Vaguely related to recent realization that my surname is an Oil Name….

This 1909 advertisement in an Enid historical FB page shows two impossibly dapper young men attending an impossibly elegant party at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC.

The caption says: The men in the scene are wearing Benjamin Full Dress and Tuxedo Suits. The selfsame styles are now on exhibit here.

Enid has always had an oil upperclass, but the NYC envy seems out of character. Would western oil and cattle barons really aim to look like NYC?

Well, yes. My grandmother in Ponca was a seamstress for the oil widows. She kept up with the latest NYC and Paris fashions, and recreated the selfsame styles for her customers. She was born in NYC and worked in Grand Central Station when young, so she had a head start on observing NYC critters.