Our Proprietor has been so busy, this year, she realized that she hadn’t taken the time to enter a proper Update for this season’s events.
The first photo is from the Blind Baby Foundation’s Beeper Egg Hunt, a few years back, with the pictured pals Kenny and Kate, plus Costumer’s Guild members (Helena, Lynne, Dawn and the Proprietor) creating the costumes and helping out. We had an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for the young guests; and gathered contributions of tea, cookies and all sorts of raffle prizes from kind Oakland vendors. That day at the BBF Beeper Egg Hunt was much fun. So, this year, our Proprietor remembered that she might borrow the Alice costume that Helena created and is wearing in the photo for a similar event at the Camron-Stanford House! In the next photo she’s wearing the Alice dress, standing next to the amazing docent training officer, Molly (on her right) as they both admire the handiwork of Dragonfly Cakes in Sausalito. “Eat Me,” the cake told Alice.
Here are some other photos from events we attended. The black, silk, beaded shirt was a gift from Sara, who received it from a design teacher. It was apparently beaded in Paris in the early 1900s, so the Proprietor wore it to the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco.
And here is evidence that the Emporium’s Proprietor does a fair amount of community work on behalf of women and girls. She’s performing the monologue called “The Flood,” in Eve Enslers’s Vagina Monologues. This year, with a cast of 9 women, they were able to raise $1,200 to give to Oakland Elizabeth House for women and their children who are homeless.
We recently learned of the passing of our dear friend Jane Cudlip Coblentz King, Mills College class of 1942. She is pictured, above, at the center of our group in the grey and black jacket. Jane was 93 years old when she passed last fall. She retired from tutoring just the year before and boy howdy, could she tell jokes, stories and remember Shakespeare, line, act and scene! She is dearly missed by our group of volunteers in Fires of Wisdom, the Mills College Oral History Project, pictured above. We miss her so much, some of us made a gift to the American Heart Association in her memory.
~~ Malvena Pearl’s Emporium staff also witnessed the glory that is/was the Pan Pacific Exposition, entitled Jewell City. There are many images, including a lot of stories, here. ~~
Finally, the Proprietor started off in January of this year assisting some clients with their outfits for the NOIR CITY Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Here are some happy film goers!
