The syndicated article presented here appeared in numerous papers in the United States in September 1935; this particular one is clipped from the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 29 September 1935, p. 68. Another printing, clipped from the Philadelphia Inquirer, was mailed to John A. Widtsoe by a professor at State College, Pennsylvania shortly after publication.

When you read it, parts might make you a bit angry, or disgusted, and parts may make you laugh by their silliness and their distortion of notions that are barely half-recognizable in their appearance here. Or maybe you need to know, if you don’t already, that the Lion House was owned, restored and used by the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, used at different times as a dormitory for students, a temporary boarding house for girls coming from long distances until they could find permanent quarters in the city, and as an art center, teaching music and visual arts, and domestic subjects like needlework and cooking, to tuition-paying girls. I am not aware of any incarnation of the Lion House ever being billed as a “charm school” or even teaching the sorts of arts or skills usually associated with such places.

But silly as the whole thing strikes me, and perhaps you, in 2017, it meant something different to at least some Mormons in 1935. Elder Widtsoe was pleased to have the copy sent to him, because it depicted the Mormons in a more favorable, more modern, somewhat more accurate light than much of what was still appearing in the press. “It shows,” he said, “that we have an opportunity to put our case before the world if we go at it in the right way. I shall present this article before our committee on publicity.”

“Love Lessons” for Modern Mormon Beauties in Brigham Young’s Old Home

The Many-Gabled House Where the Famous Leader Made a Success of Multiple Marriage
Is Now a “Charm School” Teaching Girls How to Make Monogamy Succeed”

There’s a quaint and historic old mansion in Salt Lake City, Utah’s famous and unique capital which the genius of Brigham young and his followers built in the desert, nearly 5,000 feet above the sea, which is pointed out to visitors as the home of the departed leader and, in a way, America’s outstanding Shrine of Marriage. The old house has many gables – a gable to each of the upstairs rooms – and Utah tradition has it that each room was occupied by one of the Mormon prophet’s wives. At all events, when Brigham Young died almost 60 years ago, he left 17 widows and 47 children – together with a marital tradition that is working out today in a romantic and beautiful way.

For although it’s been 40 years since the Mormons themselves abolished polygamy as an article of their faith, the old Young home is still a marriage school – a sort of modern College of Domestic Bliss, where young people are taught how to get along as well within the restrictions of monogamy as their grandparents did in the era of multiple marriages which did so much to conquer and people the desert.

And the result is, that few greater contrasts could be found among American cities today than the one that exists between Reno, champion center of divorce, and Salt Lake, champion center of marriage. Yet Reno and Salt Lake are twin cities in that they’re the only two considerably-sized communities in the thousand-mile desert of the Plateau Region. Compare their marital statistics, and the contrast resembles Mt. Whitney and Death Valley, highest and lowest points on the American continent – which, as you also know, are close together and in fact in sight of each other.

Which brings us back to the colorful old Brigham Young mansion and its “charm school,” where the art of happy marriage is systematically – and successfully, as figures show – taught to the girls of Salt Lake.

Those girls themselves are noted for their beauty, health and athletic as well as scholarly and artistic prowess. Muriel Goodspeed, a Salt Lake girl, lately won the all-comers’ beauty contest in Hollywood, where beauty is such as to give real competition. The annual beauty contest at the University of Utah – latest of which was won by charming Miss Geneva Smith – is a classy event which has the same relation to ordinary beauty contests as the Kentucky Derby has to a minor racing meet.

And the “charm school” set up in the old Brigham Young mansion adds to the dazzling quality of the picture, by giving the girls an all-around curriculum of class instruction in how to make themselves charming, attractive and sought-after as wives!

The young people are here taught the sanctity of the marriage covenant, and the ideals of home life – of marrying young, rearing and educating large families, and making the home the center of happiness, beauty and culture.

The arts of neatness in dress, kindliness of manner, sweetness of disposition, and loyalty to husband and children are systematically drilled into the pretty pupils by older instructors who, in turn, are carefully selected because their own home lives are object-lessons in what they teach.

And it works out – for absolutely none of the brides who have emerged from that “charm school” have ever found their way to Reno for divorce purposes, near at hand and convenient as Reno is! The doctrine on which the school is based is that marriage is not merely for life, but for eternity.

Beyond the special training of the school, these young people live in a constant round of recreational and cultural activities to help them find their mates. There’s a year round program of debating, dancing, athletics, singing and other branches of music, art-training – in the course of which, the boys and girls work and play side by side. Naturally, romances start and blossom into matrimony.

Indeed, in the good old days the first “trails” into Salt Lake were blazed by Mormon marriage-parties, whole families travelling from Arizona and other Mormon outposts along with prospective brides and grooms for the sake of being married at the famous Mormon Temple. This custom still continues – explaining why the new State Highway from Phoenix, Arizona, to St. George, where it connects with the Utah highway system, is officially called “The Honeymoon Trail!”

And a great many couples marry at the age of 18 – and families of bout a dozen children are frequent in the land. All due to the “charm school” – and the Brigham Young tradition behind it.

In one important respect besides the long-ago abandonment of polygamy, however, there’s been a departure from the Brigham Young tradition. The old prophet used to thunder: “Let the man be the head of the house!” Probably, when population was so scant that polygamy was an economic necessity and a man had several wives, it was necessary for him to exert such authority.

But if you tell a young man in Utah today that he’s the “head of the house,” he will likely point to the quaint gables of the “charm school,” and the nearby athletic fields and musical auditoriums where his wife has been expertly trained, and say with a contented smile: “Why should I be?”

Marriages within the Mormon church are ringless, simple ceremonies, with no parading, no wedding march or other music, and no visitors – even close friends don’t witness the ceremonies, though immediate relatives may come. Indeed, the whole Plateau Region offers a poor market for wedding rings – in Salt Lake City they don’t use them, while in Reno, from the famous “divorce bridge,” they throw them away!

Photo captions:

“CHARM SCHOOL” – The House Above, Where Bright Young Left 17 Wives and 47 Children to Mourn When He Died, and Where He Held Classes in the Ways to Make a Success of Polygamy, Is Today a School for Modern Mormon Maidens, Who Are Being Taught How to Make an “Eternal” Success of Monogamy.

ROSE OF THE DESERT – Miss Geneva Smith, Winner of the 1935 Good-Looks Contest at the University of Utah, Is a Typical Example of the Type of Beauty Developed in the High Altitudes and Wide Open Spaces of the State Which Brigham Young Upbuilt.

FAMOUS MARRIER – Elder George F. Richards, One of the Apostles of the Mormon Church, Unites Many Couples Whose Brides Have “Graduated” from the “Charm School.”

The Famous Mormon Temple, Shown Above, Is One of the Magnificent Works Planned, Built and Left Behind by Brigham Young.