The White Satin Evening Gown Kitty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Winterjoy: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2
For October we’ll talk about The White Satin Evening Gown, an urban legend that is told in many different parts of the country in different contexts.
A young man invited a young woman to a formal dance. But she was very poor, and she could not afford to buy the evening gown she needed for such an occasion.
“Maybe you can rent a dress,” her mother said. So she went to a pawn shop not far from where she lived. There she found a white satin evening gown in her size. She looked lovely in it, and she was able to rent it for very little.
When she arrived at the dance with her friend, she was so attractive, everyone wanted to meet her. She danced again and again and was having a wonderful time. But then she began to feel dizzy and faint, and she asked her friend to take her home. “I think I have danced too much,” she told him.
When she got home, she lay down on her bed. The next morning her mother found that her daughter had died. The doctor did not understand what had caused her death. So he had the coroner perform an autopsy.
The coroner found that she had been poisoned by embalming fluid. It had stopped her blood from flowing. There were traces of the fluid on her dress. He decided it had entered her skin when she perspired while she was dancing.
The pawnbroker said he brought the dress from an undertaker’s helper. It had been used in a funeral for another young woman, and the helper had stolen it just before she was buried.
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Schwartz cites two variants, though he says that it is well known and reported in the Mid-West United States. The first he cites is Halpert HFB 4:19-20 (1. Hoosier Folklore Bulletin). It is a March 1945 issue. Here is the full text with background.
The Poisoned Dress
The following story, contributed to the editor by Virginia Charlton of Indianapolis in 1942, is included in this issue because I want to find out what is known about it. It was evidently a very popular oral story several years ago. I have another version (from New Jersey) in manuscript, and I have found that it is rather widely known in Indiana. It has been reported from Terre Haute (in this version the dress was purchased in a well known Indianapolis department store), Bloomington, Huntington, and twice from Indianapolis. The other version I have in manuscript is substantially the same as the one given below except for the explanation. In this version the formaldehyde in the dress simply closed the girl’s pores, causing death.
Is there a written version of the story, or was it used in a radio program? None of my informants know of such a version, but there may well have been one. When was it first heard? The earliest date I have for it is 1941. Where did the tragedy happen?
If you know the story, please write it out, exactly as you heard it, giving all possible background information: where you heard it; when you heard it; from whom you heard it; and, if possible, the source from which your informant heard it. Please be as specific as possible with names, dates and locations. Send in your versions, and we’ll see what kind of a life history we can chart for the story. — The Editor
Recently there was a certain story spreading over the entire Midwest which took everyone by storm. It seems there was a banquet at a prominent hotel in a certain city. One particular girl who was going decided it was important enough to have a new dress. She bought one at a local department store, a simple but exquisite gown. At the dance after the dinner, her escort noticed a peculiar odor while they were dancing. She had been feeling faint, and she believed it was the odor. She thought the dye in the dress had faded; so she went to the washroom and took off the dress. There was nothing wrong; so she went back to the dance again. However, she felt more faint, and the odor still remained. She thought she had better sit down, and on the way back to their table, she fainted. Her escort took her home, and called a doctor. She died before he got there. The boy explained about the odor, and the doctor investigated the dress and found that the dress had a familiar odor. He ordered an autopsy, and they discovered that the girl had formaldehyde in her viens. The drug had coagulated her blood, and had stopped the flow.
They investigated the department store where she had bought the dress and learned that the dress had been sold for a corpse and had been returned and sold to the girl. When she perspired and her pores opened, she took in the formaldehyde which killed her.
*****
The second citation that Schwartz uses is Reaver NYFQ 8:217-20 (2. New York Folklore Quarterly). It is an issue from Fall 1952. The first of the two following variants is kind of exciting to hear, as it is told by the famous author Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House, and beloved panelist of the popular 1950s gameshow What’s My Line? Here is the full text of the article with background.
“EMBALMED ALIVE”: A DEVELOPING URBAN GHOST TALE by J. Russell Reaver.
Tales from city folk form a valuable but rather neglected part of folk-literature. The following version of a ghostly tale from New York City and Cincinnati may serve to illustrate one aspect of folklore in the twentieth-century metropolis. They also help reveal something of the process of a folktale in the making. As the title I have given this tale indicates, the horrible constantly fascinates the popular imagination.
The first version belongs to Bennett Cerf’s present crop of ghost stories told him in the last few years; the second is a variant I recall being told me during my undergraduate days at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, about forty miles north of Cincinnati. It circulated among the students at least from 1933 to 1937 and, for all I know, may perhaps still be heard there. Until I recently read Mr. Cerf’s version, I must admit that I had accepted my story as the only one of its variety in American folklore. So far I have been unable to find other parallels. Do any readers happen to know different versions of this tale existing in American oral tradition?
(Variant A, Bennett Cerf)
“A favorite story of New York literary circle a few years ago concerned the beautiful young girl in the white satin dress. It was one of those anecdotes that everybody swore actually happened to his first cousin or next-door neighbor, and several narrators got very testy when they were informed that several other people’s cousins had evidently undergone the same experience a few weeks before.
“At any rate, the legend maintained that a very lovely but poverty-stricken damsel was invited to a formal dance. It was her chance to enter a brand-new world. Who knew but what some rich young man would fall in love with her and lift her out of her life in a box factory? The catch in the matter was that she had no suitable dress to wear for such a great occasion. ‘Why don’t you rent a costume for the evening?’ suggested a friend. She did. She went to a pawnshop near her little flat and for a surprisingly reasonable sum rented a beautiful white satin evening gown with all the accessories to match. Miraculously, it fit her like a glove, and she looked so radiant when she arrived at the party that she created a minor sensation. She was cut in on again and again, and as she whirled happily around the floor, she felt that her luck indeed had changed for good.
