Joan’s husband teases her about her instance on dinner party seating arrangements. He sarcastically dubs her ‘Emily Post.’

Most mid-century women would swoon from such a comment.

Post got her start teaching the moneyed classes of the 1930’s how to plan a wedding, lift a spoon, and choose a butler. During the 1940’s her books on ettiquite were supossedly the most requested book by wives of GI’s. By 1950, a survey of female reporters identified Post as the second most influential woman in America, just after Eleanor Roosevelt.

Though Joan’s hubby was being derisive,  Joan’s adherence to Post’s manners (we can assume gleaning from her character) is motivated by more than stuffy traditions. In the words of the maven herself:

 “Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.”  

Here’s a fabulous excerpt from a 1931 edition of ‘Etiquette’. 

1. theshowroomboulevardier liked this
2. xntrek liked this
3. literarypiano liked this
4. craftmastere reblogged this from madmenfootnotes
5. aatombomb liked this
6. yumwatch liked this
7. madeupmemories liked this
8. counterforce liked this
9. hanabi liked this
10. lowindustrial liked this
11. findlilyhere liked this
12. madmenfootnotes posted this