Molnar On Fifth Avenue

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 5

Molnar On Fifth Avenue

IT is Christmas in New York. A generous Christmas. It lasts from the first of December until mid-fanuary. Aseptically cleansed from all religion, it celebrates wealth and the joy of spending. Shop windows—-individual ecstasies of light against the backdrop of translucent facades under the tightly stretched blackness of the sky that holds together the walls of the city (sorry, can't help being poetic; am subjected to too much advertising copy)—are decorated with animated Indian miniatures, mechanised fairy tales and performing household pets. Shops emanate music like scent. At Rockefeller Centre a whole regiment of 10-feet-high golden troubadours lead to a Christmas tree of thousands of coloured bulbs. 50 feet high. Skyscrapers sprout a vegetation of golden light. It is all very beautiful and rather terrifying. Winter is here. Ladies look for new fur coats and accessories. The difficulty is when to wear them. The short sprint from the taxi to the lobby gives no time for display. So the furs are worn inside the coat . Nonchalantly draped at the back of the chair, every lady has a portY a

able stage set for herself. It is made of leopard. There are also mink skivvies, sealskin boots, tartan boots, diamond hearing aids and fluorescent nightwear. The dummies in the best shops present soignee ladies in the well-preserved forties. Good will is abounding. Everybody buys presents for everybody. But shops make sure that selfless creatures will not forget about themselves. "Be your own Santa Claus. Live a little." says an advertisement—and presents a necklace of diamonds and rubies for 35.000 dollars. There are many gadgets, electronic, atomic, spacecraft rehearsed. And even better. The most up to date is a stone foot-warmer. Smooth, precision engineered, foolproof. You pour hot water in if. The one I liked best was a small purification plant. It defiuoridates water. Nature is conquered. All spaces are warm and radiant with light and music. Soft nylon carpets apologise for gravity. Static electricity oozes everywhere. The matrimonial kiss of the homecoming husband generates electric shock. It is a world of passion.