“LIGHT AS NUTMEGS”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2666, 6 September 1937, Page 2

“LIGHT AS NUTMEGS”

WOMEN IN BRITISH FILMS. “Women in British films are all thinlipped, all about two nutmegs in weight, all speak with the same voice, and appear to be of the same age—from 14 to 17.” This was the damning opinion expressed by Dr. H. W. Taylor, vicechairman of the Public Libraries Committee in the English district of Bolton, in the course of an address. He added gloomily: We have no real women such as we see in industrial towns like Bolton.” Came a voice from the audience : Mae West !

Dr. Taylor: I am told she weighs more than one or two nutmegs, but she is not a British film actress.

“Now, fancy a Lancastrian talking like that!” was Miss Gracie Fields’ comment to a reporter. “Oh, a doctor said it, did he? Oh, well, there’s no accounting for them once they start talking about women. They may know more about us than we realise, but he has got us wrong this time.

“Gosh, he ought to see what some of them eat sometimes! He wouldn’t

talk about nutmegs then. Why, I have never dieted in my life?’ The doctor, nevertheless, found support with another British actress who shall be nameless, because she is afraid of a boomerang. “The trouble is,” she said, “that it is not the actress’s fault because she has to conform to a producer’s standard. You have got to please him and not yourself in these matters.”