1920s Original One-of-a-Kind (OOAK) Brown toned B&W Photo of Flapper Era Acrobatic Men in One-Piece Knit Swimsuits Balancing on Plank Wood Board in River
Dimensions: 7x9"
Taken / shot by famous photojournalist, Robert Froelich.
Very good condition - watermark only added to scans uploaded to this listing.
Flapper Fashion
In many ways, men’s and women’s 1920s swimsuits were nearly identical. Both were deep-cut ribbed wool tank top over a snug fitting pair of shorts that were sewn in at the waistline. The “skirt” of the swim-top came from up from knee-length of a few years before to around mid-thigh level. It was “too much” to raise the top any further, revealing men’s personal parts. Instead, more suit material was removed from under the arms and around the back- supposedly making it easier to swim, but mostly to reveal more muscles.
Russell Froelich, Sr. (1890–1958) was a pioneer of both early aviation and aerial photography who took thousands of lasting images of the St. Louis region for the city’s newspaper outlets from 1911 to the 1950s, helped the war effort in WWI with aerial mapping, was a color photography innovator and even invented a monoplane.
The monoplane Froelich designed and built in 1911 pioneered the fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane (in contrast to biplanes of the era) which became the most common structure of aircraft after the 1930s. In his twenties, he began both designing and helping to build airplanes with early local flyers, such as Tom Benoist of the Benoist Aircraft Company, leading to the role as official photographer for the manufacturer.
American entry into WWI led Froelich to put his talents and skills to wartime use. He began taking aerial photographs from wing-mounted cameras that he improvised to fit given situations and flight conditions, helping the US Army Signal Corps develop terrain maps of Europe.
After the War, Froelich worked as a beat photographer for St. Louis newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and the St. Louis Star. He eventually managed the photography team which gave him access to a wide range of subject matter and the ability to experiment with action photography and the evolution of color techniques
*OOAK = One of a Kind