Summer Days - 1925-1926

What happened to Julys like this? Or this July for that matter? We’re packing up our canoe, wool bathing suits, parasols, and all the Judy Boltons and Nancy Drews we can stuff in a suitcase and heading to Camp. With the days already getting shorter and shops all trying to usher us into fall already, we long to slow down and enjoy the summer before it’s gone. To paraphrase the immortal words of Spanky McFarland, don’t rush us, big boy.

This series of photos came from an old album that we picked up somewhere (old photo albums being on the long list of Things We Can’t Resist. We hate to see these broken up, the photos sold individually – a telltale sign is remnants of black paper on the backs. But we digress…) showing a family canoeing and generally cavorting at a resort-camp on California's Russian River between 1925 and 1927. Russian River Valley towns like Monte Rio, Rio Nido, and Guerneville all had rustic summer resorts that became popular with San Francisco and Oakland families in the 1920s and 1930s when better roads made them more accessible. Most camps had a main hotel building with a cluster of little, freestanding cabins or tents that could be rented by the week or the month. Folks usually came to stay a while. Most of the photos will pull up larger by clicking on them.

Here’s the original owner of the album (we don’t know her name, but she’s quite a cutup; the captions are hers), and below, “Sis” in the doorway of their tent, and in bathing attire.

"Bathing Beauties" "Me, Catherine, Sis, Monica"

Note the name of the canoe –Vampire. (We're stealing this idea!).

The caption reads “Try to get a big load”

"Loring Me + Elmo"

When not canoeing, there was always "Posing" to do - here in front of a tent cabin

"Catherine, Ma, Me"














Catherine, above, and another girl (sister?), Kate

"Mamma" with an unidentified woman, c. 1925

Mamma, Pappa, and the girls in front of a tent, 1925

We have some additional photos of our girl and family from the same time period that we’ll share in a future post. The camp photos, however, don’t continue after 1927 although there are many blank pages left in the album. We hope that she and Sis, and Catherine, and the rest of the bunch went on to have more beautiful, lazy summers like this somewhere else.

TCM Alert - Tonight: Hips, Hips, Hooray!

If you have access to Turner Classic Movies, be sure to tune in tonight for the screening of the 1934 musical Hips, Hips, Hooray (8pm ET; 5pm PT). Stars Thelma Todd, Ruth Etting, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey.

“Miss Frisby and her assistant, the oily Armand, are struggling to keep their cosmetics firm Maiden America Beauty Products from going bankrupt. Armand, however, is a corporate spy working for a rival cosmetics firm; his promotional schemes are deliberately intended to drive Miss Frisby's firm out of business.”

More Beach Pyjamas

Excuse us. We’re going to call in sick to work and make a mad dash to Ayoob's. Coincidentally, right next to this ad was an announcement for the town Pyjama Dance. (c.1931).


High tide in beach pyjamas! The latest trick to pyjama trousers, according to Carole Lombard, is to wear them narrower and higher. She decoratively demonstrates the idea in this printed silk model with its “trou” legs cut twelve inches from the floor. White, black and yellow is the color scheme that catches the eye. Note the trick cutout effect on the bodice, too.
Photoplay, 1932. We don’t know who this little girl is, but she’s got heaps of style. We found her orphaned in a suitcase full of forlorn photos at a flea market. We just bet that pyjama is red & white.

Vintage Exercise Routines

1920s and 30s women had a wide selection of exercise or “reducing” records available to choose from, like our Victor Records for Health Exercises 78s from 1922. Complete sets of these are fairly easy to find and are fun to play if you have a windup phonograph. Alternatively, we came across a website selling CDs and tapes of these records!

This set of WALLACE Reducing Records, "Get Thin to Music," is dated to 1942 but we’ve seen earlier (alas, incomplete) sets from the 1920s. We feel a kinship with the former owner, as it does not appear to have been used at all. It’s intact with all 5 records, instruction booklets and brochures.

We enjoyed this article, “Sweatin’ to the Real Oldies,” which references some other such records. Exercise routines were also broadcast over the radio, typically in the early morning hours.

Gymnastics and calisthenics, introduced decades earlier, remained popular in the 1920s-30s. In E.F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia (1931), Lucia practices the “Ideal System of Calisthenics for those no longer Young” and later gives classes in the same. Pilates, developed by Joseph Pilates in the 1920s, were used primarily by ballet dancers. Biking, especially with a vintage or retro-style bike, can be fun. Swimming is another option. Don’t have access to a pool? You could do as one 1920s beauty book recommends and "loosely imitate the motions employed by lying across some pillows and kicking vigorously with the same motion that is employed in swimming.” Or how about dancing? As Sylvia of Hollywood suggests in No More Alibis (1934), “get up and dance about the room, sway and swing to the music of a snappy foxtrot.” Golfing and tennis are also superb forms of “vintage” exercise but we find the fashion requirements of these sports demand their own posts. Ditto skiing, skating and horseback riding.

