The Perfect Thirty-Six

Summary

A sun-drenched village swaddled in linden-scented inertia disgorges Gertie—calligraphic curls, mercury laugh—into the satin maw of Aunt Amelia’s Leipzig showroom where mannequins stand like exiled aristocrats. The provincial whirlwind learns to translate breath into seams, but Berlin’s siren song—equal parts gaslight and gilded lies—keeps thrumming behind her ribs. Enter Sigmund Phillippsohn, Berlin’s traveling haberdasher of charm, who, with the flick of a telegram, rechristens her “the perfect thirty-six,” a numeric apotheosis. She vaults toward the capital, shedding her aunt’s velvet strictures like a second skin only to land amid Mayer & Nathanson’s chrome corridors where ambition crackles louder than the Elbe at thaw. Moritz Abramowsky, a thrifty satyr in a bowler, mistakes penny-pinching for courtship until a house salesman spirits her to a restaurant where chandeliers drip possibility. Word of her uncanny knack for draping desire over ducal shoulders ricochets; royalty requests her by name, rival salons double her salary, and Mayer realizes the mannequin has outshone the maison. A palace summons, a breath-held proposal, and Gertie’s arc resolves in a whispered contract more binding than silk: ownership disguised as romance.

Synopsis

Gertie, a charming, lively young girl living in a little village, graduates from the high school, and her mother at once sends her to her Aunt Amelia, proprietress of a fashionable garment store in Leipzig, to be broken into the business. Arriving at Leipzig, she is at once put to work by her Aunt, who is a very capable business woman. Great as is the contrast between her present life in Leipzig as compared with that of her native village, she sighs for life in Berlin where, as her favorite line of fiction tells her, beautiful young girls can have the world at their feet. Not long after her debut in the garment store, enters Sigmund Phillippsohn, salesman for a wholesale garment house in Berlin. He is the friend of everyone in the shop and there ensues a flutter of excitement from Amelia down to the errand girls. He sees Gertie and she scores a hit upon his nice discernment. He invites her Aunt and her to dine with him that evening, and then wires his house that he has found a perfect thirty-six and asking if he will hire her. His house answers telling him to "send, her along." He broaches the subject to Gertie and finds her more than willing to accept. The next day she airily trips from the shop, giving her poor Aunt an unexpected and unwelcome farewell. Arriving at Mayer and Nathanson's cloak and suit emporium in Berlin, the green girl does not make an immediate hit with Mayer, but she is taken on. Moritz Abramowsky, however, sees the diamond in the rough and determines to get in her good graces. He invites her to supper with him and she gladly accepts. A sad awakening; the frugal Moritz takes her to a beanery of the type where the waiters yell, "draw one in the dark" and "ham and." While Moritz is foraging among the eatables of a neighboring table, the house salesman of Mayer and Nathanson enters in search of Gertie and carries her off to a real restaurant. Gertie's rise in the business is rapid. The princess of the royal family calls at the emporium to select a costume. The various models parade before her in all their refinery, but of them all it is Gertie who makes the hit. Through her skillful showing, the princess purchases liberally and leaves, stating that she desires Miss Gertie to always wait upon her in the future. The fame of her ability travels, and she is offered a position at double her present salary by a rival concern. Gertie decides to accept it, and so does not go down to business that day. It so happens that the princess requests Mayer to call at the palace that very day and bring Miss Gertie with him to show the new gowns. Alarmed by the model's absence, he accepts Moritz's advice and calls upon the absent girl in person. He persuades her to go with him to the palace. At the conclusion of a most successful call he determines to make the girl his for all time, proposes and is accepted.