WOMEN OF NOTE. By happenstance, not by planning, we’ve seen and heard about some notable women in our recent film and theater-going adventures. Founder Thomas Sung’s legacy to his children, all daughters, was his bank, Abacus Bank. Three of them work there; one, Jill, as the CEO, which is both significant and important. Jane Jacobs was an activist back in the day when women were housewives and not supposed to be involved in politics. Not to mention that she was a working journalist.
Lastly, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, real women, not just names of cosmetics, were founders and heads of their own very successful companies. This was in the 1930’s. Their story is told in the delightful musical, War Paint.
FILM FARE
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail. We missed seeing this at the Sarasota Film Festival so were pleased it was playing here at the IFC Center. I had high expectations, based on what I knew about it and some overheard comments, and was not disappointed. A documentary about the banking industry, fallout from the crisis of 2008, and the fate of one small bank in Chinatown, New York, it’s also a portrayal of a strong and loving Chinese family. Thomas Sung, a lawyer, founded and ran Abacus Federal Savings Bank for many years until two of his daughters, Jill and Vera, succeeded him as CEO and director. What Cyrus Vance wrought when he brought charges against the bank unfolds over a five-year legal battle and a nine week trial. Simply excellent!
Personal note: I learned, after I’d seen the film and told him about it, that our son’s father-in-law knows the Sung family. They were friends of his aunt and he first visited them when he was a student.
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City. Author of the groundbreaking work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, writer Jane Jacobs became an activist who fought against urban development that threatened communities at their core. This documentary is a wonderful depiction of the rise of Postwar modernism (think Le Corbusier) and the building of large scale low income high rises meant to solve the problems of slum neighborhoods. In fact, this form of urban renewal was a failure; decades later these buildings in cities across the country were all leveled.
Jacobs looked at cities from the perspective of the people and what happens on the street. A New Yorker and a resident of Greenwich Village, she mobilized neighbors to oppose extending 5th Avenue through Washington Square Park. They won against the powerful Robert Moses, the “villain” in this piece. Later they successfully fought a proposed expressway through lower Manhattan, another project Moses was attempting to ram through. This is a superb film, especially for city lovers.
War Paint. This new musical, staring Patti Lupone and Christine Ebersole, profiles roughly 30 years in the careers of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Strong women both, they were vicious competitors and probably kept each other on their toes. Lupone and Ebersole are stellar stars in their own right and each gets her due in alternating scenes and songs showcasing their triumphs and woes and their somewhat lonely personal lives.
They came from poor backgrounds and each reinvented herself and then offered women the opportunity, found in a jar, to become beautiful, to “Put Your Best Face Forward.” The two male leads also have substantial parts, one as a husband and the other a gay devotee. Each takes on marketing and sales responsibilities for his female boss. They have some juicy lines and are paired in a couple of rollicking songs.
Arden’s and Rubinstein’s clientele was primarily wealthy women of a certain age. Eschewing early television advertising, they are soon eclipsed by upstart Charles Revson with Revlon’s Fire & Ice lipstick. This musical was a lot of fun and I’d love to see it a second time! 
Personal note: We first saw Patti Lupone as a young actor in The Acting Company (founded by John Houseman) in Saratoga Springs in the 1970’s. More recently, we saw Christine Ebersole in performance twice in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Cabaret series.
Note: Images of Jane Jacobs, Helena Rubinstein (Daily Mail), and Elizabeth Arden (Lifestyle Lounge) are all from the web. Header photo is the curtain for War Paint at the Nederlander Theatre.
