The “economical house for the average American family” that Virginia MacAllister of Warrensburg won in 1949 had an above average guest list at the house-warming party, including actress Marilyn Monroe.
The 23-year-old Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, was just three years into her career as an actress, model and singer at the time.
L-R: Marilyn Monroe, actor Donald Buka, Photoplay Editor Adele Fletcher and Virginia MacAllister pose in front of the “Dream House” in Warrensburg that MacAllister won in a national jingle writing contest. Photo Courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.
“Ladies of the Chorus,” Monroe’s fifth film, had just been released in February, and “Love Happy” was in production.
MacAllister, a widow with a five-year-old son, Rusty, was winner of the Photoplay magazine “Dream House” national contest to write the best jingle to promote the economy of a prefabricated house, or an “industrial engineered bungalow” as the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association, the contest sponsor, called it.
An industrial engineered home could be constructed 1,540 labor hours versus 2,079 labor hours for a convention home, saving about 10 percent on the total price.
The lyrics and tune of the jingle seem to have been lost over time.
MacAllister, the winner out of 265,000 entries, received a free house and furnishings built at a location of her choice – a one-acre plot on James Street in Warrensburg, two blocks from the Warrensburg school and two blocks from the business district.
“I’m in a state of coma. I’ve got to catch my breath,” MacAllister said, when informed that she won. “Is it true, really true?”
Actresses Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Shirley Temple and director Mitch Leisen, along with “engineers from all over the country,” consulted on the design of the L-shaped, two-story house which, at 5-year-old Rusty’s request, included a basement.
Griffin Lumber of Hudson Falls constructed the house, and Union-Fern, a retail furniture chain with a store in Glens Falls, furnished the house.
Monroe and three male actors traveled with the magazine’s staff and publicists via special rail car from New York City to Albany, and then on to Warrensburg via automobile, to present the house keys to MacAllister in a ceremony on June 21, 1949, which about 500 people attended.
WWSC radio of Glens Falls audio-taped the ceremony for broadcast on 500 Mutual Radio Network stations nationwide.
“Lon McAllister, the young actor who will soon be in ‘The Story of Seabiscuit,’ was very impressed with the Dream House,” The Post-Star reported. “He remarked that he particularly liked the large windows with their beautiful view of the Adirondack Mountains.”
The other actors were Don DeFore and Donald Buka.
The story of how MacAllister came to be a home owner could easily be a Hollywood movie plot itself.
“This is a story of big hearts,” said Jackie Neben, a writer for Photoplay.
The Rev. Douglas MacAllister of Trenton, N.J., Virginia’s husband, died in 1945 from polio.
Virginia moved with her young son to Warrensburg, her hometown, to live with her parents and work as a camp nurse in summers and ski instructor at Gore Mountain in winters.
About five years after winning the house, she remarried, sold the house and moved with her new husband to New York City.
She wrote 30 published novels and wrote soap opera scripts for “The Guiding Light” and “The Young and the Restless” – writing under the names Virginia McDonnell and Virginia Barclay.
Son Rusty grew up to graduate the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
As of 1979 he was living in California.
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Sources: The Post-Star, March 9, 31, May 9, June 20, 22, Oct. 11, 1949; Dec. 26, 1979; Dec. 15, 2006; Warrensburg Historical Society; IMBd.
Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance writer and documentary film producer specializing in regional history. Thompson is collaborating with Snarky Aardvark Films to produce a documentary about Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, which is expected to release in 2020. See the trailer here.