As you will recall from our last thrilling episode, we were looking through a portfolio of beach postcards produced in 1948 by Curteich. These accordion-pleated collections were essentially cartoon collections, the postcards printed on both sides of the page (as opposed to other similar portfolios where you could tear out and mail individual cards.) It satisfied the desires of postcard buyers who liked some jokes well enough to want to keep them AND cheered up the publisher, who could use up a number of older designs which had had their day but were still available to fill up a booklet.) “Fun On the Run” was a collection which emphasized romantic and other mishaps which occurred when scantily-clad people gathered in a warm place far from their homes. WHICH could include (for the vacationer and the postcard company) near or complete nudity.
This was in an era when nudity was carefully monitored by the Powers of Morality in government, so you can observe how our postcard artists (Ray Walters again in both the first two examples) have to play it safe. The skinny-dipping postcard gets the point across without displaying anything actionable, while the second lets you know how much skin she is showing by emphasizing the danger presented by solar rays.
When a man ventured on sunburn comedy, he had to stay rather more covered. (The voluminous shorts are really just there to make him look inelegant and sloppy, like most Walters heroes. By the way, look closely and you WILL observe that his sign will burn “ME N’ U” into his back. I have been scolded for making a joke of my own and suggesting it says MENU. In case you thought the Powers of Morality have gone to sleep since 1948.)
A matter which has concerned our official and unofficial porn-sniffers has always been nipples. Note that our victim here does not have any, and that the swimsuits worn by the lifeguards, which strike me as impractical for the job, are just barely big enough to cover the really objectionable feature of the human chest.
One way around this, pursued here by another Teich artist, is the silhouette. Is the lady strolling in the nude by moonlight, or is she simply wearing a very tight bathing suit? Guess which answer was ready for anybody who complained.
How form-fitting a swimsuit can be, or could be in the late Forties, is limited by the demands of fabric, so this twilight bather is not fooling anybody. But as long as it’s POSSIBLE that she is wearing a suit…and, in any case, nothing really naughty is SHOWING, which is the point (or points.)
The artist did give this lady a skirt…which is transparent…but not where it can bother the viewer.
This panel, though, did worry me. Perhaps, I thought, the Curteich folks were allowed to show genuine nipples since this was, after all, merely a panel in a folding accordion, and NOT on open display in a postcard rack at the beachfront gift shop. But quick research showed that this very image WAS available on an individual card as well as in Fun On the Run. The only thing I can think of is that they could always say they are NOT showing exposed nipples. This lady’s bosom is demurely hidden behind a beach ball…which is transparent but which IS still covering her chest.
This argument has its legal limits. Men had to make use of cloudier beachballs. We can imagine the scene at that gift shop in 1948. “I’d like to buy a beach ball, please.” “Of course. Men’s or women’s?”
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