The Man with the Magic Glasses (Details)
citation: McCall's, March 1962, LXXXIX(6):94-95, 130, 132
alias: Lunch-Hour Magic; Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere
teaser: Often wicked but always wonderful were the sights through his spectacular specs. A fairly tale for grownups
summary: During a noon-hour prowl of local shops,
Ted runs into Frieda Piper from the art department of the advertising
agency where he works. For Ted's
taste, Frieda is shapeless
and down-at-the-heels
; badly dressed, and totally unattractive.
She explains to Ted she is filling her hope chest with tools, prefering them over clothes, and hopes to build all her furniture when she is married. Ted and Frieda stroll through the store, then return to the office, eating candy bars, and discussing her building projects.
On another noon-hour, Ted sees Frieda taking dancing lessons. On another, Ted visits a magic shop. The proprietor shows him several items, including a pair of plastic-rimmed clear-lensed glasses. When Ted puts on the glasses, he can see the proprietor's hand beneath a handkerchief. When he looks at a beautiful woman walking across the street, he realizes the true power of the glasses. He buys them immediately.
Ted enjoys his walk through the crowds as he returns to the office. There
he observes previously unknown details about his female co-workers. He is
particularly astounded to discover that beneath Frieda's unkempt exterior
is the
most magnificently beautiful feminine figure the human race has ever known.
Ted
stops wearing his glasses regularly, especially when Frieda comes by to tell
him of new stores she's found during her noon-time expeditions.
Some time later, Ted's told by an optometrist it is impossible to produce glasses that can see through thin fabric. Sensing an opportunity, Ted returns to the magic shop. Although there are no more glasses for sale, the proprietor offers some cheap jewelry, purported to be an Egyptian slave bracelet. Ted buys one.
Back at the office, he asks the receptionist to try on the bracelet. When Ted commands her to kiss him, she does, enthusiastically. He takes the bracelet from her, retreating with it to his office. He gives the bracelet to Frieda, knowing he can buy another later.
To his surprise, Ted discovers there are no more bracelets for sale at the magic shop. Disappointed, he returns to the office, envying what he could have done had he not given the bracelet to Frieda. Imagining the receptionist's head on Frieda's body, Ted commands her to kiss him, and she does; wonderfully. In the ensuing tussel, his magic glasses break.
Unable to ask for the bracelet back, Frieda is now hopelessly in love with Ted. When she doesn't show up at work the next morning, Ted worries she's done something drastic. To his relief, Frieda appears after lunch hour, and offers him a candy bar.
When Frieda commands Ted to kiss her, he's suddenly aware how attractive she is. He kisses her willingly, compelled to express his love for her, asking when they can be married.
It seems Frieda also visited the magic shop during lunch-hour.
words: 5,835
genre: None
similar: None
people: Ted, Frieda Piper, Magic Shop clerk, Anita Ekberg, Zoe, Mrs. Humphrey
places: New York, NY: Second Avenue, Simon & Laurentz, Park Avenue, Forty-fourth Street, First Avenue, Madison Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Sixth Avenue
comments: Forthcoming