Beauty Shop Bill

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Yesterday, our program celebrated women’s suffrage in North Dakota, so it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek to bring you today’s story: in 1953, state legislative Bill #773, proposed mandatory closing hours for beauty shops so that wives could be home in time to cook supper.

The proposal read: “All beauty shops shall be closed between the hours of 5:45 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. The proprietor of such establishment may use all reasonable force necessary to eject customers, whether or not any beauty treatment then in progress is completed, with corresponding adjustment of the fee charged for services performed.”

Anson Anderson of Lisbon and Charles Freadhoff of LaMoure introduced the bill… you have to wonder how their wives would’ve felt about being “ejected” from a salon with only half a permanent!

Thankfully, action on the bill was “indefinitely postponed.”

Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm