Never Caught With His Pants Drowned

It seemed ignominious to James A Field '45 that the April showers which do so much for the May flowers only serve, as far as man is concerned, to get the cuffs on his pants wet.

"I got very very annoyed," he said in a recent interview appearing in a New York newspaper. "It seemed absurd that man could invent the electric light and the jet engine and still couldn't keep his pants dry. I sat down one day, determined to figure a way out. My goal was something that would keep me dry without looking ridiculous."

Field was fortunate in having a good mind to turn to the problem one that won him membership in Phi Beta Kappa at Dartmouth. As a result he is now sole owner and distributor of "Raincoat Chaps," and the first batch of the product has been sold out, via a modest ad in TheNew York Times. Beginning his business with a minimum of publicity and overhead, Field has found that, judging by the initial response to his invention, men seem to be actively rebelling against taking their suits to the pressing service after every rainstorm and getting splashed to the skin by passing cars. Formerly an advertising copy writer, he now writes his own ads. The one enclosed in the Raincoat Chaps package (price $1.98) is "Don t get caught with your pants drowned."

Raincoat Chaps are made of vinyl film pieces which are snapped quickly around the pant legs and fastened to the inside of the raincoat by special thumb-tack buttons on adjustable strips. In good weather the chaps are folded into small squares which are stowed away in the pockets. When it rains the wearer whips them on in a matter of seconds and off just as quickly.

Field, who spent one year at Tuck School, worked for a Hanover men's clothing store while he "was a student. A pilot in the Army Air Force during the war, he wrote advertising copy for Young and Rubicam and Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn before his present venture. Now his own boss in his own office at 550 Fifth Ave., he writes, "My next move is to get department-store, drug, catalog and outerplanetary business, if possible."

He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Dartmouth Club of New York and for three years served as editor of the Club News.

SINGING IN THE RAIN: Inventor and benefactor to man, James A. Field '45 demonstrates his "Ralncoat Chaps" which serve to prevent soggy cuffs on pants, maintain trouser creases and attach to any type of raincoat.