Class for Clubwomen

They had been invited to hear an expert tell them how bad their stuff was. Six hundred showed up. They were all women and all amateur correspondents--presidents and press chairmen of Los Angeles clubs. Like clubwomen everywhere, they habitually send their local papers the kind of disheveled copy that prematurely ages the editors of women's pages. Last week, for the sixth time in six years, Los Angeles Times Club Editor Bess Wilson crisply told them to mend their ways.

To Bess Wilson, these spare-time journalists are no Helen Hokinson characters. "These women are hard workers . . . and they're alive to the forces around them." But she did wish that they'd learn to spell, stick to facts instead of gossip, and get their copy in while it was news.

Greying Mrs. Wilson sailed into her charges like a relentless sheepdog. She wanted no fancy writing, none of the "feminine things like the names of flowers, descriptions of dresses, and things that women talk about." And no invented quotes. They must get that through their heads. "Send me what people actually say, not what you think they should say."

After two chastening hours came questions & answers. Samples: What about "exclusives"? Wilson: "Don't give an exclusive to more than one newspaper." Should women be referred to by their married names? Wilson: "If a woman's lived with a man for a number of years the least she can do is use his name."

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