The Hub Roller Rink & Axle Roller Rinks of Illinois.

The Hub Roller Rink opened in a desolate area in October 1950 at 4510 North Harlem Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. For those familiar with Chicago today, this area is now a shopping mall and small stores.

1950, there was nothing between the Roller Rink and Irving Park Road.

The "Harlem Outdoor Theater (drive-in theater)" was at the corner, and across the street was the Illinois State Police Headquarters. South of Irving Park were some small stores and restaurants that many Roller Rink regulars hung out at after the rink closed.

Hub Roller Skating Rink Concession Stand before the Axle Remodeled.

The HUB was a supersized roller skating rink for its time and housed a Giant Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, initially played by Leon Berry. The skating area was about 275 feet long and some 95 feet wide. The floor was much larger if you included the area outside of the rink railings that allowed skaters access to the rink floor.

VIDEO

Music by Freddy Arnish, Organist at the Hub.

The skating had set "styles of skating" displayed on a lighted sign when the organ music would change tempos. Most of the time, the skating style was "All Skate." Some other skating styles were Couples Only, Waltz, Fox Trot, and a few fancy dances such as Collegiate and the 14-step.

The Romp was when skaters joined hands in groups of 3, 4, or 5 people, and the end person would be "whipped" around the turns, which often would end in a group falling from the high speeds.

The rink was open every night and had matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Weekends always found huge crowds, some who never even put on a pair of skates. The lobby area was almost as big as the rink, and it had a sizeable oval snack bar about 40 feet long in the center of the lobby. Around the outside walls were coat rooms, shoe skate rentals (leave your shoes as security for the rentals), a skate store, and a skate repair window (minor adjustments to rentals or personal skates were free), as well as a small dance floor with a jukebox.
A two-story office and the coat room separated the lobby from the rink. The only access to the rink area was through a large opening at the west end of the lobby.

The Hub changed owners and was renamed "The Axle" in 1974. The company, "M&R Amusement," owned all three roller skating rinks. 

People always remember Maurice Lenell when the Hub is brought up in conversations.

Maurice Lenell Cookie Co., 4510 North Harlem, Norridge, IL.

Axle Roller Rink, 4474 North Harlem Avenue, Norridge, IL.

 

The Pro Skate Shop in the Axle Roller Rink in Niles, Illinois, in my case, gave me the first credit account I had when I was only 14 years old. I put down $60 on a great pair of professional men's roller skates, a special order. It had leather above the ankle boot, high-end wheels, hubs, trucks, and a jump bar to keep the trucks from breaking off under stress. I set the trucks so loosely that they would wobble when I lifted my foot and jiggled it. After about 6 weeks (approximately 15 skating sessions), the shoes were broken in, and I could wear thin socks without getting any blisters!

They were expensive, $175 ($630 today), but I skated there on weekends (2 or 3 times, including Sundays) for 5-6 years, so it paid off for me. Here's how it worked. Every time you went skating, you'd have to give the Pro Shop at least $5 and your shoes to store. After skating, you return the skates to the Pro Shop and provide them with the roller skates to keep until you return the next time. I never told my parents until the day I paid them off (in a little over a year) and brought them home. 

During the Intermissions, the rink held age-related speed races. I won a lot! The winners would get a free pass for their following admission. 

The Axle locations were:

• Countryside, IL: Route 66, just East of LaGrange Road. (Closed Mid-1978)
• Norridge, IL  4510 North Harlem. [Formerly: Hub Roller Skating Rink, Chicago]
• Niles, IL: Milwaukee Avenue just north of Golf Road (Closed August 8, 1984)

The Axle closed on August 8, 1984.

Visit Our Hub & Axle Roller Rinks Souvenir Shop.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The History of Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport, Chicago, Illinois (1948-2003)

Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport (ICAO: KCGX) was a single strip airport that was built on Northerly Island, the man-made peninsula that was also the site of the 1933–1934 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. 

The airport opened on December 10, 1948, and became the country's busiest single-strip airport by 1955. The latest air traffic tower was built in 1952 and the terminal was dedicated in 1961. The airfield was named for Merrill C. Meigs, publisher of the Chicago Herald and Examiner and an aviation advocate.

