News Stories 100 Years Ago

Bathing Suits

In May 1920, city commissioners led by Police Commissioner William Peek, declared bathing suits must not be too short or too tight. He told the Los Angeles Herald on May 11, 1920 that when he came to Long Beach he was greatly shocked at what he saw on the beach.

“In our modern civilization improper thoughts are engendered by girls who clothe themselves inadequately, and while I believe many young women do not consciously and deliberately set out to attract men through one-piece bathing suits and other suggestive apparel, I do believe that laws should be adopted making such fashions illegal. All this talk about the similarity between a girl in a bathing suit and an artistic picture of a half-nude woman is worse than preposterous. A picture is a picture and may be admired as such.

“A live girl in an immodest bathing suit is a distinctly different proposition. I am trying to protect the youth of Long Beach and uphold the morals of the community – and I am getting mighty tired of being accused of ’prudishness’ and of ‘fogyism.’ If young people haven’t sense, enough to protect themselves, it is up to the elders to do it for them. Long Beach will not tolerate women in one-piece bathing suits, nor in men’s bathing suits.”

In the ordinance women’s suits had to have skirts and at least the rudiments of sleeves. To obtain convictions under the ordinance, police were forced to bring the offender to court dressed as they were when arrested or submit photographs.

Beach Scene

But what was the definition of too short or too tight? When uncertainty arose police appealed to the municipal censorship board, composed of the mayor, the safety commissioner and the city attorney.

In an article in the May 8, 1920 issue of the Daily Telegram, Peek talked about how he happened to take up the regulation: “Many desirable people are kept away from the beach by what they regard as unseemly costumes. If women did not buy men’s bathing suits, there might be no necessity for regulation, but one merchant told me he sold 15 men’s suits to women for every one made for women. Savages may go about in a nude state and yet may be moral, but we are not accustomed to such conditions. It is for the youth of the community that I am acting.”

Trying to show his ordinance was not too far out of line, Peek mentioned similar standards of beach costume and conduct on the Atlantic coast. In preparing the new law he had visited Catalina Island and found that women bathers at Avalon had to wear stockings. Peak said the ordinance he was drafting would not be as extreme.

Its final form read: “No person shall appear in or upon any highway or other public place, upon the sand or beach along or near the shore of the Pacific Ocean, or in the Pacific Ocean, in the city of Long Beach, clothed in a bathing suit which does not completely conceal from view all the trunk of the body of such person and each leg from the hip joint to a peripheric line one-third of the way to the knee joint, except that the chest and back may be exposed to view, and without such bathing suit having attached thereto a skirt made of the same kind of material as the bathing suit, completely surrounding the person and hanging loosely from the peripheric line at the waist to the bottom of such bathing suit.” (Daily Telegram 9/25/1920)

Local merchants were upset because the ordinance was introduced late in the season. They had already purchased their stock of swimsuits for the summer. When they complained, the ordinance was withdrawn and reintroduced in late September and adopted by a vote of three to one. What was the penalty for violation? Six months imprisonment, a fine of $500 ($6,270 today), or both. The new law applied to all persons over six years of age and to men as well as women.

No Smoking for City Employees

In October 1920, there was much debate regarding the anti-smoking regulation in the city’s civil service rules. At first reading, the city attorney ruled that city employees could not smoke at work or at home. His reasoning was that the smoking prohibition was linked with the rule which prohibited gambling, immoral conduct, drinking intoxicating liquors and use of opium. Since these prohibitions applied to conduct at work as well as at home, so should smoking. On Oct. 26, the regulation was refined to allow smoking at home, but not on the job.

Claudine Burnett is a retired Long Beach Public Library librarian who compiled the library’s Long Beach History Index. In her research, she found many forgotten, interesting stories about Long Beach and Southern California which she has published in 11 books as well as in monthly blogs. You can access information about her books and read her blogs at www.claudineburnettbooks.com.