The Pittsburgh Press (December 1, 1946)
I DARE SAY —
‘Bloomer Girl,’ here this week, bears celebrated signature – John C. Wilson
By Florence Fisher Parry
One of the most gratifying advances that the entertainment world has made recently has been their success in making today’s theater audience, and indeed the motion picture audience, too, conscious of the signature on a production. Yes, the Fabulous Invalid is at last convalescing, and theater shoppers are again becoming very particular in ascertaining what label their entertainment merchandise bears.
Is the motion picture a Samuel Goldwyn picture? Then it is very likely to show taste and meticulous devotion.
Is the director Alfred Hitchcock? Then the picture is very likely to be a fine product of suspense.
Is the cameraman Gregg Toland or James Howe? Then the movie shopper can be sure that he will see the very best in photography.
And in the marts of the theater, the play-shopper, too, looks for the label.
Who produces this play? The Theater Guild? The Playwrights Company? John C. Wilson? Max Gordon? The play shopper feels that he takes very little chance on buying a product of any of these; and although the names of the great impresarios of the theater today may not carry the magic and glamor of those legendary names of Charles Frohman, David Belasco, Klaw and Erlanger, they are becoming a guarantee of good showmanship.
One of these, John C. Wilson, deserves our particular attention this week, if but for the reason that his production “Bloomer Girl” will enliven the Nixon. Mr. Wilson has proved himself to be a producer of aristocratic tastes. Twelve years ago he organized his own firm with Noel Coward, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne as partners. This year in New York, in association with the Guild, he is sponsoring the Lunt’s in “O Mistress Mine.” He is presenting his own Coward comedy, “Present Laughter” with Clifton Webb. He is both producing and directing Tallulah Bankhead’s new play titled (tentatively) “Angel of Death,” the same play which in England under the title “The Eagle With Two Heads,” introduced a new sensational actress, Eileen Herlie. (My bets are on Tallulah.)
Indeed, when we look over the list of past successes, we have Mr. Wilson to thank for “Blithe Spirit,” Tallulah Bankhead’s “Foolish Notion,” “Tonight at 8:30,” “Dear Octopus” and now the highly successful “Bloomer Girl,” which comes to us intact with its original New York cast after 653 Broadway performances.
What led John C. Wilson to the production of “Bloomer Girl” makes a rather interesting story. It seems that two Hollywood writers, Lilith and Dan James, were doing some research work on women suffrage. These boys gathered extraordinary material about Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, and became so enthusiastic that they wrote a movie script about Mrs. Bloomer. Fortunately, their scenario fell into the hands of men who were more interested in musical comedy than moves, and the first thing our movie scenarists knew, they had a record-breaking costume musical on their hands which has run for two record-breaking seasons on Broadway!
Why is this nostalgic period piece of the Civil War called “Bloomer Girl”? Let Carlton Miles, Press representative for “Bloomer Girl” tell us, for far be it from me either to take credit for, or attempt to improve upon, the following excellent bit of background:
“Although the program notes of ‘Bloomer Girl’ contain a paragraph stating that plot and characters are entirely fictional and are nor intended to represent any particular persons, there can be little doubt that the musical hit was suggested by the tempestuous career of the wife of the postmaster of Seneca Falls, N.Y. in the middle 1800s.
“Mrs. Amelia Bloomer was the first woman to publish her own magazine. Titled ‘The Lily’ it was used as a platform in her fight for women’s rights. She spoke and wrote with equal energy against drink, smoking, sloth, the law which gave women no public rights and the 60-pound hoopskirt.
“Protesting that women were ‘slaves of clothing’ she added to the picturesqueness of her reform movement by appearing in public in a pair of harem pants from Turkey over which she wore a dress that came well below her knees.
“The lady’s detractors promptly labeled her costume ‘the bloomer’ and, to her horror, the label stuck. While the bloomer actually was ridiculed out of existence for a time it returned in the 1890s, even attaining respectability as the uniform of the ‘Bloomer Girls’ baseball teams.
“Although Mrs. Bloomer usually is credited with being the first American women to wear pants in public, actually that somewhat dubious honor goes to Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Congressman Gerrit Smith. She wore trousers she had purchased in Turkey at a reception in Washington, D.C., in 1849. Such consternation was created by her advent that strong men blanched and women fainted while Mrs. Miller strolled about without apparent notice of the fracas she was causing.
“Mrs. Miller visited Seneca Falls later and made an immediate convert of Mrs. Bloomer who donned the garment at once. Pulpit heads and staid periodicals thundered at her to such an extent that Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer left Seneca Falls and repaired to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he became mayor and she contented herself writing articles against horse racing and gambling.”