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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1922)
f . . . 1U i VOL. XL1 PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY 3IORNING; OCTOBER 15, 1932 NO. 'l e It f ll 3 A delightful photograph of Virginia Pearson's, apraised " the , perfect back inAmerica,"and awarded tha , ; - $1000 prize. , - STANDARDS of-beauty run.tljeir gold en day and wear out just as do styles In hats. : In the.day, of Sheba the cloud of hair was test of feminine charm. Marie Antoinette was loveliest of her time because her. waist was smallest. The stately line ruled longest. " perhaps, as shibboleth of elegance. - Now it is the back!. .. , ' ' In America the shoulder-blade terri tory was established as the new test of attractiveness when Dr, F." P.; Millard, specialist in ailments of . the vertebral column, announced a contest r to run through 60 cities for the purpose of dis covering the most perfect back in this country and Canada.' 'I wish I could make perfect backs a fashion!" declared this president of the national league for prevention of spinal curvature, which announced the contest. Meanwhile, in England, the back sud denly attained the pulchritude prize when Delysia betook her French spine to a Lon don reception and so overwhelmed every body present that she was engaged on the spot to star in a new London musical comedy. And so great "Is the raga for back comeliness in that country today that producers no longer greet the chorus with a "Pull aside your skirts!" What they ray now is: "Show your JacV!- And the strange little interesting fea ture of this new fairness fall is that all authorities, English as well as American, agree the nearly-as-is-possible perfect back is to be found among Uncle Sam's daughters! "The. American woman with her splen did figure strengthened and balanced by VIRGINIA PEARSON'S 'PERFECT BACK IS: .Without overdeveloped muscles or excess flesh. 2 Without ridges of bone protruding at tha sides. 3 With a-spine curved in xtt vaist and out ct shoulders. 4 With shoulders in perfect alignment. 5 With hips level as shoulders. 6 With the spinal column deflecting neither right nor left. exercise has, as a rule, the iinest back in the world! The flesh covering it, like her" figure, is - evenly proportioned. She is neither too lean nor too fat. Many times she could be put into the list of really classic figures!"1 This is the word of Hoppe, the English artist, who has photographed more beau tiful women than any other man in the world, among them thousands of .Ameri cans, on his visits to this country. And Dr.: Millard, after going over the backs of 100,000 feminine citizens of the United States and Canada, settled upon Virginia Pearson, the actress, as the one possessing the most nearly perfect back in the Western Hemisphere. "No back is 100 per cent perfect," Dr. Millard stated. "But Miss Pearson's is as nearly so as any can be. That is why the league has awarded her the thousandr dollar prize and paid her all honor." He then went on to tell what the per fect back is: "A spine correctly curved from top to is"-'1 tip, with the head set directly over the spine. Shoulders level; one, that is, no fraction, of a degree higher than the other. . Hips level . as the shoulders st the column is deflected neither to righs nor left." , , Everyone, the specialist explained, at some hapless time, wrenches the back, and the wrench registers in the vertebral column. No careful watching from the first day of birth would ir",vent spinal imperfections, since tnese appear as the . vitally important portion of the body goes through various stages of development " till reaching adult proportions. Hoppe, authority from the art stand point, ,as Dr. Millard is from the physi-, ological, gave further witness concerning .back elegance. , - "It Is lacking, as a rule, because of. over-developed muscles and an excess of .flesh, or because of ridges made by pro truding bones. "Still, beauty of backs all too often ' goes nnacclainxed as it is unseen, since Venus and r 7 "A f Ar v,. 'i HI 0 jilt) t ' I Delysia, whose importation 'from Paris started: ' London's i stage i de mand for perfect backs. that portion is one of the least exposed of. the bodyv . . .... "The old masters vied with each other DrJMillavd Why the President ofoheLeagueforSpinal Curvature Is HeartilyiinJlavonofcthe.'Sea son's State Slogan, "Backs'Insteaiof .Legfs" Cupid," by Velasquez, in the National gallery, London, one of the most famous backs in .art. f .at?. At right, Dr. R. Kendrick, chief examiner of the contest recently held in Boston, taking measurements of Adaline Valerie's "perfect back.". Miss Valeria is 17. In painting lovely backs, as they painted beautiful women. The work of Rubens, Rembrandt and Van Dyck shows their re gard for a finely moulded back, since they painted it many times." The famous painting, ' Venus and Cupid," by Velasquez, which hangs in the National Gallery in London, is declared by art authorities to show one of the most 'beautiful backs, if not one of the loveliest figures, in all history of art. Taking it all In all, it is quite possible that the new standard of beauty which the world has set up for itself, is actually a very old standard, honored by the great ' est artists of all time long ago! At any rate,' while America pursues the handsome back craze largely on ground of the physical perfection it rep resents, England is all wrought up over its artistic aspect. So mad has gone the London Rialto on the matter that dancers and singers and hitherto unknown per sonalities have been imported from every corner of the globe, popped Into the lime light and dangled there triumphantly for no other reason than that their backs re semble those in the Velasquez painting, and in that other famous picture by th Irish artist, Thaddeus, "The Temptation of St. Anthony," which is owned by Hoppe himself. Delysia's back, it is said, figures all the way through the book from which her play was adapted. Teddie Gerard Is an other owner of a bewitchingly fashioned spine and she is exhibiting it to best ad vantage at the Prince of Wales theater. However, according to Mrs. Maurice Francis Egan, wife of the former Ameri can Minister to Copenhagen, the perfect back is no novelty among Danish women. They obtain straight, strong backs and artistic carriage through court etiqnette, which demands that they stand reposedly throughout the long court balls! Such deep hold on the popular Imagina tion has the notion of running to earth and then running up into public vision the perfect feminine back taken that even Boston, dear old grandmother that she is, has passed the word to her fair grand daughters. They. are having their spinal .points tallied and with great credit to them selves, according to Dr. R. Kendrick, who is doing the measuring. A trifling prise of 11500 will be turned over to tbe vic torious Boston beauty. The ultimate object of the monster per fect back contest is to institute daily ex ercises for spinal strengthening and de veloping In the public schools. Such a . course, it Is said by medical men, will cor rect tonsilltis, eye ailments and adenoids in children, and will insure a nation of healthy men and women. Nara, Ancient Capital of Japan. NARA, ancient Japanese city, la a classic center of Shinto worship, and was the first capital of Japan. Much of the building and beautifying begun in A. D. 709, the "Golden Age of Japan," still Is Intact. During the early days of Nara pros perity, the TodaiJI, one of tbe seven great temples, was the head ot Buddhism In Japan, and the buildings covered some 20 acres. Of all its glories there today remain but few, chief among them being the Great South Gate, Nandal Mon; the great Hall of Buddha, and the ancient and most interesting old shrine called Kaidan-ln. The Great South Gate was built In 7S3 A. D. and remodeled in 11)9. On either side are two gigantic figures of Nio, or the Deva kings, carved by Tanket and his pupil Unkel. With the two stone lions close by, excellent specimens of twelfth century Chinese sculpture, they are listed and protected as "national treasures." The Nara-no-Dalbutsu, the vast bronie Buddha east in 74 9 A. D.. Is the largest of the kind In Japan, if not In tbe world, being 52 1-2 feet In height Tbe Kaldan-ln is remarkable for Its no usual construction and arrangement In side a series of platforms rising one above the other to support the Images of the Deva kings, Indra and Brahma, which are said to be among the bent ex amples of the art of Nara era. and aluo are counted among the "national treasures."