The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

I had my first experience today with conversation carried on through an interpreter. Two Russian women, who are over here with a big group, studying our factories and machinery, came to lunch. Madame Molotov, whose husband is an important official of the Soviet Union, is president of sixteen factories. Miss Schaposhnikova is president of seven. These factories make soap, cosmetics and perfume. Madame Troyanovsky, the Ambassador's wife, acted as interpreter. The ladies spoke German and I was the only American at the table who knew German and I have become a bit halting. Somehow or other, we got on and the ladies told us they worked hard and were promoting the use of cosmetics even among the farm women of Russia and that at present more than fifty percent of the Russian women were using the better grades of face soap and cosmetics.

My other guests were Mrs. Hull, Mrs. Wallace and Representative Isabella Greenway. Mrs. Greenway brought a laugh at my expense when she said: "Of course you must not judge the other women of this country by Mrs. Roosevelt and myself. I feel quite sure that if Mrs. Roosevelt began to do one eyebrow she would go out forgetting to do the other!"

My husband and I had a rare treat last night in listening to Marian Anderson, a colored contralto who has made a great success in Europe. She has sung before nearly all the crowned heads and I hope she will be successful here, for I have rarely heard a more beautiful and moving voice or a more finished artist. She sang three Schubert songs and finished with two Negro spirituals, one of which I had never heard before. Our guests, Mr. & Mrs. William Denman of San Francisco enjoyed her as much as we did.

This morning was busy with a press conference, a number of visitors and a variety of mail. This afternoon I went to a reception and tea at the Congressional Club and am now about to take a six o'clock train to New York.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Organizations
  • Congressional Club (Washington, D.C.) [ index ]
         [ LC | VIAF | SNAC ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 21, 1936

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on May 2, 2022.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated February 20, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 20 February 1936, AERP, FDRL