I should probably point out that this might not be suitable for viewing at work. It’s not terribly risque, but there are some photos of 1920s topless showgirls, so I guess it depends on what you classify for NSFW, and I don’t want to get anyone into trouble! The Folies Bergère opened in Paris in(…)
Pin up girls have been around for a lot longer than you think. Since as early as the 1890s girls have been drawn, painted and photographed and presented to the world as the ideal of beauty and sexuality. Like fashions in beauty and body shape, the pin up has changed enormously over the last century.(…)
Rubye De Remer was a particuarly pretty silent movie actress during the 1920s. She landed a spot in the Ziegfeld Follies after being spotted after winning a New York beauty contest, and was dubbed “the most beautiful blonde since Venus” by Florenz Ziegfeld. Like many Ziegfeld Girls she went on to work in the movies,(…)
Alfred Cheney Johnston is most well-known for his photographs of the girls who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and 20s. Here are some of his more risqué photos of the girls, including one of Gloria Swanson. They probably aren’t particularly suitable for viewing at work, depending on how open-minded your boss is(…)
Continuing on the theme from yesterday with Hollywood stars before they were famous, here’s a very young and rather risqué photo of Joan Crawford back in her flapper days. Totally different to her later on-screen image isn’t it! Image source and copyright: Some rights reserved
Ziegfeld girls were the cheesecake pinups of the 1920s. Beautiful and talented they were the chorus girls of the spectacular Ziegfeld Follies which ran from 1907 to 1931. Many Ziegfeld girls went on to fame and fortune in the cinema and stars including Barabara Stanwyck (below), Louise Brooks and Joan Blondell all launched their careers(…)
Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis photographed somewhere around 1918-1920. I love the fancy top she’s wearing – I wonder whether it’s a costume? It seems a bit spangly and skimpy to be a regular dress. What do you think?
Fanny Brice – c. 1915-1925 – Ziegfeld girl photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston.
Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis (1904-2010) in her youth (somewhere around 1922).
Famous singer and actress Fanny Brice from the time she was a Ziegfeld Follies girl, c. 1915
Kathleen Rose, aka “Rose Dolores”, a Ziegfeld Girl in peacock plume dress. c.1917-1923 Isn’t this the most wonderful costume? I’d love to know what kind of show it was a part of, whether she just moved slowly around the stage and posed in the costume or whether it was part of some kind of routine. I’m(…)
Marion Davies, Ziegfeld girl, Hollywood actress, self-described “silly, giggly idiot” and mistress to William Randolph Hearst, half length, seated, facing left; in Yolanda. Photograph by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1924.
A rather saucy photograph of Doris Eaton Travis showing us her tanlines in about 1920, during the Ziegfeld Follies years.
Ziegfeld Girls: The gorgeous Fairbank Twins photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1922
Ziegfeld Follies girl draped in velvet and long stings of pearls photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1920s. Isn’t she lovely?
The fabulous and controversial 1920s cabaret dancer Josephine Baker in her famous Banana Skirt from the Folies Bergère production “Un Vent de Folie” 1927
The fabulous and vivacious Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston at the Folies-Bergère, Paris in 1926.
I thought the topless swimsuit was invented by Rudi Gernreich in the 1960s, but apparently a slightly baggier version was around in the 1920s! This monokini was worn by Guna Mori, a Follies Bergere girl. Apologies for the size of the photo, I couldn’t find a higher-res photo! Which version do you prefer this one,(…)