Costume Ideas From Days Of Yore, Part II
Category: Nostalgia
Costume Ideas From Days Of Yore, Part I
The posture and expression of this 1949 flapper throwback suggest she knows more secrets of the night than her cowboy companion. Sassy with those plumes in her hair!
Below could be an actual 1941 Halloween function. I spy Indians Native Americans, a swami, baby dolls…
Send in the clowns in 1960.
That’s a lot of polka dots!
Sadie Hawkins Dance
It’s a pretty common occurrence to find pictures like this of Sadie Hawkins Dances in my 1940s-1950s yearbooks. Tattered clothing, corn cob pipes, and overalls with only one arm on the shoulder were de rigueur. Guests often posed on haystacks such as those above.
The Sadie Hawkins dance is named after the Li’l Abner homely comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al Capp. In the strip, the unmarried women of Dogpatch, a hillbilly mountain village, got to chase the bachelors and “marry up” with the ones they caught. The event was introduced in the daily strip, which ran on November 15, 1937.
Consequently, Sadie Hawkins dances are traditionally held in November, with the first official one being held on November 9, 1938. Within a year, hundreds of schools followed suit. By 1952, the event was reportedly celebrated at 40,000 known venues. If nothing else, it empowered women to do the asking–and perhaps face rejection.
In the comic, the voluptuous Daisy Mae has the hots for the dense and simple-minded 6’3″ Abner, hardly “l’il” at all.
Participants at the dances often wore tattered clothing or plaid shirts.
In the next photo, you can see that not much had changed as far as attire in the 25 years since its original inception and this 1964 Sadie Hawkins Dance.
What about you? Did you ever attend a Sadie Hawkins Dance? Did people dress up like the L’il Abner characters, or was it purely a girls-ask-boys affair?
Frida Kahlo Meets Eddie Munster
Football Stadium Barely Large Enough To Contain This Level Of Fabulous
The fabulous Martha Cartwright, 1949’s Sweetheart of the University of Texas, chats with poor-man’s Gregory Peck, clearly not ready for this jelly. Woman at right seems to concur. So not ready for that jelly.
Any beauty queen worth her mettle knows you have to bring in spring with some drama. Martha liked to walk the rock wall in her kelly green frock. Supermodel, work.
Thankfully, she still had time to clown around at the SMU game with Ace, Phyllis, and John. What a ham!
We’ve Got Spirit, Yes, We Do
Y’all know I love old pep rally pics. The joy on the students’ faces, the smiles, the excitement. Not as jaded as these days.
The whole first row is clapping. No one is too cool for school. I just like to zoom in on these people and wonder what they were thinking. Were they whooping, hollering, or doing an Indian war cry? I love the shirt print, the jackets, the glasses, the cowboy hat, the hair.
Your guess is good as mine on this last one. Methinks it might be a Senior Skit, with some gender reversal all in good fun.
Ladies Of Horn Hall 1952
Are two of these grown women holding a fake poodle and a fake dachshund in their laps? Note their reactions to having “a record” explained to them by Bossypants McGee.
“Don’t nobody touch my Coke.”
Okay. I’m concerned now. I don’t think those dogs are legit. Is she petting the poodle?
Fine-Lookin’ Boat
Fine-Lookin’ Bus
Have you ever seen a finer looking bus than this? Look at this condiment-colored sexy beast, truckin’ along in majestic Heinz 57 and Grey Poupon paint job. Get down with your bad self, Trailways Bus!
Dog Beds For People
I don’t know if this happens to y’all, but many is the time I’ve passed an aisle of plush dog beds (at Target or Ross or PetSmart) and thought, Dang, that looks pretty comfortable. But then I look at the tag of $39.99 and I’m all Oh, no, Sir. Fact is, we tossed all our dog beds long ago because our dogs stay outside. They are shedders, and I keep a clean house, to the extent that when Stanley Steamer came a couple weeks ago, they said ours was the cleanest carpet they’d ever seen. And it’s eight years old!
Anyway, the point is, if I weren’t so hellbent on order and rules, I might just take one of my cushy couch cushions and fling it on the floor as a makeshift dog mat myself. But that is not how civilized people comport themselves. We do not sit on floors.
So you can imagine my surprise when I was flipping through a fantastic book, The Image Makers, and came upon this sight.
Yes, that’s Valentino himself, The Sheik, the silent film star, sitting on a perfectly good dog mat. But I guess when you’re wearing an Asian outfit, you sit on the floor like Japanese people do when they eat.
That makes my back hurt, just looking at it. Oh, my lumbar! But I tell you what. I think I see a dog bed right there under that jacket.
And while we’re on the subject of beds, let’s talk Valentino’s marital bed. In 1919, he married actress Jean Acker, who just happened to be involved in an all-gal love triangle with actresses Grace Darmond and Alla Nazimova. Acker self-servingly married Valentino to hit control-alt-delete on that threesome, but evidently wanted no part of his body and locked him out of their room on their wedding night. The marriage was never consummated. Not even in a dog bed.
Turns out he died at 31, after surgery for appendicitis and gastric ulcers. I’m not going out like that, just so you know. When the public found out, rioting ensued. People committed suicide. No lie! Over 100,000 folks lined the streets to view his body. Like this lady.
That’s crazy, right? Pretty fancy coffin/deathbed. And speaking of fancy, check out Toto…
I’m sorry, but unless that dog poops gold coins, I can’t see how he needs that. And honestly, it really defeats the purpose of having a mobile dog bed, something to toss all devil-may-care wherever you like. You already know my back hurts. If I’m ponying up big money for a dog bed, there better not be wood involved. It better be all cushion. Or better yet, just like this:
Creepy Forty-Something Gets Handsy With Grace Kelly
Even the captain can sense it, although his smirk seems to endorse it, rather than condemn it. I doubt Captain Stubing would have approved.
The 1949 ad is for Lurline cruises, part of the Matson Lines. Nope, never heard of them. But isn’t the artwork lovely? Lurline sounds like the name of a girl in a gabardine dress, brewing sweet tea on a window sill, if you ask me. You can bet the narrow-waisted girl in the chartreuse dress here was not named Lurline. Lurlines do not go on cruises with older men. Or do they?
This all sounds inviting: shuffleboard, dancing, listening to a radio because there were no televisions on board, having a gay evening under the Pacific moon. Maybe she does know what she’s doing after all.
Car-Baby Convertible
What could possibly go wrong in this topless trunk, balancing on the back seat?
This next one looks like little more than cardboard and a strap.
If baby just wants to chill, baby can recline with an extra pillow and a lap belt.
You’d think the idea of “just turn it around” would create all kinds of neck injuries upon impact. I’ve never seen a car like this, so I guess the idea never took off.
Nope. Here’s the headline from a July 2015 article: Volvo Takes Kids’ Safety To New Heights, Showcases Customised XC90 SUV Featuring Innovative Baby Seat.
What do you think? Does this look safe for baby? What if Jumpsuit Barbie flings all 105 lbs of her waxed body into him at a hard stop? Would that be a good idea? And won’t Barbie be silently resenting her position, relegated to the back seat, second priority in Ken’s life? That’s got to mess with her psyche. I don’t see it happening, Volvo.
I Don't Get It 
