Just for fun, here are two panoramic photographs of a "Bathing Girl Parades." These parades were all the rage in the 1920s. They began as events sponsored by newspapers and local business interests to promote seaside tourist destinations. They eventually grew into the beauty pageants that were popular Mid-Century and continue today. The parade photographed above is from California in 1917, and shows some really interesting swimsuits and beachwear of the day!
The photograph below shows contestants in the Atlantic City Pageant of Inter-City Beauties in 1925. In 1920 the Businessman's League of Atlantic City sponsored a "Fall Frolic," including an elaborate "bathing girl revue," to encourage visitors (and profits) after the end of the summer season. It was a big hit, and the following year they advertised up and down the East Coast for beauty contest winners from other cities to come to Atlantic City to compete for the title of "Miss America."
The 1921
Fall Frolic, which began with the arrival of King Neptune on a barge surrounded by twenty bathing beauties, featured five days of parades and concerts, a fancy dress ball, as
well as seven different bathing parade divisions featuring women, children, men, and
comic costumes. Everyone in town dressed in bathing
suits, including firemen and police! The first "Miss America" was 16-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C.
The Atlantic City pageant grew quickly in the next few years. Organizers took pains to stress the wholesomeness and "girl-next-door" qualities of the young contestants in skimpy attire. According to the American Experience website at pbs.org, "From the very beginning, the pageant was confronted with a conflict
between the effort to present an image of innocence and virtue while, at
the same time, promoting a spectacle where women paraded in public in
bathing suits." Nowadays the pageant attempts to balance a "girlpower" attitude and scholarships with the fact that it's basically always been women parading around in revealing clothes!
You may have heard that tonight's full moon is a "Supermoon." That's a fairly new term for what astronomers call a perigee moon ~ the moon's "perigee" is the closest point to earth in the moon's orbit. When the moon's perigee (closest point) coincides with a full moon, which it does about once a year, you get a full moon that can appear somewhat bigger and brighter than usual.
And why is June traditionally the month for weddings? Because it is named for Juno, the Roman goddess of wives and marriage. Happy full moon, from a June bride!
Time to start submitting your entries for the next Lunagirl Moonbeams Blog Challenge: Bathing Beauties!
Here is a short bio of another Victorian Edwardian diva. This is a beautiful postcard of actress and singer Lina Cavalieri. I've restored it, removed scratches, and enhanced the color.
