Bathing Beauties 1928

The Wall is the Galveston Seawall which was constructed following the 1900 storm. This is obviously a short rotation camera which causes the wall to appear to be curve. I am stating the obvious here, but the girls were actually lined up in a U formation with the cameras rotating around them. It is odd to me that the photo is subdivided. Early camera of this type sometimes used individual plates but they would have been wider for each plate. I would guess that the photo was cut up into individual segments and then reassembled here.

I like the Texas girls best: my hometown: Miss Houston (5th from left) and you can't beat the pulchritude being displayed by Miss San Anontio. (10th from left). Nice 'tude Miss Alamo City!

[The wall does appear to be curved. - Dave]

Notice that some women represent cities ("Miss Biloxi" "Miss Tulsa" "Miss Chicago" etc), some represent States ("Miss Kentucky" "Miss Iowa" etc), while others represent whole countries. I guess Pageants of this nature were very informal in those days.

Fittingly, Miss California looks like the woman on the Sunmaid Raisins box.

Miss Utah is stunning.

Miss Indiana is on two parts of the photo that aren't spliced correctly which makes her look "big".

These women are beautiful!!! Obviously men liked this kind of woman because there are more men than women watching from the crowds behind the posing women. I do feel that the backdrop for the picture could have bee something more attractive than a wall.

Apparently Miss Indiana figured if the writing on her SASH was big enough, people wouldn't notice how big she is...

I think they're all amazing. If we had women like that in today's age as role models, the female population would be a hellva lot healthier!
Fantastic!!

Miss Minnesota is a man!

looks like pennsylvania may be a little cold-lol

look at that, real women have actually entered beauty contests. Go figure.

Call me pervert but these gals look great to me. More 'real' and sexy than todays beauty queens.

Perhaps its because the photo reflects a greater variety of looks and shapes than you'd get in modern beauty contests.
And yeah yeah this is just one step on the way of the evolution in notions of western aesthetic ideals... the gals and the photographer are not naive in what theyre doing but the effect charms my jaded eye.

My faves are: california, utah, little rock, ny state...i fancy them all. hurrah for beauty, variety, character, hair and life.
Charlie

WOW! You can only find 3 or 4 "nice" girls in the pictures, maybe the problem is the hair and the clothes....

Hahahaht the Miss from my country (Spain) is very funny, but Miss Mexico ... :(