Diet & Exercise Books

Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters, a graduate of the University of California (Doctor of Medicine, class of 1909), was a household name in the 1920s. Her book Diet and Health, with Key to the Calories, made the non-fiction best seller lists for five years running (1922-26). Diet and Health was also the name of her popular syndicated newspaper column. She once wrote "My idea of heaven is place with me and mine on a cloud of whipped cream" – how could we not love this woman?

Dr. Lulu is witty and funny, but also full of practical advice. Having struggled with a weight problem since childhood, she later lost over 70 pounds. Her secret? Calorie counting - then a new concept; in the book she has to tell readers how to pronounce the word (kal'-o-ri), and lists food proportions in units of 100 calories – very much ahead of her time in this respect. Diet and Health also includes a chapter on exercise routines. The book remained in publication well after her untimely death from pneumonia in June 1930, and is still in print.

Then there is the aforementioned Sylvia of Hollywood, aka Madame Sylvia, aka Sylvia Ullback, a beauty writer for Photoplay magazine in the 1930s. We adored No More Alibis, a 1934 non-fiction best seller, and Streamline Your Figure (1939) with its Deco cover. But after we read her article in the May 1932 Photoplay with the horrifying title “Quit Those Cocktails if You Want a Figure,” we rather went off Sylvia for good.

Richard Kline of Paramount was another 1930s personal trainer to the stars. Arriving in Hollywood in 1927, it became his job to whip the studio’s lovely luminaries such as Clara Bow, Nancy Carroll and later Claudette Colbert and Carole Lombard, into shape and keep them there. His advice to housewives (“since you are not in Hollywood to receive personal attention to your individual problem”): “when you bend in your housework, do it gracefully, be conscious of the rhythmic use of your body and legs as you do it. Think rhythm when you sweep; your arms and back will be beautiful” (Beauty Review magazine, October 1939). He also marketed a series of home exercise devices in the ‘30s: Dick Kline’s “Stretch to Health” and Dick Kline’s “Bend to Health.” These can often be found new in the box.

Photo: actress doing arm exercises, date unknown.

Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein had exercise facilities at their upscale salons starting in the late teens and early 20s; Miss Arden’s 1937 Gymnasium Moderne at her Fifth Avenue salon in New York is widely held to have been the model for the gym in the movie version of The Women (1939). Madame Rubinstein advises 20 minutes of exercise daily in her book This Way to Beauty (1936); a chapter “Keep Fit” discusses and illustrates some basic routines.

During the Deco era, anyone interested in exercise or physical fitness would also have been familiar with the name Bernarr MacFadden (1868-1955). He published the long running Physical Culture magazine and the Physical Culture Cookbook, which saw numerous printings following its début in 1901 (1929 edition shown; Physical Culture cover from 1927).

One final book to mention, Better Than Beauty: A Guide to Charm by Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson (1938), discusses diet tips and illustrates several routine exercises. This book was republished a few years ago, and is again widely available for modern readers to condemn as "outdated."

As Always, the Question Remains – What
to Wear?

Early ‘20s exercise wear seems to typically resemble the gym suits/bloomer outfits of the previous decade. We have this McCall pattern, dated 1921, for "ladies pleated gym bloomers" – often worn with a middy blouse- type top as in the above illustration. We’ve also seen them as a one-piece bloomer outfit. For more on these, see Fuzzy Lizzie’s excellent, informative article, “Bloomers and the Gymsuit.”

Many women pictured in 1930s exercise books and articles that we have seen are wearing bathing suits. In Mapp and Lucia, Lucia dons a “dazzling bathing suit of black and yellow” for her calisthenics (this was faithfully depicted in the Mapp & Lucia television series; you can see a snippet of her “skipping” in this lovely montage, at about 0:18). Joan Crawford manages to look glamorous in slacks and a sweatshirt while working out with Clark Gable in Dancing Lady (1933). Simple shorts and a top, including singlet-style T-shirts like the one Clark is sporting, were worn by women as well. Footwear includes anything from pumps to canvas or leather beach shoes; rounded toe ballet-like flats (see the woman in white, above, from a 1928 Physical Culture cover); or ankle socks and simple, white Keds-like tennis shoes. Scans of tennis shoes from period 1929-31 sources may be seen in this article on the Model A Ford Club of America's website.

Some ‘workout scenes’ in 1930s movies:

The “Bend Down Sister” routine in Palmy Days (1931)

Carole Lombard in a shipboard gym in No More Orchids (1932)

Joan Crawford in the gym with Clark Gable in Dancing Lady (1933)

Rosalind Russell and Joan Fontaine in The Women (1939)

...And honorable mention: Patsy Kelly demonstrates an electric exercise belt for department store customers in There Goes My Heart (1938)

Suntans in the 1920s & 30s

For reasons unknown to us, the idea prevails that beauties of the 1930s were always pale. We constantly hear claims that to be period-authentic, one must (there's that word again!) avoid the sun. This is revisionist history. We are certainly not implying that all 20s-30s women were tan, but it is likewise incorrect to suggest that the ultra-pale look favored by many vintage women today is the only authentic one.

