FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18492, 6 February 1930, Page 10

FEMININE INTERESTS.

SOME PERSONAL NOTES Christmas Dinner Pageant: If number is a criterion, then the Santa Claus Ball at the Kit-Kat was the success of the season. Tables were crammed tightly together round the dance floor and in the gallery, and people were crammed equally tightly round the tables. On the dance flo9r it was almost impossible to move. Not only were there turkey and mince pies for supper, but the pageant represented a Christmas dinner — Queen Charlotte’s, as the ball was in aid of Queen Charlotte’s Hospital—and there was a huge Christmas tree. Miss Binnie Hale was Queen Charlotte, with Miss Redhead as page, and the Hon. Mrs Parsons and her sisters as ladies-in-waiting. The meal started with Miss Gwen le Bas as an oyster, for which she had a lovely frock of oyster satin, and carried a pearl the size of a cannon-ball in her hand. Mrs Glen Kidston was the soup, and Lady Castlerosse the fish. She wore a grotesque frock with fins. It could never be described as a filet of sole; in fact, it looked more like some sort of an aquarium specimen. Lady Scarsdale was the goose, and Mrs Edward Wills, the turkey. Lady Grant looked most appetising as a plum pudding. The pudding itself was her skirt, while above rose the flames, and on the top of her head was a sprig of holly. Miss Betty Hulton was the dessert, Lady Dunn and Mrs Redmond McGrath represented red and white wine, and Mrs Peter Baxendale old brandy.

Most startling of all, however, was Mrs A. G. McCorquocHle, who was champagne. The designer had fallen back on gelatine in this case, and gave her a huge cuffs and a

train of this material, which she found it very hard to keep intact. She made a crackling noise wherever she went. Lady Howard de Walden, in a long dress of black velvet, was the handsomest woman there. Lady Puller, wife of the theatrical entrepreneur, Sir Benjamin Fuller, is on a protracted visit to Christchurch with her daughter, Fay. And the reason thereof is a determined young lady of some eighteen years, who overcame all parental opposition and embarked on a theatrical career as a ballet girl and solo dancer—Miss Joan Fuller, or, to give her her stage name. Miss Joan Graham. Miss Graham has been a member of the Jim Gerald Revue Company for about eight months now and has appeared with them in Sydney, Auckland and now Christchurch. From a ballet girl, Miss Graham has developed into a delightful ingenue, and her song and dance numbers are very popular with audiences.

The only freewoman turner, a member of the Guild of Turners, and entitled to display her work at their City exhibitions, is Lady Gertrude Crawford, sister of the Earl of Sefton. She is having a small exhibition of her work in ivory and wood in Kensington. Lady Gertrude says that she has •■turned" almost as long as she can remember; as a child, under the guidance of her father, the late Lord Sefton, who was an amateur expert. Her workshops are at Coxhill, near Lymington, and as she never sells any of her work—though it has gained many prizes at exhibitions—ashtrays, candlesticks, cigarette-boxes and powder-bowls made by her are treasured by friends to whom she gives them as presents.