It’s the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago – The Century of Progress – and the world has come a long way since the 1893 Midway’s Little Egypt belly dancing caused a scandalous sensation.
Here’s a three-minute silent video tour of the Paris Pavilion in 1933, featuring fashion and art (great berets!), of course, but also:
- A sign for a “Life Class” and a nudist colony
- Gyrating, topless statues
- A man grabbing a woman’s behind and hauling her off (!)
- A scantily-clad model with a parasol strolling nonchalantly through the crowds
- The famous (American!) Sally Rand at an outdoor cafe doing her famous ostrich feather fan dance (notice how, at the start of her show, a spectator is lamenting his empty wine glass) … with her ever-popular nude finish. She was apparently arrested at the Fair four times in one day because of public nudity. Her performances at the Century of Progress became her best known.
La vie nue~!
