THE CAPITAL: Like Elizabeth Arden

• Share

When she became the wife of handsome John Davis Lodge in 1929, Italian-born Francesca Braggiotti was famed as a beauty and a dancer. When her husband—Senator Lodge's brother, and once a movie actor—was elected to the House from Connecticut last November, beauteous Mrs. Lodge transplanted her talents to Washington. Last week, they were bearing strange fruit.

At 10:30 one morning, some 30 barefooted, play-suited wives and daughters of Senators and Representatives answered the roll at the Congressional Club. They listened to a short health and diet talk by Mrs. Lodge, then followed her, in their various ways, through a strenuous hour of health dancing. They had been doing the same thing every Wednesday ever since Feb. 19. Said Mrs. Lodge delightedly:

"It produces a very gay atmosphere. When the circulation runs through your body, you feel happier. It becomes a happy circle instead of a vicious circle."

Asked for the names of some of her pupils Mrs. Lodge tactfully withheld them. "You know, it's like somebody who goes to Elizabeth Arden to get done over."