{"id":67,"date":"2015-02-16T17:42:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T17:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpblogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/?p=67"},"modified":"2017-12-18T13:45:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T19:45:35","slug":"get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGet a man, while you can!\u201d Celebrating Old Maid\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of women in Denton started Old Maid\u2019s Day in 1950 to get \u201crecognition, not menfolks.\u201d It all began when Miss Dorothy Babb, a Latin and English teacher at North Texas State College (NTSC, now the University of North Texas) was tired of buying gifts for weddings, Mother\u2019s Day, and baby showers. She complained to Mrs. Dude Neville McCloud, the NTSC news service director that it was unfair that she only got gifts at Christmas and had spent over $1500.00 buying gifts for others. On a lark Mrs. McCloud wrote a feature for the Associated Press which was picked up all over the United States and eventually overseas asking for recognition and gifts for women who either couldn\u2019t or refused to get married.<\/p>\r\n<p>Denton Mayor Mark Hannah designated Tuesday, August 15<sup>th<\/sup>, 1950 a day to honor unmarried women. People suggested more flattering names such as glamor girls, unclaimed blessings, unclaimed jewels, career girls, unmarried ladies or bachelor girls, but Miss Babb said that she just preferred being called an old maid. \u201cAnybody who didn\u2019t like the name [old maid] could just go and get married.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>The first year\u2019s celebration included a tea at the Denton Country Club, and free soft drinks, popcorn and candy, as well as admission to a show featuring \u2018Fessor Floyd Graham and his orchestra, and films at the Campus Theater, including The Three Stooges in \u201cThe Brideless Groom.\u201d In addition, other gifts were provided for distribution to any unmarried woman who would admit to being an old maid.<!--more--><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5yWEPGnX7xk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-CA&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\r\n<p><span class=\"text-info\"><em><span class=\"small\">Skip to\u00a00:30 in this clip of footage from our NBC 5\/KXAS Collection to see the 1951 Old Maid&#8217;s Celebration, featuring Dorothy Babb. This is a silent clip because anchors read the script live over film clips. You can access the script in the Portal to Texas History [link coming soon].\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>In 1951 the event for the \u201cunclaimed jewels\u201d grew and had 350 attendees to the tea, to see \u2018Fessor Graham, and attend a Fort Worth Cats baseball game that was played in their honor. By 1953 attention came from all over the country with people calling, and even stopping by Miss Babb\u2019s house to see the country\u2019s most famous old maid. The old maids were overwhelmed and suggested that the gifts should be sent to Girlstown in Whiteface, near Lubbock. Many of the old maids knew that they would never have children of their own so they could send money to help the homeless girls instead, under the guidance of Miss Amelia Anthony, a fellow old maid.<\/p>\r\n<p>By 1954 the event was heralded by local papers: \u201cHide your husbands, girls, they\u2019re coming again.\u201d 1954\u2019s event began with a free screening of Gone with the Wind at the Interstate Theater and a personal message sent by telegram from Clark Gable. The movie was followed by a tea at the Southern Hotel which was emceed by \u2018Fessor Graham and musical entertainment was provided by musicians from NTSC, including Pat Boone.<\/p>\r\n<p>Also in 1954 Miss Babb went to Chicago to appear on a nationally televised show called, \u201cWelcome Travelers.\u201d A motorcade accompanied her to Love Field and members of the NTSC sabre drill team formed an honor guard as she got on the plane.<\/p>\r\n<p>By 1955 the old maids had received letters of every kind, including letters in German, from servicemen in Guam, marriage offers from well-to-do bachelors, and plenty from \u201ccranks.\u201d One offer even came from Cyclone Davis, who was running for Texas governor. That year Governor Allan Shivers issued a proclamation honoring the unmarried ladies of Texas and setting August 15<sup>th<\/sup> as a day to honor them.<\/p>\r\n<p>The event gradually became smaller, but the old maids still got together as late as 1965. Over the years they had appeared in papers internationally, inspired sister groups all over the United States and as far away as London. They also appeared in Reader\u2019s Digest, Time Magazine, and had photos in Parade Magazine. Old Maid\u2019s Day still appears on calendars of offbeat holidays and is celebrated in 2015 on June 4<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>&#8211; by Lisa Brown<\/em><\/p>\r\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-67 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-how-many-single-women-c1951\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-How-many-single-women-c1951-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-69\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-69'>\n\t\t\t\tStatistics in 1953 showed that Denton had more than an average number of old maids. The North Texas State College (NTSC) faculty alone had 92 spinsters on the faculty.  Miss Babb is pictured on the right.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/may-1954-dorothy-babb-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/May-1954-Dorothy-Babb1-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-70\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-70'>\n\t\t\t\tMiss Babb (on the right) with Miss Olive Honeycutt (on the left) and an area merchant with a few of the gifts donated for Old Maid\u2019s Day.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-audience-c1951sm\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-audience-c1951sm-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-71\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-71'>\n\t\t\t\tWomen at one of the Old Maid\u2019s events including two of the oldest ladies, sisters May and Julia Marshall of Strawn on the right.  In 1954 two prizes were given out to the oldest (Miss May Marshall, 79) and the one from the greatest distance (Miss Lily Gulvady from India, not pictured).\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-c1951-stage-show-with-fessor-grahamsm\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-c1951-Stage-Show-with-Fessor-Grahamsm-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-72\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-72'>\n\t\t\t\t\u2018Fessor Graham overseeing one of the entertainment events at an Old Maid\u2019s Day celebration.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-c1951sm\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-c1951sm-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-73\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-73'>\n\t\t\t\t\u2018Fessor Graham overseeing one of the entertainment events at an Old Maid\u2019s Day celebration.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-filming-the-reception-c1951sm\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-Filming-the-reception-c1951sm-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-74\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-74'>\n\t\t\t\tWBAP TV news filming Miss May Marshall, the event\u2019s oldest attendee at the reception.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"thumbnail\" href='https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/omd-giving-present-c1951sm\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-Giving-Present-c1951sm-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-75\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-75'>\n\t\t\t\tOne of the Old Maids in attendance receiving a gift at the Campus Theater.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of women in Denton started Old Maid\u2019s Day in 1950 to get \u201crecognition, not menfolks.\u201d It all began when Miss Dorothy Babb, a Latin and English teacher at North Texas State College (NTSC, now the University of North Texas) was tired of buying gifts for weddings, Mother\u2019s Day, and baby showers. She complained&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/2015\/02\/16\/get-a-man-while-you-can-celebrating-old-maids-day-in-denton\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read \u201cGet a man, while you can!\u201d Celebrating Old Maid\u2019s Day\">Read more &raquo;<\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,13,25,24],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1950s","tag-babb","tag-denton","tag-ntsc","tag-old-maids-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/OMD-audience-c1951sm.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/unt125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}