RENO’S PROBLEM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19941, 27 October 1934, Page 20

RENO’S PROBLEM

ARE SHORTS SUFFICIENT? The management of the Wigwam Restaurant, combination bar and dining room, pondered to-day over the question of proper etiquette for waiters ruffled by scantily clad socially prominent female patrons.

The customer in the case was youthful Mrs M. (Ellen) Tilton Holmsen, daughter of Mrs Newell Tilton, of Southampton, Long Island. She .established residence here three weeks ago in order to obtain a divorce from Nicholas Holmsen on grounds of incompatibility. Mrs Holmsen. in her own words, was “virtually chased out of the restaurant” by an “unbelievably rude chief waiter,” whose views of modesty and morality did not quite jibe with hers. The waiter, Les Lerude, interviewed, said Mrs Holmsen entered the establishment minus shoes and stockings and attired only in men’s shorts and a shirt.

“Her conduct was provoking.” Lerude said. "She insisted on carrying on a flirtation with men who ordinarily wouldn’t give her a tumble, except for her efforts to attract them with near nudity. Denies Rejecting Her

Lerude denied he ejected her. Lerude was denounced in a letter Mrs Holmsen sent to the management. She said:—

“It just so happens that.l come from one of New York’s very best families, and my friends and relatives number among the most popular here and abroad. “But even if he doesn’t know a lady when he sees one, no decent creature would treat another one in such a way. “If he doesn’t like bare feet and shorts, ladies who pick up gentlemen and who order milk hot but not boiled and freshly squeezed orange juice, he has but to say so in ordinary polite language. “Now that you know, the rest is up to you.” At her hotel, Mrs Holmsen, a slender, attractive blonde, said she was a modern-up-to-date girl with no use for old-fashioned convention.

“That waiter was just a prude,” she said.

Mrs Holmsen’s clash with the Wigwam was not her first misadventure since she left New York. On the way to Reno she sat in her abbreviated costume on the observation platform, and was so black with soot when the train neared Salt Lake City that a dignified gentleman threatened to put her off because she was a “negress,” she laughingly recalled. She has attracted considerable attention on the streets of Reno since she arrived here. In shorts and shirt, she is seen daily astride a bicycle.