Photo Confusion

One last costume example related to 1897’s The Whirl of the Town; sometimes the identification of a costume and show can be complicated by bad information from the time period. 

 

In 2009, this design by Caroline Siedle was offered at Bloomsbury Auctions. The drawing is not in my collection, and this image is from the LiveAuctioneers website - where the artist's last name is misspelled Seidle. At the time it was listed as possibly being for Babes in Toyland, but I've recently come across an image on the Museum of the City of New York website that appears to confirm it was actually designed a couple years earlier for 1897’s The Whirl of The Town.

This photo is clearly labeled The Whirl of the Town at the bottom, and shows a group of manicurists all wearing this dress. But after further investigation, it becomes clear that this is actually a scene from The Social Whirl, another Casino show, produced almost ten years later in 1906. Obviously the word Whirl in the title of both shows confused someone! The first setting of the 1906 show is a manicurist’s parlor, which is clearly what we’re seeing here. The plot of the show concerns a scandal sheet, and according to the November 11th, 1906 Washington Times:

The manicuring establishment seen in the first act of "The Social Whirl" is a reproduction to the smallest detail of one well known on Broadway - the one where much of the news that caused the recent expose of a certain society journal's methods is supposed to have originated. 

This is confirmed in a different newspaper with a print of the image with the correct title:

Apparently the concept of manicurists as gossip-mongers predates The Women by quite some time! In any case, the dress is another fine example of Caroline Siedle's skill at designing in black & white.