The Unfamous of Hollywood — Bebe Daniels and Pauline Gallagher — They Run a Red, White and Blue Shop (1934) 🇺🇸

Careers for women? Not one, but two or three — with a home and children on the side — is the latest Hollywood custom.

by Irene Thirer

Look what Bebe Daniels and Pauline Gallagher are doing! Bebe has her picture career, her home, her husband — Ben Lyon — her daughter Barbara Bebe. Pauline, ‘tis true, quit the stage when she became Mrs. “Skeets” Gallagher, but to make up for Bebe’s movie work, she has a home, husband and two children; the newest little boy just three months old.

And now the young women — both of them pretty and intelligent — have undertaken to help out President Roosevelt and the NRA. Filmdom is raving about the “American Maid-American Made” shop in Westwood, just outside the Hollywood limits. There are sports clothes and afternoon togs and evening gowns and various little novelties which complete a well-picked wardrobe. Bebe and Pauline, who were in New York a few weeks back, to make their first selection of costumery, spent mornings, noons and nights at the various wholesale houses; turning down tail parties and cancelling theater dates in the interests of their new profession — Mademoiselle Modiste.

Pauline is the business manager and Bebe is principal buyer. She will, from time to time, choose clothes with an idea to photographic value as well as price scale. There will be simple things for college girls, sophisticated styles for screen sirens, anything to suit the tastes of the girls” who wear sizes twelve to eighteen.

Matrons are rather out of luck in the “AM-AM” shop. But Bebe assures her customers that she can always get a gown on order for a woman who doesn’t wear the sizes in stock.

Mesdames Daniels and Gallagher let you know that yellow will be the big spring color; that brown will do well, too, with blue coming third in importance. There will be a good deal of yellow used for evening wear — which is rather unusual. The material for going-out clothes will be triple-voile. Black and white will be big sellers. of course. And the American Maid-American Made Shop will specialize in little things to match costumes — a metallic bag. of the same material as an evening gown; a jersey cap and scarf to match its sports frock.

Models will be bought in New York — no imports whatsoever! — until business has progressed enough to warrant the start of a style right in Hollywood. This, Mrs. Lyon and Mrs. Gallagher are confident, will happen eventually. In the shop they’ll employ ten saleswomen, besides fitters and window dressers and such.

“I’ll be doing my part for the NRA,” is the way Bebe expressed herself to me during her recent shopping tour in Manhattan. “I believe that people who have something put away should get it out now and invest it in something to help others who’ve been hard hit. You can’t tell just how much we’ll accomplish by this venture of ours!”

The store is so patriotic that even the decorating scheme is red, white and blue. There are midnight blue walls, snow-white woodwork, fixtures and furnishings, red ink-wells on the desks and red flowers. It’s not a big shop; has three intimate rooms — arranged for sports, afternoon and evening clothes respectively. Everybody will be able to buy things — extras and stars, because of the wide price range.

Bebe wants it understood that the shop is not going to take up too much of her time. She’s not giving up her movie career — not by a long shot! Whenever she’s in between pictures she’ll make trips East with Pauline to buy clothes. She’ll try to arrange her affairs so that one career doesn’t interfere with the other. It shouldn’t be too difficult!

Among the other Hollywood business folks are Sally Eilers in the lingerie line; Charles Bickford with a garage and William Haines, antique dealer de luxe.

Source: New Movie Magazine, February 1934

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This article is part of our Unfamous of Hollywood series: Gilmor Brown, Natalie Bucknell, Bebe Daniels & Pauline Gallagher, Howard Dietz, Elmer Dyer, George Hurrell, Billy Hill, Sally Rand, Murray Spivack, George E. Stone