bjgreen
Scandalous Swimsuits on Santa Barbara’s beaches! (Image: Man’s swimsuit from Clothier & Furnisher magazine, February 1918. Woman’s suit from Clothier & Furnisher magazine, March 1918)
By Betsy J. Green
As the summer temperatures were rising, the swimsuit controversy was heating up here. Take a glance at these headlines in the local paper:
“Are City’s Bathing Suits a Scandal?”
“Scant Suits Burn as Beach Topic”
“One-Piece Suit Stays. Remove it if You Dare”
“Police will not Censor Beach Costumes”
Basically, the problem boiled down to women wanting to wear swimsuits similar to the ones that men wore. But some people, including one police officer, were not ready for this development.
In the end however, the police decided to wash their hands of the controversy. As one local paper concluded, “Immodesty is just what one wishes to make of it … a pure mind has only pure thoughts.”
My next Way Back When book — 1918 — will be available in local bookstores in November, and at Amazon.com. This will be the fifth book in my series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time.
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