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June 25, 1921. Washington, D.C. "Bathing Costume Contest." Note Felix/Krazy Kat doll. National Photo Company Collection. View full size.
The comic strip pioneer that shares Iola's name influenced the Krazy Kat creator.
From an article on Jimmy Swinnerton :
As the comic strip industry grew up around Swinnerton, he found kindred spirits. The young Walt Disney used to come to his birthday parties. Swinnerton took George Herriman (creator of Krazy Kat), Rudolph Dirks (creator of the Katzenjammer Kids), and the painter Maynard Dixon on a safari through the Arizona desert to see the Hopi Tribe of Indians do their annual snake dance...The group traveled by horseback through the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley (which later played a significant role in Krazy Kat.) It was on this trip that Swinnerton gave Dixon a half interest in the Arizona desert.
This is my favorite Iola photo! I like her bathing suit in this one much better, too. The suit that looks like Venetian blinds might have been stylish then, but it looks ghastly to me! Fortunately, you can't make a sow's ear out of a silk purse (my father's twist on the old adage).
This isn't the only one where some of the contestants look to be in their thirties. The woman on the left is holding some kind of thing that looks like an embroidery hoop with fabric from her bathing costume attached to it. Some kind of bag, maybe?
One of George Herriman's admirers is clutching an identical doll in this photo from the Coconino County website.
The girl on the right looks to me like one of the winners in the photo "Iola and Anna: 1922". What do you think?
https://www.shorpy.com/node/2470?size=_original
SV
Can Ignatz the Mouse be far behind?
Looks a little like Krazy Kat to me. Class?
Is that Felix the Cat that the girl on the right is holding?
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