Hot new fashion trend: the paper collar!

Didja notice how you felt melancholy on July 20? That's cuz 130 years prior local thespian Thomas Placide died. Placide was so broke that he pioneered a new fashion trend as the following passage from Franklin T. Graham's excellent Histrionic Montreal (1972, page 52) explains:

Thomas Placide was a boisterous performer who never rose to much distinction. He greatly resembled his brother Henry, but his work did not begin to compare with the latter's. Thomas was born at Charleston, S.C. in 1808. His stage career began early, and his regular debut was at the Chatham Street Theatre, New York in 1828. He was manager of the Park Theatre for several seasons, and in 1853 became a member of Wallack's company, retiring a few seasons later, and dying 20 July, 1877. He was the first man to wear paper collars in Montreal, not being in good credit standing with his laundry, and set a fashion followed out some years later.