You gotta have charm!

Friday night we took a little trip to our local used Bookstore to spend some store credit. I always find great things there and this but Friday night I found something amazing! I think I may have even jumped up and down a little when I found it.

There they were, in all their mauve pink glory. A full set of 4 volumes of the Nancy Taylor Course. I'd read about this course and had looked for a set for awhile and then given up when I always came up empty handed.

Back in the 50's and 60's there were numerous Self Development courses for women. Dorothy Carnegie (wife of Dale of "How to win friends & influence people" fame) had a very popular one. Nancy Taylor had another very popular one. What was great about Nancy's course was it was part of the Nancy Taylor Secretarial and Finishing School, which set up in about 300 cities in the US. Nancy offered Secretarial courses and a "charm and finishing course." It was a great source of pride for the Nancy Taylor School to boast that their graduates were well versed in proper make-up, hair, and fashion. Employers were very excited to have ladies that understood how to have "the right look".

The volumes that I found are for the Charm and Finishing course and I couldn't be more excited. There are charts for you to track your progress through the various "reducing" exercises. I was tickled to see that the previous owner of my volumes had dutifully noted her present and "ideal" measurements in blue fountain pen. Although she kept up with notating her weight measurements over the next few months, I'm saddened to say that she neglected to keep up with her ankle, waist, and neck measurements. Tsk Tsk.

I've just started reading (and attempting to complete) Volume one and I intend to share my progress with you and even some of the lessons, if you're interested. Although, I don't think I'll be notating my measurements here for you. ;-)

Until I can get some great pictures from my own set of books, you should check out this great set on Flickr.

Along the way we'll learn all sorts of great things about Hair & Makeup, choosing the right Hat and clothing, improving our speaking voice, how to be a charming conversationalist, and doing everything with poise and grace.

Check out these great images from a Charm School in the 40's that I found via Life on Google.