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There’s a legend that campus tour guides tell at Vassar University. It involves a famous actress and activist who was, in the 1950s, one of the most well-known students at the university. It goes like this:
Every day, the girls had tea in the college’s Rose Parlor. As the legend goes, one day at daily tea, she was refused entry because she wasn’t wearing the proper attire, which required white gloves and pearls. She willingly went back to her room, claiming to be back soon with the gloves and pearls on. The other students waited, but when she finally showed up, they were taken by surprise.
She was indeed, wearing the white gloves and the pearls, just as she said she would be. The only thing that was unusual was that those were the only things she was wearing. She had swapped the rest of her outfit for the gloves and pearls, which in 1950s New York could be scandalous, especially for Henry Fonda’s daughter, Jane, who was already known to be an outspoken woman.
Today, we don’t know for sure if this story is true or not. It could be partly true, or not true at all. At the very least, Jane Fonda denied it, stating that it is a “Complete urban legend.” But in the end, all campus tour guide stories have to start from something.