BATHING BEAUTIES

Despite the fact that nude bathing was illegal, nudism drew a huge audience. Early Hollywood film, The Water Nymph, (1912), by Mack Sennett  featured attractive women scantily dressed who became known as the Bathing Beauties.  It was apparent that sex sells, for the images of these women found their way into many other movies and advertisments. It was this suit that provided the prototype for the standard suit of the 1920s and early 1930s.