London. October 11, 1930. Every charity-minded lady is at the Pageant of the Superstitions at the Haymarket Theatre to benefit the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital Maintenance Fund. The Queen Charlotte was one of the oldest maternity hospitals in Europe, founded in 1739. Renamed Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, it’s now located between East Acton and White City, adjacent to the Hammersmith Hospital. Here’s a selection of photographs of well-known women who were representing different omens of bad luck at the Pageant:
There’s Mrs. Alexander McCorquodale (formerly Barbara Cartland), personifying “Good Luck” in a magnificent horseshoe headdress and glittering ball gown. The good luck charms and talismans with which her dress is adorned, including a four-leaf clover and heart. She carries a lucky black cat in her left hand. It’s hard to tell from this photo, but is she wearing tiny dolls as earrings?
But Dame Babs was not the only fabulously bedecked peer at the Pageant. Also in attendance was the Hon Mrs. Roland Cubitt, the grandma-ma of the Duchess of Cornwall (formerly known as Camilla Parker-Bowles). She personified the superstition that three candles are considered bad luck. It was believed that you should not burn three candles together because the person nearest the shortest candle would either be the first to marry or the first to die. The House approves of her morbidly brilliant take.
Finally, we have Princess George Imeretinsky in a hat with large horns, embodying “Green.” Finally, we have Princess George Imeretinsky in a hat with large horns, embodying “Green.” The House believes that the Princess is embodying the belief that a person with horns is green — i.e. experiencing jealously or envy. (And we must not forget that envy is one of the seven deadly sins.)
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