[Newspaper]
Publication: The Cincinnati Enquirer (Kentucky Edition)
Cincinnati, OH, United States
vol. 94, no. 212, p. 8, col. 1-4
IN SOCIETY
NO ONE is better qualified to initiate a series of debutante festivities than is Miss Llewelyn Hemingray. By breeding as well as by tradition and social experience, not to mention by virtue of an unusual charm and graciousness, she combines the qualities of a perfect hostess with those of one well-versed in the ways of the smart world. Thus on Saturday night she lent something of her own distinction to the dinner which she gave at the Town Club, in honor of the debutante daughters of intimate friends, Mr. and Mrs. Polk Laffoon, Miss Emily Brent Laffoon, one of the belles of the year, who arrived for the Christmas recess the other day from Hollins College, where she is a sophomore.
A Kentuckian, a niece of the late Mrs. Bradford Shinkle, with whom she spent much time always, and to whom she was like a daughter following Mr. Shinkle's death and Mrs. Shinkle's retirement to her estate of many hundreds of acres on the Dixie Highway between Covington and Ft. Mitchell, Miss Hemingray's hospitality was typical of the generosity of the South, for this occasion, the first of the Yule-tide’s succession of nightly celebrations for the debutantes of 1934, now in the heydey [sic] heyday of their success.
The Town Club will be the background for several other smart debutante functions during the holidays. notably that to be given to-morrow night by Mr. and Mrs. Dan Woolley of New York, in honor of Miss Betty Flach and her fiance, Mr. George Mosher, but it is safe to say that this artistic background will offer no more genuine or festive factor in the triumphs of the season, than did Saturday's night's happy function.
The guest of honor and her contemporaries were all placed at one table which formed a hollow square in the big, beautiful lounge where the stunning paintings of grandees of other generations looked down upon this scene, also en grande tenue.
The center piece for this wide expanse of snowy damask was formed of great bowls placed at intervals, each disguised as glittering snowballs from which there issued tall snapdragons and other white blooms that, with many silvered poinsettia leaves that completed this arrangement, gave to this picture something very lovely and eminently decorative.
The guests found their places by means of tiny reindeer of silvered glass, that were so charming that each packed this keepsake into pocket or party bag as a souvenir of the evening. In the great floor vases and all about this handsome room were similar clusters of flowers and more silvered leaves, the wide colonial mantle piece having by contrast the length of its snowy surface, high branches of huckelberry [sic] huckleberry branches, against which the Town Club’s porcelain pigeons were silhouetted.
Miss Hemingray's own dinner table was a smaller replica of this more spacious one, the effect as the eye traveled from the cocktail room to the lounge where the guests assembled before dinner was announced, being notably artistic. Among those from out of town was Mr. Eno of Princeton, who spent the week-end with Mr. Marshall Dana, and who proved extremely entertaining as well as notably intelligent and traveled. He brought news of the triumph at the premier of the Princeton Triangle's 1934 musical comedy, "Stags At Bay," which, it seems, is a "howling success."
Miss Hemingray, who is attractive to both young and less young, greeted her guests in the wide entrance hall, assisted by the guest of honor and her parents. She wore a stunning black satin gown, very long and flowing, the V-necked bodice being relieved by a long strand of gardenias.
Mrs. Laffoon's burgundy tinted gown of velvet was sleeveless and very becoming. With it she wore a set of antique coral inherited from her aunt, and which, belonging to an era long gone, is unique enough even now, done in exquisitely carved flowers set in gold upon wide bands, to be particularly interesting. Mrs. Laffoon wore these earrings, breast-pin and wide bracelets with much elan, her shoulder bouquet being delicate pink flowers.
Miss Laffoon, who has a charm all her own, was the bright particular star of the evening, both at Miss Hemingray's preliminary to a very festive Saturday and at the snappy dance at the Cincinnati Country Club which followed this handsome dinner. She looked especially well in a modish frock of turquoise moire, sleeveless and cut low behind, where an enormous bow of the same material with long ends fell from the neck to the tip of the waistline. In her ears she wore single, matching turquoise, and on one shoulder a charming cluster of gardenias completed a most becoming toilette.
Miss Ruth Mackoy, who is tall and very slim, was gowned in sky-blue satin, the wide "follies" collar that hugged her throat and matched the broad border of the flaring skirt being of silver sequins. Her flowers also were gardenias.
Miss Grace Hunt, who arrived on Saturday from college, chose a black crepe gown, high in the neck in front and low behind, where, from a high band at the neck, there fell to the waist down the center looped strands of crystal. She is wearing her hair in the new Antoine way, curled on the top of her pretty head, these ringlets forming a low bang across her brow.
Miss Betty Flach was a belle des belles, her white satin frock being high in front, where it formed a soft cowl, and low in the back, where it was crossed by a series of graded bow knots above the waist.
Miss Betty Paxton's bright red gown of crepe, with its long line of crystal down the back, its high neck and chic outline, suited well this modish debutante. She, too, wears her hair in the fashion of the curled bang which the very pretty may affect and which many of them do.
Miss Kate Shinkle, who is a great favorite with both men and girls, for she is great fun and very companionable, wore a green gown of softest satin, the narrow girdle of the same material being edged in gold. This color, with her lovely bronze hair, was very effective.
Miss Lloyd Lanier, who has wonderful auburn locks, lovely eyes, and a fascinating personality, was gowned in white, the low cowl at the throat and the becoming sweep of the full skirt, both at this dinner and in the dance at the Cincinnati Country Club, being exceptionally becoming.