“Then she began to feel faint and nauseated. She fought against a growing discomfort as long as she could, but finally she stole out of the house and had just sufficient strength to stagger into a cab and creep up the stairs to her room. She threw herself onto her bed, broken-hearted, and it was then, possibly in her delirium, that she heard a woman’s voice whispering into her ear. It was harsh and bitter. ‘Give me back my dress,’ she said. ‘Give me back my dress! It belongs to the dead….’
“The next morning the lifeless body of the young girl was found stretched out on her bed. The unusual circumstances led the coroner to order an autopsy. The girl had been poisoned by embalming fluid, which had entered her pores when she grew overheated from dancing. The pawnbroker was reluctant to admit that he knew where the dress came from, but spoke out when he heard that the District Attorney’s office was involved. It had been sold him by an undertaker’s assistant, who had taken it from the body of a dead girl just before the casket was nailed down for the last time.”*
(Variant B, J. Russell Reaver)
This story was first told me by a fellow college student, who was from Cincinnati, in a dormitory “bull session.” Fantastic as its central motif is, college students accepted it at the time as fact.
In Cincinnati there was a pretty girl who had just been engaged to be married. To look her best at a country-club dance she bought a beautiful white satin gown at one of the leading department stores. On the night of the dance she and her fiancé were much admired. She was very happy because of her popularity and her approaching wedding. Although the evening was a warm one in summer, she never missed a dance and, of course, was happiest when dancing in the arms of her lover.
After a couple of hours, however, she began to feel faint but could not resist the excitement of the dance. Suddenly she collapsed unconscious in her fiancé’s arms. When a doctor arrived, he found her dead. The autopsy showed that she had been strangely poisoned by an embalming fluid that somehow had entered her body. Small traces of the fluid were discovered in the girl’s white satin gown, from which it must have penetrated her skin during the heat and exertion of the dance.
When the officials of the store where she had bought the dress were threatened with the police, they finally admitted they had allowed a wealthy family to rent the dress for the funeral of their daughter, after which it had been returned to the store and sold. The lingering fluid from the dead body had embalmed alive the happy girl who had proudly worn her white satin gown.
*Variant A is reprinted from Famous Ghost Stories, New York, Random House, Inc., c1944, pp359-360 with the permission of Mr. Bennett Cerf and the Modern Library.
Kitty
- In what environment did you read the story? On my couch on my last free day off before the the blog post publishing deadline. That’s right, I’m doing this at the last minute, wanna fight about it?
- Do you remember having read this story as a kid? Definitely! This was a weird one to me as a child. As a child, I thought it was curious that you could actually rent a dress. This concept was foreign to me.
- Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? Well, no, the actions of the characters in the story didn’t make sense, because there’s no evidence that she’d tried to borrow a dress from a friend first. I think that would have been what I would have done differently if I couldn’t buy a dress outright. I feel like this was kind of a weird first suggestion for the mother to make. You’d think someone who was so poor would know how to make a dress, anyway. What do they do, just go naked in summer?
- Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? The pawnbroker was a jerk, because apparently he knew that it was a stolen dress that was worn by a dead person. You’d think somewhere along the line it might occur to him that it could be bad business, especially when he came right out with it and told them the story of how he got it. Also, wouldn’t the dress smell really weird if embalming fluid was on it? The doctor is one of my least favorite characters, because he made the coroner perform the autopsy. Coroners don’t do autopsies! (I’m not an expert in coronership, I’m just an expert googler.) But I think my leastest favorite character was the guy who stole the dress. Weird! What did he get, like $5 for it? My favorite character was the coroner, because he performed the autopsy even though he wasn’t licensed to.
- What did you think of the storytelling style? While reading it, I thought it was pretty funny that it’s written at simple, fifth grade level, and it’s telling one of the most grim stories in the whole book.
- Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? Why is a foot growing out of it?
- Your overall rating and why: ⭐⭐⭐ because it’s short and nonsensical.
Winterjoy
- In what environment did you read the story? On the floor of my apartment because I fell and can’t get up. Just kidding. I can get up.
- Do you remember having read this story as a kid? Yes, probably one of the most memorable for me.
- Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? I don’t believe anything to be too odd in any behavior here. I don’t believe the ending to be very clear and I can’t tell if the story teller is saying the pawnbroker knew the dress was stolen or not. If he knew, then he’s scum!
- Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? My least favorite character was the undertaker’s helper who stole the dress. I’m also not fond of the pawnbroker, especially if he knew it was stolen. I’m slightly not fond of the mother. If she wasn’t a dead beat and had money to buy her daughter a dress than maybe she would still be alive! My favorite character is the dress because it’s pretty. It didn’t ask to be a death machine.
- What did you think of the storytelling style? It’s fine. The ending just plainly explains what happened which was a little boring.
- Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? I think it’s an interesting concept! I love how one side of the illustration is usually falling apart and creepy.
- Your overall rating and why: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2. It’s a memorable story. A main character actually dying is always creepy to a child.
Sources:
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/27655506?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
- https://ia804503.us.archive.org/12/items/sim_new-york-folklore-quarterly_autumn-1952_8_3/sim_new-york-folklore-quarterly_autumn-1952_8_3.pdf
