Matinee girl

   Since it was considered appropriate for women to attend the theatre during daylight hours without male escort, matinee audiences were predominantly women. Young ladies often attended in small groups on a regular basis, enjoying—perhaps as much as the plays—the freedom from adult supervision as well as the justification for daytime wardrobe enhancement. The matinee girl made an obsession of her theatergoing and became a devoted fan of certain attractive actors known as matinee idols. She would imitate an admired actress's style of dress or manner of wearing a hat. When the stock company actress Eva Lang developed a matinee girl following in Kansas City during the 1900s, the young women would go home after the play to practice in front of a mirror the Eva Lang gestures and the Eva Lang walk.