Miss Cecilia Sherman McLaren, just home from the University of Minnesota and who is tall, handsome, and very amusing as well as talented, was gowned in deep burgundy color that was almost black. About the neck, which was high in front and formed a low, wide "V" behind, was a decorative roulade of the same tint combined with dull red. The sleeves were slit most flatteringly from shoulder to elbow. This toilette, which she wore with much grace, suiting her to perfection.
Miss Suzanne Noyes, who came on with Mr. Dabney Thompson from a reunion of the Alexander Thomson-Noyes families, was frocked in an embroidered gown of palest ashes of roses, the bodice being a fitted one, in which her petite figure was like that of a French doll.
Miss Mary Louise Cherrington's fair hair and sparkling face was well set off by a lovely gown of vivid scarlet satin-just the tint of the holly berry. She is one of the recently arrived collegians, as indeed were practically all the debutantes present. Clips of strasse stones caught the square neck of the bodice, which gave a decorative contrast.
Miss Caryl Field was welcomed enthusiastically on every hand, for she arrived home only on Saturday morning. Her slim, simple gown of hunter's green with its "monk's girdle" at the belt line, suited well her petite figure.
Miss Helen Eustis, who radiates a joie de vivre that is contageous [sic] contagious, was one of the belles of the evening, her black velvet gown with its low neckline being most becomingly bordered in a narrow ruche of the most exquisite decorative lace combined with touches of embroidered mull.
Miss Virginia Heizer, who has much grace and a wonderful time, was one of the beauties, her gown of moss green having wide revers on the bodice that were bordered with contrasting hue.
Miss Joan Kerr's picture frock was of black velvet, built in the fashion of her great-grandmother, and distractingly becoming. Worn off the shoulders, it finished behind in a wide low back. With it her fair hair provided a striking contrast.
Miss Mary Brooks, who is the pretty sister of one of the popular men of the stag line, Mr. Leroy Brooks, and who is a delightful girl, was gowned in a peplum gown of palest ashes of roses, the square neck and high back being relieved by long glitering [sic] glittering earrings. She has a charming manner and is so accustomed to meeting interesting people at home and abroad that she has an aplomb that stands her in good stead under all circumstances.
Miss Peggy Piatt was a dainty beauty in a white crepe frock, round glittering earrings framing her piquant and sparkling face.
The one rift within this joyous debutante lute was the absence of Miss Dorothy Perin-Smith, who had long since accepted an invitation to a ball last night in Dayton, where one of the charming girls whom Mrs. Perin-Smith chaperoned this autumn in New York, was her hostess; and that of the Misses Fay and Lilian Irving, who were not in town in time for this dinner, the one arriving late last night and the other yesterday afternoon in time for the tea which their mother gave for these twin sisters at the family residence on Madison Road.
The men who helped make up Miss Hemingray's gay company, which lingered at the Town Club until nearly 11 o’clock, were:
Messrs. Leroy Brooks, Lucien Lee Bowman, Marshal M. H. Dana, Lawrence Davis, Worthington Dodd, Frank Ditmars, Thomas Dohan, Jack Duttenhofer, Weir Goodman, Ernst Hackney, Grant Headley, Webb Hill, Jr., Timothy Hinckley, Dan Heekin, Jr., Charles Hook, Jr., Morse Johnson, Spencer Kuhn, Jr., Matthew Long, Leslie Meek, John Sherlock Minor, Gordon McKim, Jr., Thomas Matthews, George Drew Mosher, Harold Willis Nichols, Jr., Griswold Raetze, Robert Raetze, William Roderick, William Southgate, Paul Stevens, A. Clifford Shinkle, Jr., Bradford Shinkle, Jr., George Stimson, Potter Stewart, John Sullivan, Berkshire Terrill, William Terrill, Charles Dabney Thomson, Oliver DeGray Vanderbilt III., Walter Vant, William Warner, Peter Wilshire, and Richard Williams.
Joining the hostess at her own table placed in the delightful tea room besides Mr. and Mrs. Laffoon, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brent Mackoy and their daughter and son, Mr. and Mrs. George Clifford of Youngstown who arrived just in time to dress for this preliminary, coming by motor from that Northern Ohio city, via very badly cut-up roads; Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Ranson, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brent Mackoy, Jr., Miss Sara Darnall, Miss Marion Devereux, Mr. Roberts.
Following Miss Hemingray's affair, Mr. A. Clifford Shinkle, Jr. took the entire dinner party on to the Cincinnati Country Club, of whose Entertainment Committee he is a member, and where several hundred guests, 130 of whom dined beforehand at this spacious and popular clubhouse, were already enjoying the irresistible dance music when this additional half hundred celebrants turned up.
As not all were members of the Cincinnati Country Club, all the guests at the Hemingray dinner found at their places at table a dainty, dashing little bowknot of burgandy and blue ribbon — the colors of the Polk Laffoon racing stables which, when worn at the Country Club was an open sesame to that solidarity for the remainder of the evening, thanks to Mr. Shinkle.
This means of identification was the brilliant idea of Mr. Shinkle's mother, Mrs. A. Clifford Shinkle, who has often seen this same plan utilized in the East, with whose smart set she is thoroughly familiar. Thus Mr. Shinkle's party was immediately identified by the powers that be at this Grandin Road rendezvous, where gaiety reigned until dawn. This Country Club aftermath was suggested by Mr. Clifford Shinkle as a substitute for the private dance originally set, and later abandoned, for that date. That his judgment was sound was amply proven by the presence on this occasion of the entire debutante, post debutante and collegiate set, which thus set the pace for the whole Christmas recess on this final "home-coming" night of the holidays.