Northerly Island, owned by the Chicago Park District, is the only lakefront structure to be built based on Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. 

The island was to be populated by trees and grass for the public enjoyment by all. However, drafted less than six years after the Wright brothers' historic flight on December 17, 1903, the 1909 plan did not envision any airports for Chicago.

The Main Terminal Building was operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation and contained waiting areas as well as office and counter space. The runway at Meigs Field was nearly 3,900 by 150 feet. In addition, there were four public helicopter pads at the south end of the runway, near McCormick Place. The north end of the runway was near the Adler Planetarium. The airport was a familiar sight on the downtown lakefront. 

President George W. Bush Boarding Marine One Helicopter at Meigs Field. (2002)

Meigs Field was also well known as the default takeoff airfield in many early versions of the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator software program.

In a controversial move on March 31, 2003, the airport achieved international notoriety when then Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered city crews to bulldoze the runway at night and without the 30-day advance warning required by FAA regulations.

The final plane leaves Meigs Field - April 5, 2003

The Northerly Island's 91-acre peninsula juts into Lake Michigan at the heart of Chicago's Museum Campus has been repurposed as Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago envisioned. The majority of this space is dedicated to nature and features beautiful strolling paths, casual play areas and a spectacular view of the Chicago skyline.

---

 

MEIGS FIELD TIMELINE
In 1972, Mayor Richard J. Daley proposed Meigs' closure, but he backed down when threatened with the loss of federal FAA funding.

In 1980, Mayor Jane Byrne proposed Meigs' closure for the 1992 World's Fair if the City was chosen as the host city.

In 1992, the City Department of Aviation published its intent to close the airport in its annual report.

In 1994, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced plans to close the airport and build a public park in its place on Northerly Island. 

In September of 1996, the Park District & Department of Aviation closed Meigs. Within two months, the State Legislature voted to reopen the airport under state control. In January 1997, Governor Jim Edgar & Mayor Daley struck a bargain: Meigs would reopen for 5 years, with the City retaining control of the airport.

Meigs was reopened in February 1997.

In 2001, a compromise was reached between Chicago, the State of Illinois, and others to keep the airport open for the next twenty-five years. However, the federal legislation component of the deal did not pass the United States Senate.

On March 31, 2003, in the early morning hours, with a Chicago Police escort, the city bulldozed the runway at Meigs Field.

The FAA fined the city $33,000 for closing an airport with a charted instrument approach without giving the required 30-day notice. This was the maximum fine the law allowed at the time.

On September 17, 2006, the city dropped all legal appeals and agreed to pay the $33,000 fine and REPAY the $1 million dollars in FAA Airport Improvement Program funds that it used to destroy the airfield and build Northerly Island Park.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Term "Mickey," as in "I was slipped a Mickey" has Chicago Roots.

After Al Capone, Mickey Finn is probably the most famous criminal name in Chicago history. Between 1896 and 1903, he ran a saloon at 527 South State Street (today it would be at 1101 South State Street, Chicago).

Finn was a diminutive Irishman who first came to Chicago to work graft during the influx of visitors drawn to the World's Fair in 1893. An expert pickpocket and a fence for stolen goods, he plied his trade on travelers arriving at Dearborn Station and throughout the Custom House Place levee district. Soon, he found work tending bar at a tough saloon in Little Cheyenne, where he began training others in his techniques, particularly the streetwalkers who frequented the bar and helped gentlemen select drinks.

But Mickey Finn is best known for his own bar, the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden, which he opened in 1896. For seven years, it held the reputation as the toughest joint in the city -- and it certainly served the strongest drinks. The Lone Star was populated by resident "house girls," who made it their job to encourage visitors to drink as much as possible, and to offer any other services that might be requested of them for a price.

In 1898, Mickey Finn met a mysterious voodoo priest named Dr. Hall, who made his living selling love potions and trinkets to the superstitious and uneducated folk of the red light district, and also supplying them with heroin and cocaine. From Dr. Hall, Finn purchased brown bottles filled with liquid and a white, powdery chemical detritus, which no one ever precisely identified, but which made Mickey Finn famous.

