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June 28, 1923. Washington, D.C. "Girl in bathing suit." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Here's a closeup of B.F. Keith advertising fans. Notice the enticement of "Cooler Air" inside. Some form of early air conditioning using ice. I'd love to see that setup.
"Get that camera outta my face."
If only someone would guide this poor waif to a fountain or the tidal pool, I'm sure she would be more comfortable. And certainly cleaner!
I knew there was a name for us. Won't tell my wife that one, because she's always kidding me about my Shorpy visits. That would be more ammunition for my dear one. However, I think this photo is really cute because the little girl seem to be protecting her baby doll from the heat.
The irony is that politically correct people have absolutely no sense of humour yet they provide endless mirth for those of us who do.
What would we Shorpians do without the unintentionally hilarious Cavalcade of Clueless Comments that pepper these pages? Wife and I could not stop laughing!
I took "hottie" to be ironic ... that's really not a figure to leer over, or to assume anyone else would do likewise. Look closely: That's the face of Sean Penn. And yeah, the implied weather adds the other dimension to the definition.
Where in the posted photo of "L'il Hottie" is there any reference to the heat wave of June 23, 1923? Clueless is when an editor leaves out relevant references that might make sense to the reader. Or maybe most Shorpy readers suffered through the heat wave of 1923 in DC and would make the connection immediately.
[The "references" are right in front of your nose. Why is the kid holding a fan and a parasol, and wearing a swimsuit? - Dave]
Not at all. The caption is directed at the doll. Sheesh!
Mr. Keith had a chain of vaudeville theaters. His company merged with the Orpheum theaters and later became RKO.
This was shot with a darn good lens for 1923 (or today, for that matter). Look at the sharpness of her face in the large version, plus the extremely shallow depth of field: her toes in front of her, and the back of the parasol behind her, are blurred. Cool!
"What a hottie" depicting a very young girl in a bathing suit is inappropriate and denotes a sexual connotation usually applicable to child predators who would think Jon Bonet Ramsey was a "hottie." I am surprised that Shorpy would use sexual language to caption the picture of a young female child.
[Clueless comment of the day! - Dave]
OK, are we going to have the usual round of evaluative comments about a girl in a swimsuit who does not fit today's standard of beauty?
She looks very uncomfortable. Nothing makes me feel better during a heat wave than a fan from a vaudeville show!
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