Shorts

The possibility of a European war still seemed reasonably acute last week. In Bermuda, Dr. William Beebe made a record descent into the ocean. Back from Honolulu. President Roosevelt had barely time to catch his breath before he was immersed in currency problems of grave consequence to all U. S. citizens. Such matters as these received attention from the U. S. Press last week but less attention than something which happened in a small room on the first floor of Manhattan's Hotel Biltmore.

There Miss Josephine Windle, chairman of the tournament committee of an organization called the Women's Metropolitan Golf Association, issued a statement: "Since various member clubs and associations have voiced their disapproval of shorts, the Women's Metropolitan Golf Association shall request its members to refrain from wearing them in tournaments."

Miss Windle's statement appeared next day on the front page of the New York Times, followed by dispatches describing 'reactions to it in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Maplewood, N. J., where a Catholic priest blamed shorts on the cinema. The New York Daily News quickly photographed a Miss Bea Gottlieb who last year won a round of golf from Edward of Wales, interviewed her on the terrace of the Westchester Embassy Club which is run by two onetime speak-easy proprietors. Said Bea Gottlieb, who sells securities and real estate when not golfing: "Shorts are the only sensible thing," added that the Prince of Wales wears them. The Associated Press carried interviews with lady golfers in Kansas City. Dallas and Norfolk where a Mrs. Tom Hanes said she saw no reason for women to be "bundled up like eskimos." Even more enthusiastic about the story than any of its rivals, the New York American ran a four-column spread with pictures of Swimmer Eleanor Holm, Tennist Helen Jacobs and Golfer Bea Gottlieb.

Two days after the announcement Josephine Windle had become a celebrity and her statement was national news. Editorials appeared in the New York Times, New York World-Telegram, Boston Herald, the Boston Transcript, many another worthy sheet. Said the Transcript: "If the garment now called shorts should be lengthened to reach the knee, would it comply with the rule? Would it still bear its present name?" In Manhattan, Cartoonist Will Johnstone of the World Telegram made a picture of his tax payer playing golf dressed in a barrel, saying "Nobody objects to my shorts." In the New York Daily News, Cartoonist C. D. Batchelor drew a sketch called "A Thousand Welcomes," showing a newspaper artist bored with such topics as the Drought, Hitler and the Far East, examining with approval the figure of a female golfer wearing shorts.

Three days after the meeting of the Women's Metropolitan Golf Association the question of what should be worn by women golfers playing in local tournaments near New York really reached its peak as a national issue. By this time Bea Gottlieb was as famed as she had been a year ago. The Oklahoma City Oklahoman, copying the New York Daily News which had photographed a female reporter waddling about a public golf course in various states of undress, sent a male member of its staff out to wear shorts on Oklahoma City's Main Street. The dispute spread to Canada where a Montreal alderman said that women players who wanted to wear shorts would be welcomed across the border.

If anything more was needed to bring the question of shorts squarely before the eye of the public it was supplied by Arthur Brisbane. Inspired to one of his finest flights, he made the statement last week that "Modesty takes different forms," and, to prove it, produced almost the only female group who had not already been interviewed on the subject: i. e. "Patagonian ladies, near Terra del Fuego. . . . Terribly embarrassed when discovered outside their houses all undressed, they rushed into their houses, fixed up their hair, painted their faces and came out quite at ease although still 'all undressed.' "

The mention of Patagonian ladies last week appeared to be reasonably close to the last word in the controversy about shorts except for one more brief speech from the Women's Metropolitan Golf Association's Josephine Windle. Asked what would happen in case someone should disregard the wishes of the Association at the next tournament to be played under its auspices, she said she hoped no member would seek "vulgar publicity" by doing so.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.