Back at his bar, Finn mixed Dr. Hall's concoction with snuff-tinged water and liquor to make "Mickey Finn Specials" -- which the house girls promoted unceasingly. Pity the poor fellow who was cajoled into proving his manhood by ordering this stiff drink though. Isabel Fyffe and "Gold Tooth" Mary, two of the Lone Star's house girls, later testified before an Aldermanic committee about the effects of the drink:

When the victims drink this dopey stuff, they get talkative, walk around in a restless manner, and then fall into a deep sleep, and you can't arouse them until the effect of the drug wears off.

After falling prey to the knockout drink, the house girls and the bartender would drag the victim into one of the Lone Star's back rooms, which Mickey Finn referred to as the "operating room." There, he was stripped naked, and anything of any value was removed from his person, including his clothes if they were of sufficient quality. Later, his body would be dumped into the alleyway behind the saloon. When he awoke the next day, the victim usually had little memory of what had happened and how he ended up in a dirty levee alley.

Not all of Finn's victims suffered only robbery. Gold Tooth Mary testified:
I saw Finn take a gold watch and thirty-five dollars from Billy Miller, a trainman. Finn gave him dope and he lay in a stupor in the saloon for twelve hours. When he recovered he demanded his money, but Finn had gone...Miller was afterward found along the railroad tracks with his head cut off.

Like all saloon-keepers in the First Ward, Mickey Finn paid his protection money to the Aldermen/Vice lords Michael Kenna and John Coughlin, and he was convinced he would never be caught. But in 1903, the jig was up. Persistent reports of dopings at the Lone Star led the police to investigate the saloon more closely, and Gold Tooth Mary and some of the other house girls began to fear that one day, Finn would take their hard-earned savings. She told the city graft committee,

I was afraid I would be murdered for the two hundred dollars I had saved up, and I did not want to be a witness to any more of the horrible things I saw done there. I was afraid I would be arrested some time when some victims who had been fed on knockout drops would die. When I saw his wife put the drugged liquor to the lips of men I could not stand it, as bad as I am. Oh, it was just awful to see the way men were drugged and stripped of their clothing by Finn or his wife. Finn had an idea that most men wore belts about their waists to hide their money. He had robbed a man once who hid his money that way, and he never delegated searching the 'dead ones' to the skin.

Finn claimed that Mary was framing him, saying "I'd lose money in feeding 'dope' along with the big 'tubs' and the clams I dish out to the 'guys' that blow in here. I wouldn't get enough money out of their clothes in a year to pay for the 'dope'."

But on December 16, 1903, Mayor Carter Harrison ordered the closure of the Lone Star Saloon, and Mickey Finn wisely left town shortly thereafter. But not before he sold the formula for his famous drink to a number of other Southside saloons, who marketed it as a "Mickey Finn," or even just a "Mickey". The name eventually came into use as a generic term for any knockout drink, and to "slip a mickey" into someone's drink now means to secretly drug an unsuspecting victim.

Mickey Finn's saloon is long gone, replaced by a modern condominium building and a pet store fills the space where the Lone Star once beckoned to unsuspecting victims.

by Chicago Crime Scene Project.

Auto Wash Bowl, Chicago, Illinois.

The Auto Wash Bowl concept originated in St. Paul, Minn. It was patented in 1921 by inventor C.P. Bohland, who opened two locations in St. Paul. He devised the bowl as an easy way to clean mud off of the undercarriage of cars. Back in this early age of motoring, roads were often unpaved and muddy, and that mud would get caked on the undercarriage of the car and the wheels — but a spin in the nifty Auto Wash Bowl took care of that.

The nearly 80-foot-wide ridged concrete bowl could hold about 16 inches of water at its deepest point in the center. Customers paid 25¢ to an attendant who strapped a protective rubber cover over the radiator. Patrons would then enter the bowl via a ramp and drive their cars around and around the bowl at a speed of about 10 miles per hour. The ridges in the concrete would vibrate the car and the water, creating a sloshing action that helped wash away all the mud from the chassis and wheels. The process took about three or four minutes. The car would then exit the bowl where patrons who wanted a complete car wash could enter one of the bays where the rest of the car would be cleaned. On a busy Saturday, about 75 cars per hour would go for a spin in the Auto Wash Bowl.

