What Did Emily Say?!?

Ten years after her 1922, “Blue Book of Etiquette” was published, Emily Post had a radio program. As I build my Etiquette Museum, I have been acquiring all sorts of things to share with visitors. I purchased several original transcripts of her radio program and will be sharing some of them here on the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia. This below is one of many. It is from 1932.

What  EMILY POST said 

on the 

Du Pont Cellophane Radio Program

WJZ and NBC NETWORK                                            10.45 Α.Μ. E.S.T... 9.45 A.M. C.S.T.

11/22/32                      November 28, 1932

"GOOD TASTE" 

by EMILY POST

On this first morning I think I ought to give you some idea of the subjects that I mean to discuss at our meetings. First of all I shall probably talk about anything and everything that seems to me interesting because it seems to me that things that are interesting to me are likely to be interesting to you! But what I especially meant by saying that I wanted to make these gatherings friendly is that I shall try to explain frankly, as I would to any intimate friend, the reasons why we do this, or say that; why one thing is good form and another is not. I also want to note the modern changes not only in fashions, but in point of view. But at the same time I want to point out as we go along the principles underlying good taste that are unchangeable. By which I mean that best manners invariably spring not from rules of etiquette, but from kindness, which etiquette merely helps us to apply. 

And I am also going to talk about a subject that I myself love much, the personal appeal of a house, outside and in, upstairs and down. I've spent a great part of my own life trying to find out why one house or perhaps one room alone enchantingly invites us, why another says nothing to us at all, and I want to tell you what I've found out. It may sound formidable to suggest that we talk about the principles of classical beauty or of ethics or the ideals of culture, but as a matter of fact I want to talk about all of these and show that (to a practical degree at all events) they are not hard to understand. There are rules by which to measure beauty, just as there are rules for setting a table, speaking grammatically, or understanding the meaning of culture.

Speaking of culture reminds me of an advertisement I once read which said: "To eat an olive correctly, is to impress others as a person of culture." So I may as well add that this is not the sort of culture I have in mind. In fact, it is just this sort of olive-eating absurdity that has made the word etiquette lose all of its value. Rules of etiquette are not a lot of mumbo jumbo nonsense, learned by the few in order to make an impression on the many. The sole object of etiquette is to make the world a pleasant place to live in, to make contacts smooth, to oil the social machinery, and to point out to every human being in every civilized community, the ordinary principles of kindness and good taste.

 🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia