"August, 1943 Boston"

"July, 1946- Provincetown, Massachusetts"

THE MIMI BERRY MEMORIAL SCRAPBOOK

I knew Esther Zidel through friends. I know very little about her. Esther passed away February 11, 2009. Recently, I became the custodian of some of her belongings, specifically, a scrapbook from the 40s, the contents of which follows.

Firstly, Esther's crumbling scrapbook shows us a woman truly smitten with a pert young thing, one Miss Mimi Berry. A model and aspiring actress, Mimi appeared in many print ads, which Esther painstakingly cut and pasted into her scrapbook....like any fastidious stalker might. This isn't an accusation....I'm just blogging out loud. You be the judge.

Mimi is listed as having appeared in four Broadway shows.....A Connecticut Yankee, Star and Garter, Panama Hattie and Keep Off The Grass.

Here's some of Mimi's print work......

...and some more.....

....and still more!

The cover of Life Magazine! Not too shabby! Gee, wonder how often Esther used this?

...and here's more stuff from the scrapbook. Did I mention that Esther was a teensy bit obsessed?

and still more! Here are a few greeting cards Esther received from Mimi........

And this card is, I think, the most telling. I'd imagine if Esther had had correspondence from Mimi, she would have put it into this scrapbook, so I'm presuming that this is the most Mimi ever wrote to Esther. Does the word noodge mean anything to you? Does Mimi's sentence come off as code?

Mimi in an ad with Joan Caulfield....and yes, I'd give anything to be as lovely as a lyric in a Jaunty Junior....in Charm Magazine, of course.