If you've ever seen the 1955 movie My Sister Eileen you know the scene where Ruth Sherwood (Betty Garrett) undergoes a lengthy bedtime ritual in which she applies an entire jar of cold creme to her face, ties a hankerchief over her head (for the prevention of double chins), and adheres small squares to her forehead and cheeks. I had given this scene the same disparaging laugh I had given Ruth's "toning" efforts, preventing the "spread" of her hips by doing the bump against the wall of a nearby closet. Girls, what are you waiting for? Flatter asses and stomaches for everyone! Of course, it's a comedy and her measures are supposed to be a send up of 1950s beauty culture, but you can imagine my surprise when I noticed "Wrinkies" and "Frownies" for sale in the Vermont Country Store catalog. These things are real? And, what's more, still made?Apparently, they "work" by training one's facial muscles to relax and for $19.95 you can have 144 nights of facial relaxation leading, no doubt, to a new and improved you. Throwing back the covers, you'll fight your way into a girdle and a lovely grey New Look suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo to go to work in your Best of Everything office, sleeping your way to a position of power, a career woman in the big city. But don't come running to me when your roommate laughs at your freakish ways and exposes your gullibility to all your friends.
Christian Dior's New Look at Design Museum
Vertigo 1959 Hitchcock film
The Best of Everything - a 1958 novel by Rona Jaffe adapted to film by Jean Negulesco in 1959.
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