Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
BOLAND-B10410
Date(s)
- 1924-07-04 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Tacoma bathing beauties posed for the camera during the Tacoma Yacht Club Bathing Girl Revue on July 4th, 1924. A new kind of girl was coming to the light in the twenties. A girl who exercised, ate right and wasn't afraid to show off her bare arms and legs and bob her hair. Bathing suit designer Annette Kellerman's one piece suits were appearing at swimming holes across the country. Tacoma was riding the crest of this fashion; the fledgling Miss America contest (then called the Inter-City Beauties Contest) had in 1922 abolished restrictions on scandalous swimwear. They allowed contestants to wear the one piece swimsuits with stockings rolled down, or no stockings at all. America took a deep breath and then applauded or protested. In Tacoma, this contest seems to have taken place with little or no complaints. Grace Copeland was judged Tacoma's most beautiful bathing girl, out of 32 contestants. G20.1-034; TPL-158 (TNT 7/5/1924, pg. 7)
Bathing beauties--1920-1930; Bathing suits--1920-1930; Tacoma Yacht Club (Tacoma);