A vogue for tanning began in the late 20s. It was smart to be tan in the summer - also in winter, when those who could afford to went skiing or to one of the new "winter playground" resorts that could now be comfortably reached by train or plane, or on a pleasure cruise. The international set flocked to the French Riviera, where according to legend, Coco Chanel "accidentally" got a tan while yachting and supposedly created a fad for bronzed, glowing skin. The 1929 ad for Marie Earle cosmetics asserts that "smart young things" created the suntan vogue in Palm Beach in 1927. It was also in 1927 that the Southern Pacific Railroad began running special excursion trains called "Suntan Specials" between the San Francisco Bay Area and the beach resort of Santa Cruz. Pictures of bronzed Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford poolside or at the beach helped popularize the trend. It has also been our observation that the use of parasols, in advertising and photos of bathing beauties, seems to decline after 1927. By the mid-1930s, a tan was such an expected part of a vacation to sunny climates that apparently no one would believe you'd actually been there if you didn't come back with one - Fred MacMurray goes under a sun lamp to fake a tan in 1935's Hands across the Table so his girlfriend won't know he missed his boat to Bermuda; similarly, in The Awful Truth (1937) Cary Grant gets the sunlamp treatment to convince his wife he'd been in Florida.

So, worshipping the sun was really a new thing in the late 20s. Just a few years earlier, a tan was something to be avoided, as in this 1924 ad for Tan-No-More, a product that prevented sunburn, tanning, and "all of the injuries from "sun, wind and dust." Most young women of the Art Deco era had probably grown up learning from their mothers and grandmothers to protect their skin from the sun, as in this 1912 ad for Ponds. It was true in their day, but the fashion had changed. Suntans were now not only fashionable and chic but a "healthy tan" was considered physically beneficial.

Sunscreens and Skin Care

1920s & 30s women were well aware of the sun's damaging and aging effects. Many products were developed during this time to prevent sunburning and moisturize skin before and after sunning. They were typically called "sun creams" or "sunburn creams." Some sources attribute the invention of sunblock to L'Oreal founder Eugene Schueller in 1936; others claim it was chemist Franz Greitter in 1938. We know that sunblocking creams were available before either date.

Elizabeth Arden introduced her "Sun Pruf Cream" in the summer of 1933. This ad, from 1934, claims that "burning and peeling have become unnecessary evils." Dorothy Gray advertised her suntan cream in 1936 as "the original burn control sun cream, famous for many years of repeated use at smart resorts." It promised to "control your tan without homely redness or painful burning." Lentheric sold a "sunplexion" cream to prevent sunburn in 1938. We can't vouch for the effectiveness of these products - merely note that their intent and purpose was to prevent sunburn. Sun Protection Factor (SPF) ratings were still a few decades off, but wearers could adjust the level of blockage they desired by applying either a thick or thin layer of cream. To protect the complexion from sun and wind damage, Frances Denny offered an astringent cream as early as 1932. The well-established complexion soap Palmolive touted its benefits for sun and wind damaged skin as well in this 1930s ad featuring the Dionne "Quins."

There were also suntan oils and other products that were supposed to aid tanning. Elizabeth Arden's came in "delectable kidney-shaped bottles in costume colors for the beach" (need we say it - we want one of each). Another group of 1930s California women tried a "milk spray" said to protect the skin from burning and peeling while accelerating the tanning process. We'd like to ask: how'd that work out?

Make up

New products and shades of make up were developed to create a fake tan or better show off a coveted natural one. Our earlier manicure post discussed some nail polish shades created to compliment suntanned skin. There were also new lipsticks and powder. In 1929, Coty came out with Cotytan powder - the "perfect shade of summer chic," as well as a liquid powder that could be applied to faces, "slim bare legs and arms," shoulders and backs. It gave one a "glorious even tan that beats the sun at his own game - and livens you with a new exotic beauty, utterly thrilling. It's the newest vogue of the season." Marie Earle's Palm Beach salon offered "sunburned makeup" for a faux tan that left her patrons "with the look of radiant sun goddesses" and also claimed to ward off "every burning ray of sunlight." Not to be outdone, Dorothy Gray sold face powder in "Suntone" to "forecast or match your tan." as well as a smart lipstick in "Tawny" to accent one's suntan - "the perfect summer lipstick." Rival Elizabeth Arden had her Velva Beauty Cream to "make you appear tanned and chic... really a perfect, ready made tan - indispensible with shorts." It came in four shades: eggshell, dark, evening, and suntan (a "ruddy brown"). We tend to associate leg makeup only with the stocking shortages of WWII, but it began well before then.

For those who couldn't get away, there were always sun lamps. Besides providing fake tans (as well as fake alibis -Cary never does explain where he really spent all that time), sun/heat lamps were thought to have a health benefit and advertisers bragged about their "powerful Ultra-Violet rays." There is not a lot of scholarly research on the history of tanning; most information floating around seems to be largely anecdotal, and in many cases, erroneous. For further reading, try "Suntanning in 20th Century American" by Kerry Segrave.
Cotytan, Tan-No-More, Dorothy Gray, Lentheric, Marie Earle, Elizabeth Arden and Frances Denny are from the fabulous Ad*Access On-Line Project, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.