From the Archives: 1924 Redondo Beach swimsuit competition

This composite photo was published in the Aug. 11, 1924, Los Angeles Times. The print now is in two sections in the Los Angeles Times archives. I placed a gray bar between them.

Three of the prize-winners at bottom of the composite are, from left, Chase McDonald, Marcella Arnold and Antoinette Johnson. As shown below in the image below, the bottom portion of the composite is missing.

In the Aug. 11, 1924, Los Angeles Times, a story reported:

REDONDO BEACH, Aug. 10.–Bathed in the gold of a California sun and under the blue of a cloudless sky, more than 30,000 persons today witnessed the fifth annual Marine Fashion Show on the ocean front here. Youthful feminine beauty of Southern California competed for honors and cash prizes in a scene of riotous colors for which someone must have paged the solar spectrum. …

After the fashion parade, which was led by City Trustees and officials of the local Chamber of Commerce, the entries were lined up on an improvised platform in full view of the thousands in attendance. The judges were four Los Angeles newspaper men, W.W. Kane, D.R. Howay, Cruise Carriell and L.P. Cummings, and their task was not made lighter by the cheers of the crowd for this or that favorite.

The affair was interrupted by an incident that put the big throng in rare good humor when an irate woman dragged her feebly protesting husband from the front row, upbraiding him for “looking too hard at them there gals when you should be at home a-tending to the kids,” The “head” of the house was dragged away, casting backward glances of admiration over his shoulders. …

Miss Antoinette Johnson of Los Angeles won first prize in the third division: Miss Chase McDonald of Hollywood second, and Miss Martha Arnold of Hollywood, third. …

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here