HELPING CUPID

Evening Star, Issue 23325, 22 July 1939, Page 11

HELPING CUPID

GIRLS RUN MARRIAGE BUREAU MATCH-MAKING PAYS This marriage business—there’s money in itl I’ve just met two young women who are doing very nicely out of match-making (states a writer in a London journal). They are Mary Oliver, daughter of a. country clergyman, and Heather Jenner, whose father is a brigadier-general. When I called upon Mary and Heather a few weeks ago they had just started their Marriage Bureau in aristocratic Bond street. They were wondering whether it would be a “ flop ” or a success. To-day I looked in, and what a change there was! Mary Oliver, sitting at a big desk, was confronted by a vast pile of letters, dictating replies to a small corps of secretaries. “ We’re doing so well,” she told me, “ that we’re about to move into bigger and better premises just along the street. “ I had no idea there was such a demand for this kind of service. , I can’t tell you offhand the number of romances we’ve fixed up—but (touch wood!) every one of them has gone right, and there have been no grumbles.” The telephone on Mary’s desk buzzed. She lifted the receiver and spoke. “ That was a client, a titled woman,” she said. “ She’s rung up to tell me she’s engaged to one of my ‘ eligibles.’ I love to hear news like that. . . .” Small wonder Mary likes to hear of romances ripening. For every wedding that takes place under the bureau’s wing, so to speak, brings at least 20gs rolling in to the firm. “.Widows of 40 or thereabouts who want to wed sensible, widowers are a bit of a problem,” Mary went on. “ Every post brings of applications from widows, but it’s a job getting enough widowers to go round.” So far, no bride has been found for the son of a titled widow, a young man with about £2,500 a year. His mother put his name down on the bureau’s books some time ago, but he’s apparently rather difficult to please. A noted actor, who has a big following of girl “ fans,” a famous athlete, and an author—these are among the men who have asked Mary and Heather to fix them up matrimonially. The girls and women on the bureau’s roll are a varied and wonderful lot, if one can judge by the received of them. “ This job has given me a remarkable insight into the hearts of my fellow beings,” Mary ivent on.

“ No, I’m not thinking of getting married myself—just yet,” she added. Believe it or not, there is a woman of 80 who wants a husband, and an heiress who registered because she believes that if her suitors don’t know she’s wealthy she will have a much better chance of making a true-love marriage.