I think it was actually used that way for women who became famous for any reason - I know I’ve read references to Miss Amelia Earhart. The unusual thing was that Billingsley was her first husband’s name - typically the “Miss” for a married woman went along with a birth or stage name, not a husband’s. I can’t think of a woman who was referred to as “Miss” with a husband’s name except her , and I suspect that’s because they divorced before she became famous.
It was to avoid revealing that she was a woman. There was concern that a woman living alone (which would be the presumption) might have to be concerned for her safety.
True that was the stated rationale at the time and was conventional “wisdom”. However it always seemed to me that it was nearly useless.
A phone book entry for “Charles Jones” was a man. An entry for “CR Jones” was 90% likely to be a woman. That’s some darn fine camoflage there, sister.
If the only people in the book who went by their initials were women who were living alone, that would have been very revealing. But actually, there are lots of reasons that people choose to use their initials, even women living alone.
But at least ill-intentioned strangers couldn’t make it worse by calling you by your name.
And some men did use initials, for various reasons; so while the initials indicated ‘probably female’, they didn’t indicate ‘certainly female’. Nor did they definitely indicate ‘living alone’, as there might be other people living there who either didn’t have their names on the phone line, or who had a separate line (unusual, but not unheard of, especially for people who had enough money not to mind the extra expense.)
In the dustbin of out cultural history:
Being an AV geek: Getting out the movie projector and threading film through the guides, remembering to leave a loop at the top and bottom of the feed mechanism.
Then rewinding the film after the show was over.
Reminds me - I had a grade school teacher who used to show educational films on Fridays. He thought it was great fun to stop the projector so the projection lamp would burn a hole in the film. Remember what that looked like? How the film would get a brown spot in the middle and then rapidly melt away to the edges?
I still have my father’s Argus slide projector from the late '30s. When a slide was left in too long it would melt.
We were more likely to use filmstrips: 35mm films that worked like a PowerPoint slideshow. Some had a record that played a narration. A short beep would indicate when to go to the next image.
Did someone have to manually turn a knob on the projector, or was it one of the fancy ones with an electric drive controlled by a button (which would inevitably at some point advance two or more frames).
Which reminds me of the story records I used to have - a book with an associated record reading the story: “Turn the page” Disney Read-Along | Disney Wiki | Fandom
A button? You kids had it easy! I don’t know how many times someone sprained their wrist turning the knob.
I got to be the a/v kid at my high school. I’d be the guy setting up the projector and threading the film just right to avoid the film “stuttering”.
Children’s TV shows that had an audience of kids. Shows like Bozo the Clown and Howdy Doody. Most of these shows were local so there was a variety of hosts. I seem to recall attending a Bozo type show in the 70s,in the Dallas area, but no one else remembers it so I may have made it up.
I was on a couple of those but I was very small and I dont remember much aside from being scared by Bozo. To this day I dont like clowns.
I was much more outgoing as a small kid, I had a little dance to “Purple People eater” and people would throw quarters. Maybe that’s how I got on, but iirc i just sat there scared. My Dad swore in one Disney TV show at DL that is the back of my head in that shot, but I dont remember it.
He did say , iirc, “That’s a Bozo no-no” but I dont remember any kid saying “Cram it clowny”.
I was actually in Howdy Doody’s Peanut Gallery once. My family was on vacation, and I don’t know what my parents did, but they got me on the show. I was too young to really appreciate the experience. I do remember Clarabell coming over and talking to us. I really liked Clarabell, but Howdy Doody scared the bejesus out of me. And I think I was in love with Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring.
The following Halloween my mom and I made a Clarabell costume for me, with a horn.
Damn, I wish I had a tape of that show.
I’m just barely old enough to remember the Bozo show - but I never went into NYC to be in the local audience.
Asimov mentioned in one of his autobiographies that his daughter Robyn loved the Bozo show, so he took her to a broadcast - but the life sized clown with the red-headed fright wig was so different than the black and white fellow safe and small on the TV screen that she was terrified and had to leave.
One of my best friends in high school had ‘Bozo’ as his middle name. Apparently it’s a real name in central Europe. I don’t know if the TV show ever made it to Aus, but the name was famous enough that he knew not to mention it in school.
Canada had its own cast for “Howdy Doody” - and many of them went on to bigger and better things. Howdy Doody - Wikipedia
Yep. And louder, iirc