Walking on the boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1924

Let's take a walk on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1924. I found this image on the Duke University Digital Libraries website, and although I know nothing about Atlantic City, I thought that it would be fun to do some time-traveling. Come on!

The Duke University's collection is all about advertising, and the boardwalk had a LOT of ads. Nowadays they would probably be annoying, but looking back at them gives me a kick, and helps me to see what ordinary life was like back in the day.


Of course my eye immediately went to the bathing beauty on the billboard for the beauty pageant. I can't help but wonder if she was so scantily clad that little boys would stare up at it, and prim and proper people would disapprove, wondering what the world was coming to? I find it interesting that the word "bathing" once meant going swimming, so there would be a bathers revue, which nowadays would sound kinda strange. Looks like they paraded the girls in those rolling chairs.

Speaking of which, let's zoom in on one of those chairs. Looks like they had three wheels, and were human-powered. And I suppose if we didn't have a straw hat like most of the men are wearing, we'd be out of fashion! Isn't that called a pork pie hat? Reminds me of Buster Keaton movies.


And look, there's another scantily-clad female in that billboard for Frostilla, which looks like it was for sunburns.


And how about some salt water taffy from Fralinger's? I never cared much for taffy, I wonder what else you could have gotten there in 1924? Maybe some spearmint?


If I'm not mistaken, this shop says "Hollywood by the Sea Florida". Seems to be a complicated name, but it definitely makes you think that you're by the ocean. Of course, you could just turn around and look at the Atlantic, too. And hey, there's another one of those those rolling chairs! Do you suppose the lady in the white dress is helping her friend adjust her hat? You must look your best when you're out on the boardwalk!

Thank you for walking with me on the boardwalk!
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more