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To The Lady Delegates
WALL STREET JOURNAL AUG 3, 1956 PG 4 COL 1
Television's impact on politics has caused Miss
Bertha Adkins, assistant to Chairman Leonard Hall of
the Republican National Committee, to get up a
little list of the do's and don'ts for the lady delegates
going to San Francisco.
Don't, by any means, wear large brim hats or veils,
or the people from your home towns might not
recognize you. A little something off-the-forehead
will make it easier for you to recognize each other,
too. And it will prevent Democrats from sneaking in
unrecognized. None of this means, of course, that
delegates have very much chance of recognition from
the convention chairman.
Gold and other shiny jewelry are out, even if it's
just costume jewelry. Such accouterments pick up
the high-lights from television cameras and dazzle
the eyes of TV viewers. Also, prosperity is a very
fine thing for the country, but it doesn't do for lady
delegates to help spread the Democratic canard that
the G.O.P. gets an undue share of it. If the ladies
must bedeck themselves, Mr. Hall suggests adding a
Nixon button to the Eisenhower one.
Delegates should not wear anything white next to
the face. White detracts from the "skin tone" of images
picked up by the cameras trained on the delegates. The
effect is to make the lady delegates, one and all, look
a bit unhealthy, like people who spend their time in
smoke-filled rooms. Delegates should never look that
way.
What Miss Adkins had to say seems to us pretty
good advice for all lady delegates, whether they are
going to San Francisco or to Chicago. But we have a
final admonition.
Television does have a strange habit of making
people appear a bit different from the way they really
look, especially under a wide-angle lens. And the way
politics is shaping up these days our advice is: Ladies,
most of all don't forget the girdles.
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