 192
“Big White Set,” 192
birth control. See contraceptives
Biskind, Peter, 242
Bloomsbury, 12
Bobbs-Merrill, 40, 41, 45, 94, 140, 155–57, 222
Bolick, Kate, 16
Bonwit Teller, 40, 41
The Bookman, 85
bootlegging, 191
Boston Daily Globe, 39
bouncers, 193
Bourke-White, Margaret, 213–14
Bradley, Joseph P., 17–18
Brande, Dorothea, 158
Wake Up and Live! 84–85, 128
Breedlove, Sarah. See Walker, Madam C. J.
Broadway, 191–92
Bronxville, New York, 62–64
Brooklyn, New York, 50–51, 54, 183, 207, 222
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 50, 56, 63, 205, 224
Brooklyn Heights, New York, 38, 54
Brooklyn Women’s Club, 207
Broun, Heywood, 167
Brown, David, 28
Brown, Helen Gurley, 27, 283, 309–10n
Sex and the Office, 277
Sex and the Single Girl, 27–28, 271–79
budgeting, 22–23, 47, 92–94, 104–5, 110–11, 278
Byrne, Rhonda, The Secret, 79, 297n
“bystander effect,” 28
cabarets, 192
Café Society, 191, 194–97, 217
Calloway, Cab, 198
Cameron, D. A., 41
Cameron, May, 45
Campbell, Elmer Simms, 198
Cannon, Poppy, 136
The Can-Opener Cookbook, 136
“Career Girls Murder,” 28
career guidebooks, 170
Careers for Seven Women. See Work Ends at Nightfall
Career Tours, 188–89
career women, 26–27, 159–62
in the 1930s and 1940s, 266–67
in the 1950s, 239–42, 263
in the 1960s, 263
postwar, 244–45
Carlyle Hotel, 119–20
Carnegie, Dale, 21, 76–77, 81, 85, 245
How to Win Friends and Influence People, 36, 77, 96
Carnegie, Dorothy, How to Help Your Husband Get Ahead, 245
celebrities, 190
Celello, Kristin, 255–56
Chambers, Laurance, 92–93, 96, 129, 140, 157, 181, 207
“charm,” 81, 82
Chase, Edna Woolman, 68–72, 122, 129, 169, 189, 226
cheapness, 104–5, 106
Chesser, Eustace, 253, 254, 275–76
“chic,” ideal of, 71–72
child care, 219–20
children, 97, 219–20
Chrysler Building, 180
citizenship, marriage and, 17–18
civil rights, 168, 197, 215–16, 239, 270. See also women’s rights
Civil Rights Act, 270
clerical jobs, 137
cocktails, 149
cocktail writers, 149, 150–51
Cold War, 241–42, 246–47
Coleman, Dorothy, 48
Collins, Seward, 85
the Colony, 193
Columbia Heights, 54
Colwin, Laurie, 132
common law, 17, 18–19
Communism, 239, 242
Communists, 228
Condé Nast, 72, 74
confidence, 47–48
Connie’s Inn, 196
conspicuous consumption, 101
Constitution
Eighteenth Amendment (see Prohibition)
Nineteenth Amendment, 19, 168
Twenty-First Amendment, 190
consumer society, 101, 125
contentment books, 85–87
contentment gurus, 86–87
contraceptives, 238, 240, 249, 253,
271
cookbooks, 138–43
cooking, 128–43
Coontz, Stephanie, 268–69
Corned Beef and Caviar (For the Live-Aloner), 128–43
reviews of, 131
writing of, 129–30
Cosmopolitan magazine, 27, 271, 276
Cotton Club, 196
Country Life in America, 125
coverture, 16
Craddock, Harry, 149
The Savoy Cocktail Book, 149
Crawford, Joan, 27, 73, 185, 259
The Crisis, 195, 216
Crowninshield, Frank, 35, 70
Cukor, George, The Philadelphia Story, 99, 147–48
Daily News, 262
&nbs
p; dance halls, 199
dating, 187
Davis, Bette, 259
de Beauvoir, Simone, The Second Sex, 26
decluttering, 86–87
decorating. See interior decorating
defense industry, laws prohibiting racial discrimination in, 201
Dennis, Patrick, 27
Auntie Mame, 257–59, 261
department stores, 40–41, 47–48, 102–4. See also specific stores
the Depression, 30, 74–78, 84, 92, 95, 97, 99, 101–2, 105–9, 196, 198
consumer society and, 47
discrimination against working women during, 164, 209
domestic sphere and, 128–53
film during, 145–47
food preparation and, 138–39
gender expectations and, 98–99
interior decorating during, 125–27
Live-Aloners’ world during, 20–22
New York City during, 23–24, 180
professional opportunities during, 174–75
repeal of Prohibition and, 190–91, 192
self-help and, 36
working women and, 159, 164, 165–66
WPA and, 87
Dietrich, Marlene, 259
dining in, 131–43
dining out, 185–86, 190–91
discrimination. See civil rights; segregation; sex discrimination
divorce, 19–20, 57–59, 60–61, 62, 97, 231, 240, 253–54, 256
The Divorcee, 254
divorcées, 230–32, 234–37
Dix, Dorothy, 43–44, 45
background of, 45
death of, 237–38
“Gospel of Common Sense,” 45
How to Win and Hold a Husband, 18
domestic labor, 163, 245.
