Overview

Do you remember the best summer of your life New York City, 1945. Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend, Marty Garrett, arrive fresh from the Kappa house at the University of Iowa hoping to find summer positions as shopgirls. Turned away from the top department stores, they miraculously find jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co., becoming the first women to ever work on the sales floor-a diamond-filled day job replete with Tiffany blue shirtwaist dresses from Bonwit Teller's-and the envy of all their friends. Hart takes us back to the magical time when she and Marty rubbed elbows with the rich and famous; pinched pennies to eat at the Automat; experienced nightlife at La Martinique; and danced away their weekends with dashing midshipmen. Between being dazzled by Judy Garland's honeymoon visit to Tiffany, celebrating VJ Day in Times Square, and mingling with Café society, she fell in love, learned unforgettable lessons, made important decisions that would change her future, and created the remarkable memories she now shares with all of us.

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9780061189524

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Reviews

This book offers insights into the women who lived through World War II. It's a perfect Mother's Day gift. --USA Today

Hart's infectious vivacity resonates with a madcap immediacy, delectably capturing the city's heady vibrancy and a young girl's guileless enchantment. -- Booklist

This warm account of more innocent times makes an unspoken comparison with the way we live now. A fond backwardglance. -- Kirkus Reviews Hart's infectious vivacity resonates with a madcap immediacy, delectably capturing the city's heady vibrancy and a young girl's guileless enchantment. -- Booklist Charming and fun...reminiscent of The Best of Everything and Breakfast at Tiffany's. -- BookPage A charming story of a charmed summer...I didn't want Marjorie Hart's effervescent memoir to end. -- Emily Giffin, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof This book offers insights into the women who lived through World War II. It's a perfect Mother's Day gift. -- USA Today The (Tiffany) company should put this book on prominent display, for heaven's sake--it's that much of a paean. -- Buffalo News What do you imagine might be the most memorable summer of your life? Do you think it's happened yet? -- San Diego City Beat Hart writes about that stylish summer with verve, recollecting with a touching purity a magical summer in Manhattan. -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Manhattan during the summer of 1945, as the author remembers it.The country was at war, food was rationed and money was tight, but University of Iowa coeds Marjorie Jacobson (now Hart) and Marty Garrett somehow scraped together $40 each to buy roundtrip train tickets so they could spend a summer in New York. On arrival, the Midwestern beauties sublet an apartment in Morningside Heights and landed jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co. Never before had the venerable store hired young women to run errands from the sales floors to the mysterious upper reaches of the fabled Fifth Avenue emporium, but during wartime, everyone had to sacrifice. The discreet tap of a salesman's diamond ring (they all sported one) against a glass display case would set Marjorie and Marty, wearing silk dresses that matched Tiffany's trademark blue, skittering in high heels across polished floors. Between assignments, they watched for celebrity shoppers. Who could be next? Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli? Marlene Dietrich? The Duke of Windsor? In the evenings and on weekends, the wide-eyed yet commonsensical duo embraced all that 1945 New York had to offer: the Stork Club, The Glass Menagerie and Carousel on Broadway, ice cream sundaes at Schrafft's. Midshipmen escorted them to Jack Dempsey's and to Greenwich Village eateries. Kindly neighbors invited them over for lemonade and musical evenings at which Marjorie played the cello. Along the way, they developed crushes on men in uniform and endured such mild work traumas as a string of pearls coming undone in an elevator, but the undoubted highlight of their summer was joining two million other revelers in Times Square on August 14 when Truman announced victory in Japan. The 82-year-old author's memories have been polished smooth over the course of six decades, and her warm account of more innocent times makes an unspoken comparison with the way we live now.A fond backward glance. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Marjorie Hart, 81, graduated from the University of Iowa in 1946 after which she became a music instructor and performed with their Aeolian Trio as a cellist. She married twice and now spends her time traveling with her husband, Peter Cuthbert, playing with string quartets, and enjoying time with her large extended family of four children, nine grandchildren, and Peter's family of three children and five grandchildren.

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