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Europe protects women from gel manicures. Why doesn’t the US?

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Interesting

In this publicity shot from 1934, a very young Shirley Temple is shown "signing" (legally her parents had to sign it) a new film contract that garnered her a whopping $1,000 per week (around $22,700/week in 2023 money*).

But that isn't the only interesting thing going on here. In keeping with our microtheme on the social and economic history of the pen, it definitely is notable that Temple is signing with a Parker** Duofold fountain pen - specifically, a Parker Duofold fountain pen with a unique red body.*** (The ink still was either a black or a dark shade of blue.)

This is interesting because when Parker released a red fountain pen in 1921 it became a sensation, thanks to the fact that, prior to this, almost every fountain pen was black..... because they had to be black.

This was due to the difficulty in coloring the hard rubber (usually ebonite), a process that made the finished product brittle and often ugly.

But in 1921 an employee at Parker assembled a pen sample from an old experimental red barrel and cap but used the reliable black ebonite for the most brittle parts, and immediately people wanted this colorful pen.

And these pens didn't come cheap. A good fountain pen was seen as a status symbol, and a unique one like the red Duofold could elevate one's personal status in the envious eyes of hangers-on.

In fact, in 1934, that pen cost $7 brand new, which is equivalent to just shy of $160 in 2023*.

This means that this posed publicity shot of Temple "signing" (you actually can see the puddle of ink on the page where she'd been holding the nib in one place for too long) her contract was so much more than just a news event - the presence of a famous, expensive, desired pen such as the one with which she is pictured also is making a statement about her status, her parents' status, and the wealth and influence of the movie company that not only could afford to pay her such an incredible wage, but also didn't even bat an eyelash over handing such an expensive writing instrument over to a child.

But we would be remiss not to put this in context, because this was during the fifth year of the Great Depression:

That same year, nearly 13 million Americans were out of work. In cities all across the country, people waited for hours in bread lines and at soup kitchens for their one meal of the day. In many areas of the country, people literally were starving to death.

But the movie industry was doing okay. People in dire straits still spent their 23¢ admission to see stars dance and sing, and help them forget about their own troubles for an hour or so.

Those impoverished souls who saw this seemingly innocuous photograph of one of their favorite young stars would have recognized her pen, and known exactly what it was, and probably dreamed of a life with such luxury.

So, you see, pens tell us important stories in more than one way.

Historia Obscurum

Please help support our educational outreach at https://www.patreon.com/HistoriaObscurum

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* Calculated with www.in2013dollars.com

** See comment I posted in the comments section.

*** It may not be clear to us today that the pen was red, but it would have been instantly recognizable to folks back then due to the fame of the red Duofold - it was a cultural icon in the 1920s and early 1930s.

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