Read on Twitter
I'm a longtime perfume nerd, and there are some delicious perfume references in the musical SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES (1942, Irving Cummings), starring Betty Grable, Charlotte Greenwood, and John Payne. (This is what they call a niche thread.)
Song-and-dance man Dan (John Payne) is late for his big number with Vicky (Betty Grable). Vicky knows he's with another doll (so do we). She grumbles to Phoebe (Greenwood), "I'll find out soon enough. If he comes in reeking of perfume, I’ll know right away who it is…
...If it’s Tabu, it’s that movie queen, if it’s Christmas Night it’s that model, if it’s My Sin it’s that—”
“Hey!” sputters Phoebe. “That could be me!”
“Hey!” sputters Phoebe. “That could be me!”
Tabu, the first perfume Betty mentions, is still sold in drugstores. Like most perfumes, it’s been reformulated, but in any version it’s a big brash fragrance, as loud and divisive as a Baz Luhrmann production number.
“Christmas Night” almost certainly refers to Nuit de Noel by Parfums Caron, created in 1922. It is dry, elegant, subtle, ineffably French, and entirely suitable for a fashion model (as indeed Tabu is a brash starlet of a perfume).
Alas, My Sin has been discontinued. It was a classic aldehydic floral, much loved by my mother’s generation (and apparently by Phoebe). My Sin's other moment in the movie spotlight is as Ellen Burstyn’s favorite perfume in the beloved SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR (1978).
But wait! There’s more! Back to SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES. Dan shows up, and a suspicious Vicky does indeed smell the Scent of a Woman. Dan claims it’s his “new toilet water” and asks, “too strong, baby?”
“Too expensive at $32 an ounce,” snaps Vicky. (I’ll save you a trip to the CPI Inflation Calculator: That’s about $522 an ounce in 2020 lolly.) “What is it?” demands Phoebe. “Surrender,” says Vicky. This showgirl knows her 'fumes.
Surrender, by Parfums Ciro, is the only one of this quartet that I haven’t smelled myself. It is described on this site as a “white floral” and in old ads as “sweet and romantic.” In the movie it’s worn by Vicky’s Park-Avenue-heiress competition. https://ciroperfumes.blogspot.com/2017/08/surrender-by-ciro-c1932.html
Interesting how the film uses these (at the time) well-known, expensive, French fragrances to send signals (largely to the women in the audience) about plot and character. The wonderful @boisdejasmin has a lot of classic-perfume reviews on her site. https://boisdejasmin.com/2015/09/if-you-struggle-with-perfume-classics.html
Finally, I do own one of these scents: a pre-reformulation Nuit de Noel, the extrait in the classic Art Deco bottle shown here. It is one of my favorites. /Finis
