How people dressed in the 1940s, Phoenix, Arizona


I collect old photos of Phoenix, and while my interest is mostly in the architecture, I have to admit I'm tickled when I'm able to see the people, and see them really well. In the photo above is a group of people at the Westward Ho Hotel (Central Avenue and Fillmore) in the 1940s. Let's take a look at them.

First of all, I'll tell you right away that this photo wasn't taken in the summer. And the reason I know that is that this group, like everyone with any sense before the common use of modern air conditioning, wouldn't have come anywhere near Phoenix in the summer. I would say that it's somewhere between October and April. Anyway, let's look at their clothing.
Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon

Click here to become a Patron!
History Adventuring blog posts are shared there daily, also there's "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, and super high-resolution photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona
I'll start with the man on the far right, who is wearing a double-breasted suit. I've worn suits in my day, but never one like that, although men still wear them. They're practically a heavy coat, and instead of buttoning low in front, it buttons up high and way over. Not much of the tie shows, and showing a lot of tie didn't start to happen for decades. And, in case you're wondering, yes his suit is cut perfectly, with just the right amount of cuff showing, and a perfect break on the trousers.

Let's talk about hats. Yes, all of these men would have worn hats, but never indoors. A building like this would have hat racks around, and there would have been places to "check" your hat, which meant that someone would look after it (they were expensive!) along with your coat. The women, of course, didn't have to take off their hats in public, but their hats are much smaller than the hats that the previous generation of women wore, which were gigantic. Their hats, by the way, were held in place with hat pins, which were very long sharp pins that went through the hat, and their hair. That had to be dangerous!

Just like today, the women are holding bags. The men's suits, of course, have lots of pockets, but women's clothing really hasn't ever had a lot of pockets. Speaking of pockets, I'd be willing to bet that at least one of those guys has a flask in his suit pocket. I think maybe that guy in the back, who looks suspicious! Nah, there was nothing unusual about carrying a flask back then. Flasks, which are still made that way, have a gentle curve in them to fit in the inside pocket of a suit coat. The next time you're at Bevmo, take a look at them.

Since I'm interested in dating the photos that I find as precisely as possible, I'm glad to see women. Men's dress styles don't change all that much, but women's clothing changes a lot, especially shoes. Of course I know nothing about women's shoes, but I know that the shoes that they're wearing were probably in style and they wouldn't be "caught dead" wearing them just a couple of years later.

They seem a pleasant bunch of people, wouldn't you say?


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

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

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