Mrs Fred Sowers from Winston-Salem, NC, Mrs Harold
Vestal from Niangua, Mo and Mrs. Carl Arntson from Columbia Heights, MN: “We
made our dresses from flour sacks”
The three women are recent winners of
the fifth annual National Cotton Bag Sewing Contest, co-sponsored by the
National Cotton Council and the Necchi Sewing Machine Company. Though not as
well-known as other brands, Necchi machines are still being sold today, and
older models, especially from the 1950s, are prized collectables. Sowers (1st), Vestal (2nd)
and Arntson (3rd) beat out ten thousand entrants in regional
competitions around the country. Their
prize was a week in Manhattan and a new sewing machine. True to the period, not a single newspaper
article about the three housewives’ victories ever mentions their own first
names.
[Mrs. Atwood]: “I wore the same dress for 65
days” and [Mr. Atwood]: “I never noticed”
Wacky matrimony.
Jean Lacombe from Paris, France: “I sailed the
Atlantic in an 18-foot boat”
Lacombe began his journey from France
in April 1955 and arrived in New York in July 1956, fifteen months later. He designed his ship himself and named it the
Hippocampe (“Sea Horse”). His stops included Barcelona, Casablanca, the Canary
Islands, San Juan and Atlantic City. He
was towed to Atlantic City by a passing yacht when his rigging gave way three
miles from shore, leaving him adrift for four days. His adventure attracted scant media coverage
at the time.
Special Guest Douglas Fairbanks Jr
This episode has not been reviewed. Details come from alternate sources, including thumbnail descriptions of the episodes in GSN documentation. Except where noted, “secrets” are not exact quotes.
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