100 years ago: Striving for a topsy-turvy Leap Year Day

To mark Leap Year 1924, Albany Mayor William S. Hackett made an offer to the city’s couples, via a message to Frank V. Hogan, deputy city clerk. He’d gift a wedding cake to the first would-be bride and groom applying for a marriage license on Feb. 29 — provided the woman admitted she was the one to do the proposing.

“I think the mayor’s office is safe though because while the poor males think they have done the proposing, in reality they have been led to the trap by the female,” said Hogan, who was also in charge of the marriage license bureau, but “the girl never will admit it, though.”

When it was suggested to the mayor that Hogan’s prediction might prove true, Hackett upped the offer to the first three couples meeting his terms, and word went out to Albany’s pledging partners. As of late in the (Leap) day, not a single marriage license was issued, let alone one with potential bonus baked goods.

Hackett’s proposal proposition was in line with the old, fallen-out-of-favor custom of women being “allowed” to ask for a man’s hand in marriage in leap years. Any man rejecting such a request would then have to present the woman with the “makings” of a silk gown.

Younger people in Albany and elsewhere were more likely to throw parties to mark the onceevery-four-years occasion, with common rituals playfully reversed for the day. For instance, girls would offer their arms to male partners when going into the dining room, would pull their chairs out for them at the table and later ask the men to dance. The stunts would end when the parties did. “To ‘see a man home’ is to carry a joke so far as to overstep the bounds of propriety.”

Elsewhere in the city, twins George and Harold Weber prepared to celebrate their fifth birthday – by hosting their own family party, after shaving and putting on long pants. The “boys,” born in 1904, were both working as chemists; George with the Albany Chemical Company and Harold with the Albany Billiard Ball Company.

— Times Union, Feb. 29, 1924

• Looking Back is compiled by C.J. Lais and Azra Haqqie. For questions about this feature or to submit information about historic events, contact Tim Blydenburgh, 518-454-5421 or tblydenburgh@timesunion.com

Times Union archive Members of the Guilderland Mr. and Mrs. GOP Club exchange greetings at a Leap Year dance party held at the Westmere Fire Hall in 1964. From left, Mrs. William P. Southwood, Guilderland Supervisor Gordon Robinson, Mrs. Edward C. Zyniecki of Mckownville, Salvatore Amato of Mckownville and Francis H. Roberts of Westmere.