Book Review – Summer at Tiffany

Marjorie Hart has detailed in this memoir her experiences of her and her girlfriend, Marty Garrett, being the first female pages at Tiffany in New York City during the summer of 1945.  Marjorie and Marty were born and raised in Iowa and during their summer break from college, they decided to go to New York and find summer jobs and have some excitement during the final year of World War II.

They had initially hoped to get sales clerking jobs at one of the big department stores such as Lord & Taylor or Saks Fifth Avenue, however, they were already fully staffed by the time the young women arrived in New York seeking jobs.  With a reference from President Roosevelt’s public relations expert (an old friend of Marty’s father), they walked into Tiffany and landed themselves jobs.

This book details Marjorie’s experiences, the highs and the lows, of working at Tiffany that summer, touring the city’s attractions, being in Times Square on V-J day and what life held in store for her and Marty after their adventurous summer in New York.  It was definitely a simpler time, which is ironic when you think that there was a world war going on.