Southland Gazette, the Swimsuit Issue
Obviously jealous of Sports Illustrated, Only in L.A. presents its first annual Swimsuit Issue, packed with stunning black-and-white photos of models taken at clever angles in such romantic locales as downtown L.A. and a plastic toy factory. (Note: If a friend or fellow office worker doesn’t have a copy, please share yours before you clip it out and save it.)
THOSE PECS! THOSE ABS! We can almost hear the squeals from his adoring female fans as they gaze upon the Adonis that was Ken when he made his debut in a bathing suit in 1961 (see photo). Well, OK, maybe Barbie’s friend could have done a bit more power lifting back then.
A GOOD IDEA IN KEN’S CASE: Author Claudine Burnett (“Strange Sea Tales”) points out that in 1920, Long Beach passed an ordinance requiring that every bathing suit be attached “to a skirt . . . completely surrounding the person and hanging loosely . . . to the bottom of such bathing suit.”
The skirt requirement applied to both men and women.
MOST FAMOUS DOWNTOWN SUNBATHER: Eileen “The Singing Candidate” Anderson danced in a bikini at Temple and Main streets every weekday afternoon for more than a decade in the 1970s and ‘80s (see photo).
The onetime Miss Liverpool was protesting alleged mistreatment by Secret Service agents after she attempted to dance an Irish jig in front of a visiting candidate in 1972.
Anderson, who died in 1993, also ran for political office an estimated 17 times. She eventually gave up the sidewalk dancing after often-traveling Mayor Tom Bradley declined to give her his parking space and the city rejected her proposal to be designated a cultural landmark.
A CANDIDATE WITH NOTHING TO HIDE: In 1974, Elizabeth Keathley, the Peace and Freedom Party’s candidate for governor, campaigned in the buff at Venice’s short-lived Nude Beach.
AND, IN THE MEN’S DIVISION. . . . In 1992, Todd Marinovich, then a quarterback with the Raiders, revealed he enjoyed surfing at San Onofre Beach at night while unclothed. This sparked many jokes about the football play known as the naked reverse.
NO OFFENSE, KEN: Reaching back into the Only in L.A. archives, I found an interesting sign that Tom Kramer of Glendale had snapped (see photo). It doesn’t refer to a sensitive part of the anatomy here but to a low sea wall.
NOW THAT WOULD STOP TRAFFIC: In the 1930s, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce took gag shots of attractive women in eye-catching circumstances to send to newspapers around the nation to attract tourists. This faux gendarme, in front of a Red Line car, was not wearing the standard police uniform (see photo).
SHE HAD TO GET IT OFF HER CHEST: When topless swimsuits became the rage in the early 1960s, comedienne Phyllis Diller quipped, “When I wore one, everyone thought I was Albert Schweitzer.”
WORST FASHION STATEMENT: A few years ago, Burbank police were searching for a suspect who had escaped from Municipal Court. At a local motel, they were intrigued by a guy taking a dip in the motel pool in the early morning chill. They were further intrigued when the swimmer volunteered that the suspect had gone “thataway.” They noted that the swimmer was wearing only boxer shorts. After spotting his clothes rolled up nearby, they rearrested the Bad Samaritan.
miscelLAny:
In the mid-1980s, an Irvine firm introduced Nude Beer, with labels bearing photos of women whose bikini tops could be scratched off. The brew failed to sell (I think it was outlawed in Long Beach) but did find a place in the book, “Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops.” Cheers!