STYLE
DATIN .1986 M
elanie,24,overflowswithenthusiasm for her new job and her new city. She exchanged aerobics for matchmaking, Boston for Portland last January with no regrets. A perky brunette with Pollyanna· eyes, she moves through her small New Beginnings office at 723 Congress Street with a dancer's energy and agility. She loves to talk. And, as boss Greg Johnson observed when he hired her. "Her thermostat's turned way up." Leo Buscaglia would approve. "People are tired of the typical singles scene and the superficial attitudes they find in bars," says Melanie. "Plus, you can spend a lot of time and money finding people who are not compatible with you. A dating service can eliminate all that. "Ten years ago, using a dating service would have been a last resort, but not anYmore." Today, people talk openly about their membership, she says, "as'long as the service is supportive, positive, personal, and open." Melanie reports that most ·of their 275 members are between 25 and 38 years old, most are career-oriented, and most are male, although that varies. Members come to the office for an interview, fill out a questionnaire, and are rewarded with dates and lots of TLC. Obviously, the system concentrates on compatibility; but opposites do attract, she says, as long as personal goals, intellect, and certain environmental factors, including religion, smoking, and drinking patterns, are similar. And how much does all this cost? There are three membership packages:
3 months for $50; 6 months for $150; and 12 months for $300. "I don't believe people need to pay astronomical fees for help with their personal lives," she shrugs. "I think our figures are reasonable."
E
ven reasonable fees add up fast. Within the next fiveyears, she projects, New Beginnings will gross over $80,000 per year. "The market's definitely there," she says. "I can feel the rumble." Or is that crumble? During the past three years, three dating services opened and six closed in Maine alone. "Eighty percent of all new dating services close within a year." That sobering statistic is offered by Tammy Townsend, manager of Together, Inc., a Boston-based dating service that has successfully passed that milestone 13 times. Twice in Portland.
• "'Bob was my first date, and we were so compatible it was uncanny. We even had the same dining room furniture!' They also had the same zip code (04363) ... "
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other survivors, Matchmaker and Dateline, represent two extreme examples of the dating/ mating matrix. "My mother won a free membership in Matchmaker and gave it to me," recalls Jackie Smith, 33, of Sydney, Maine. "I really didn't think it would work, but it sure beat being in a bar, watching my girlfriends dance." One month and three dates later, she met her husband, Harold. "It was instant 'want -to-be-with-you'," she grins. Jackie and Harold represent one of at least four such success stories each month for Matchmaker, the Waterville
BYLYNN CAMPBEll PHOTOGRAPHS BY RHONDA FARNHAM MAY 1986
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