domestic service, 137, 201
Double V campaign, 215–16, 239
Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 228
Doyle, Mary, 211
Draper, Dorothy, 23, 115–18, 125–26, 184, 189, 299n
creates self-help correspondence course, 117
Decorating Is Fun! 124–25
The Decoration of Houses, 116
Entertaining Is Fun! 127–28
interior decorating career of, 118–22, 126–27
Draper, George, 118
drinking, 89, 143–52, 190–91
Dubler, Ariela R., 17, 18
Du Bois, W. E. B., The Crisis, 195, 216
Dunne, Irene, 27
eating, 89
alone, 131–36
Ebony, 255
economic crisis, 30. See also the Depression
economic power, of older women, 228–29
economizing, 104–6. See also budgeting
Eddy, Mary Baker, 79
education, 169–70, 244–46, 268
Edward VIII, King, 61–62, 73
Ehrenreich, Barbara, Bright-Sided, 75
Eighteenth Amendment. See Prohibition
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 245
elegance, of older women, 73
Elliman, Douglas, 118–19
Elliott, Virginia
Quiet Drinking, 150–52
Shake ’Em Up!, 150
El Morocco, 193
Emma Ransom House, 200–201
Empire State Building, 65
the Emporium, 40–41, 103
entertaining, 89, 127–31
entertainment, 22–23
envy, resisting, 100–102
equal pay, 245. See also pay gap
Equal Pay Act, 270
“era of the expert,” 249–50
escapism, 72, 74
Esquire, 198
eugenics movement, 60
Evans, Redd, 210–11
“Everybody’s Etiquette” column, 232–33
Executive Order No. 8802, 216, 217
Executive Order No. 9182, 217–18
factory work, 213–15, 219
fan letters, 42, 45
fantasy, 74, 87, 182
Farnham, Marynia F., Modern Woman: The Lost Sex, 244
fashion, 67–68, 103–4
fashion industry, 105
fashion magazines, 74
fashion photography, 72
fashion shows, 47
Fashion Week, 103
Fauset, Jessie Redmon, 195, 199
“female promiscuity,” 254
“feminine hostelries,” 184–85
femininity, 262–63
feminism, 254, 263–70, 284
Ferguson, Frank L., 52
film, 27, 146–48, 173, 176–77, 178, 191, 192, 257–61. See also specific films
during the Depression, 145–47
divorce in, 254
Hays Code and, 145–47
marriage in, 146–48
psychology and, 250
screwball romances, 147–48
song-and-dance, 192
working women in, 212–13
finances, 40, 91–111, 278. See also budgeting; financial independence
economic power of older women, 228–29
keeping up with the Joneses, 100–102
resisting envy, 100–102
financial independence, 27, 150, 234–35
Fishback, Margaret, 42, 156
“Maiden’s Prayer,” 42–43
Out of My Head, 42
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 101
“My Lost City,” 65
Fitzgerald, Zelda, 21
flappers, 21, 54, 145, 150
Flushing Meadows Park, 180
Foltz, Bertina, 129, 133
food, 128–43
cookbooks, 138–43
cooking, 128–43
dining in, 131–43
dining out, 185–86, 190–91
eating, 89, 131–36
eating alone, 131–36
Ford, Eileen, 185
42nd Street, 192
Four Vagabonds, 210–11
Foyle, Kitty, Kitty Foyle, 170–78
Francis, Kay, 73
Frazee, Jane, 212
Freedman, Paul, 186
French, Fred F., 38
Freud, Sigmund, 250–51, 271
Freudian theories, 250–51
Friedan, Betty, 29
“Are Women People?,” 263
The Feminine Mystique, 28, 29, 263–72, 275
as founder of NOW, 269
proposes “GI Bill for Women,” 269
fulfillment, 264–65, 266
Gale, Zona, 168
Gary, Indiana, 213–14
gender reassignment surgery, 261–62
gender roles, 261
in the 1950s, 239–48
