“SCAVENGING”

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

“SCAVENGING”

SOCIETY PRANKS. LONDON TEACHES NEW YORK. ? , New York, January 15. Miss Diana Guest, daughter of the Hon. Mrs. Frederick Guest and sister of the polo players Winston and Raymond Guest, has imported from England a new diversion for the younger set, a diversion inelegantly called "scavenging,” states the Wellington Post’s correspondent. The idea originated among the same gay young set in London, or their successors, who thought up the treasure hunt.

The rules are simple and the game’s possibilities are practically limitless. The host or hostess selects a rendezvous, preferably a speakeasy, as when Miss Guest startled her acquaintance with New York’s first scavenging party one night recently. Then the person arranging the party outlines thhe things the guests are required to do within a specified period. Any number may play, though usually the number is about 20. The players are divided into teams of two or four, equally divided between girls and men. Prizes, are given the teams coining closest to 100 per cent success in accomplishing the stunts arranged within the time allowed.

These stunts are guaranteed to cause all sorts of embarrassment to the players. At a party in London one event required the participants to catch a swan out of a park pond, and naturally competitors with any hope of success had to plunge into the lake, evening dress and all. When Miss Guest gave her introductory scavenging party in New York, stunts required included these: Get the autograph of Francis Lederer. Mr. Lederer is a young actor who has young ladies spinning on their ears because of his good looks and manners. Get an' official cap.

Measure the waist-line of the fattest usher at a certain big movie theatre. Get a ticket for a flop house. Get a copy of a Jewish newspaper dated December 8. Measure the distance from the elevator to the information desk in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. At the starting gun the gay young, things were off. The audience and the ushers at the movie theatre promptly decided the players of this- game were a bit balmy, but nearly everybody in the competition got the waist-line of the fattest usher, and also the Waldorf mea- ■ surements, although some of the guests at the hotel were puzzled to see the young men in evening dress crawling on hands and knees in the lobby, following a tape measure. The Jewish newspaper stopped some of the contestants, but one or two teams made the hurdle. They went to a Times Square news stand and found the address of the publication. The flop house tripped several. One enthusiastic boy got a ticket and went to bed five minutes in a municipal lodging house, but he was disqualified because technically the lodging house did not fit specifications. Only one player, Miss Judith Hamlin, had the ingenuity to get Mr. Lederer’s autograph. This she accomplished by pretending she thought his Japanese valet was Lederer’s manager, and the valet was so flattered he admitted her to his employer's dressing room. The official cap was the big stumbling block. One team rushed to the armoury of Squadron A and got the cap of a boy in the game, a member of the squadron. But this did not strike the judges, one of whom was proprietor of the speakeasy selected as the rendezvous, as official enough. The team which finally won met a policeman just as he was leaving his post at midnight, and asked him politely for his cap. He declined, on the grounds it would cost him his job. The time limit expired at 12.30 a.m., and there were no minutes to be wasted. So the players took cop, cap, and all before the judges. This team captured first prize. The cap stayed with the party until four in the morning, and of course the policeman can’t hang . around a speakeasy, especially when off duty, if he doesn’t give the house a little trade. So he was not exactly steady as he parted affectionately from his new friends. Speakeasy proprietors are promoting this new game enthusiastically.—(N.A. N.A.)