Will the Real Helen Stand Up!

By Don Rittner

“There’s no greece, just natural good grooming.”

Helen of Troy, N.Y.

I found the above quote as part of an ad in a 1959 Cambridge, Mass newspaper showing the profile of a woman pushing Wildroot Cream-Oil for men. We all know about the mythical Trojan War version of Helen, but a little research has shown that our own Helen of Troy, N.Y. was a pretty popular subject in the roaring 20’s and throughout the 20^th century.

A couple of years ago, a previous owner of Proctor’s Theater ripped out a false wall to reveal a 10-foot mural of our own Helen of Troy. The mural, painted by well-known area muralist David Lithgow depicts Helen flanked on both sides by a Troy female collar worker and a male foundryman. It no doubt impressed all that entered the Vaudeville theater when it opened in 1913.

Perhaps this twist on the classic Helen began as early as 1904 when Wilfrid S. Jackson penned the 307-page humorous romance novel, “Helen of Troy, N.Y.” Jackson and his wife Emilie, also a writer, are both well known for translating other works of fiction. However, Helen is an original story about a rich socialite and German American, Helen B. Heimer from Troy, N.Y. and those interested in marrying her.

A connection between Helen and Troy’s Arrow collars developed early in the 20^th century. Cole Porter sang about Arrow collars in his 1912 “A Football King (aka 'If I Were Only A Football Man'). The original title was intended for the initiation play "The Pot Of Gold" for Yale’s Delta Kappa Epsilon, but it wasn’t used so he revised it and sung it with the Yale Glee Club during his senior year (1912-13), when he served as the club's president:

For my autograph I'd charge a dollar,

And I'd be the title of an Arrow collar,

Such a very muddy sort of very bloody sort of thing.

My opponents I should give a scalding

That would make me rival Captain Jesse Spalding.

If they'd only realize that I'm a football King.

After World War I, returning soldiers demanded wearing shirts with soft attached collars, that is no more stiff detachable collars. The Arrow shirt with collar was invented by Troy’s Cluett-Peabody & Sons to satisfy those needs. In 1915, Frederick Peabody created a new advertising campaign to promote these shirts and hired the popular commercial artist, J.D. Leyendecker to come up with the famous arrow collar man. The Arrow collar man became the symbol of the perfect American male. Leyendecker’s ads, found in magazines in the US and Canada, were a big hit, and he found himself the male ‘pin up’ along with many marriage proposals from women up to the 1930s. Never mind the fact that Leyendecker was outwardly gay and his male models were often his lovers.

We next find Helen of Troy, N.Y. in the plot of one of the early Rouge detective stories. The overweight, slow, cigar smoking, ill kept, detective Jim Hanvey, created by writer Octavus Roy Cohen (1891-1959) was one of America’s earliest private eyes and appeared in short stories, mainly in the Saturday Evening Post. One episode entitled, Helen of Troy, N.Y. was published in the October 7, 1922 Post and in The Detective Magazine on January 5, 1923.

It was the Arrow Collar Man that inspired George Kaufman and Marc Connelly to write the book and 2-act play of Helen of Troy, N.Y. The play appeared in New York City’s Selwyn Theatre from June to October 1923, followed by a stint in the Times Square Theater from October 8, 1923 to December 1, for a total of 191 performances.

The play was a big hit and starred Helen Ford as Helen of Troy. Ironic, since Helen was actually born here in Troy on June 6, 1897 as Helen Isabel Barnett. This play also ran for three days at the premier opening of the Fairmont Theater in Fairmont, West Virginia on June 4, 1923.

George Jessel (yes, the comedian) produced the play and it launched the career of music writers Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. They later went on to write for the Marx Brothers movies. Another songwriter who penned a tune for the play was Lorenz Hart (of Rodgers & Hart fame) who with W. Frank Harling wrote "Moonlight Lane." This collaboration with Harling is one of the few published songs Hart wrote with a composer other than Richard Rodgers. You can hear this song performed on the CD Hollywood Party [Bayview RNBW009]. You can also download and listen to "Keep A-Going", one of the show’s songs written by Byron Gay and recorded in Canada in 1924 by the Andy Tipaldi Orchestra (go to http://nfo.net/ogg3.htm).

Next week. More Helens of Troy.

Heritage on the Hudson appears every Tuesday in the Troy Record.