expectations of, 98–99
marriage and, 255–56, 262–63
General Foods, 134–35
Genovese, Kitty, 28, 294n
Gibbs, Katharine, 185
GI Bill, 244
“GI Bill for Women,” 269
Gilded Age, 101, 179–80
Gilmer, Elizabeth Meriwether, 44. See also Dix, Dorothy
Gladstone, William, 76
glamour, 74
Glamour magazine, 74, 267
Gold Diggers of 1933, 192
Good Housekeeping, 125, 220, 263, 265
Graham, Sheilah, 73
grandmothers, 283
Granlund, Nils T. (N.T.G.), 191–92
Grant, Cary, 147–48, 259, 261
Grant, Jane, 168
Grant’s Tomb, 189
the Great Depression. See the Depression
Great Migration, 195–96, 199
Greenwich Village, 195, 257–58, 261
Green-Wood Cemetery, 223
Griffin, Farah Jasmine, 216–17
Guide Escort Agency, 24, 193–94
Guiliano, Mireille, 105
Hale, Ruth, 167–68
Halle’s department store, 47
Hamburger, Christine, 261–62
Hampshire House, 189
happiness, 15, 29–30, 35, 37, 59–60, 65, 75–76, 78, 82, 86, 89, 263
Harlem, 194–97, 198, 199–20
0
Harlem Renaissance, 196–97, 198, 199–200, 304–5n
Harlow, Jean, 192
Harper’s Bazaar, 268
Hays, Will H., 146
Hays Code, 145–47, 177
Hayward, Susan, 260
Hearst, William Randolph, 44
“heart-balm” actions, 17, 18
Height, Dorothy, 200
Hepburn, Katharine, 27, 147–48, 192, 259
Herald Tribune, 96, 127, 158, 190, 206
Highland Park New Jersey, 242
High Lindens, 203–4, 222, 223, 225–26, 229
Hill, Fanny Christina “Tina,” 215
Hill, Napoleon, 21, 84
Think and Grow Rich, 78–79, 86
Hillis, Ann, 223
Hillis, Annie, 50, 53–54
The American Woman and Her Home, 26, 53, 57–58
death of, 63–64
views on divorce, 57–59, 62
Hillis, Elizabeth, 223
Hillis, Marjorie, 29, 80, 201. See also Hillis, Marjorie, works of
ability to cross generational lines, 169–70
alcohol and, 144, 149–50
appearance at Halle’s department store, 47
appearance of, 34–35, 47–48
background of, 14
backlash against, 45
becomes more conservative, 231–32
becomes the Live-Aloner, 49–65
ceases publishing during marriage, 207–8
childhood home in Brooklyn Heights, 115, 222
childhood of, 14, 115, 182–83, 222
coins herself the Live-Aloner, 33
compared to Dorothy Parker, 70
death of, 284
domestic turn of, 221–24
on Eleanor Roosevelt, 166
engagement of, 205–6
fan letters to, 42, 45
father of, 49–50
finances of, 94–95
financial optimism of, 181–82
as grandmother, 283
honeymoon of, 208–9
identity as a career woman, 163
independence of, 63, 163
lectures Junior League on “Taking Fashion Seriously,” 40
lives with mother and sister in Bronxville, 62–64
marriage of, 24–25, 203–10, 221–26
maternal grandparents of, 222
as member of Junior League, 184
at Miss Dana’s School, 70
mother of, 19
moves back to Manhattan after Harry’s death, 229–30, 237
moves to Manhattan, 65
obituaries of, 284
optimism of, 187
philosophy of, 14–15, 20–21, 42, 55–56, 281
public speaking by, 55–56
reaction to Wallis Simpson scandal, 61–62
responds to readers’ letters, 45
seen as fraud for getting married, 205–6
sidesteps question of sex, 270–71
starting over as widow, 225–84
status as “old maid” of the family, 54–55
style of, 73–74
takes playwriting course at Columbia University, 55
takes role as guru seriously, 48–49
travels of, 149–50
travels to Venezuela, 64–65
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