The Auto Wash Bowl, northwest corner of 42nd Street and South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL. 1924

The Auto Wash Bowl, Southeast corner of Elston and Diversey, Chicago, IL. 1926

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Thompson’s Cafeteria Restaurants of Chicago, Illinois.

Although largely forgotten today, the Chicago-based John R. Thompson Company was one of the largest "lunchrooms" of the early 20th century. Food would be very cheap, but customers had to sit in a schoolroom-style chair with a small eating surface and widespread out armrests, one being short, making it difficult to get really comfortable and stay too long. It was Thompson's job to turn over tables faster and increase profits by decreasing customer dining time.

We so strongly associate fast-food chains with hamburgers that it may be surprising to learn that ThompsThompson'sar sandwiches included Cervelat (a cooked sausage), smoked boiled tongue, cold boiled ham, hot frankfurter, cold corned beef, cold salmon, and Herkimer County cheese, served on "Milwaukee Rye Bread" baked by the restaurant's chain's Bakery.

Thompson's Restaurant at Madison and Kedzie, Chicago. Circa 1933.

Thompson's Cafeteria on Randolph Street, Chicago.

Thompson was proud that his meals were suited for sedentary office workers of the early 1900s. A 1911 advertisement claimed that lunch at ThompsThompson'st "won't you logy and lazy and dull this afternoon." Thom "son, an Illinois farm boy, ran a rural general store as his first business. He sold it in 1891, moved to Chicago, and opened a restaurant on State Street. He proved to be a modernizer in the restaurant business as well as in politics. 

He operated his cafeterias on a "scientific basis," stressing cleanliness, nutrition, and quality while keeping prices low. In 1912, he moved the chain'chain'sssary into a premier new building on North Clark Street. Thompson's, with 68 self-service lunchrooms and a chain of grocery stores, became a public corporation in 1914, expanding outside Chicago and into Canada. 

By 1921, there were 109 restaurants, 49 of which were in Chicago and 11 in New York, with a commissary (a restaurant or cafeteria in a military base, prison, movie studio, or other institution) in New York City. By the mid-20s, Thompson's Restaurants, Childs Restaurants, and Waldorf Lunch System were the big three U.S. restaurant chains.

John R. Thompson Restaurant Office:

350 North Clark Street

John R. Thompson Restaurant Locations:

350 North Clark Street

15 West Adams

141 North Clark Street

354 North Clark Street

528 North Clark Street

44 South Clark Street

220 South Clark Street

520 South Clark Street

105 North Dearborn Street

337 South Dearborn Street

414 South Dearborn Street

80 East Jackson Boulevard

24 West Jackson Boulevard

60 West Madison Avenue

119 West Madison Avenue

339 West Madison Avenue

521 West Madison Avenue

811 West Madison Avenue

955 West Madison Avenue

1548 West Madison Avenue

3200 West Madison Avenue

1152 South Michigan Avenue

1418 South Michigan Avenue

2201 South Michigan Avenue

31 East Monroe Street

61 West Monroe Street

340 Plymouth Court

91 West Randolph Street

62 East Roosevelt Road

314 South State Street

412 South State Street

76 West VanBuren Street

110 West VanBuren Street

7 South Wabash Avenue

104 South Wabash Avenue

207 South Wabash Avenue

343 South Wabash Avenue

175 West Washington Street

3813 North Broadway

3875 Cottage Grove Avenue

235 South Halsted Street

1223 South Halsted Street

4167 South Halsted Street

6215 South Halsted Street

6243 South Halsted Street

3169 North Lincoln Avenue

1228 North Milwaukee Avenue

1581 North Milwaukee Avenue

206 West 31st  Street

1122 West 35th Street

1031 West Wilson Avenue

3420 W. Devon Avenue, Lincolnwood, IL (where Whistler's Restaurant was.)

In politics, Thompson served as a Republican committeeman and managed the campaign of a "good "government" national candidate in 1904. A few years later, he failed in his own bid to run for mayor, promising to bring efficiency to the government while improving schools and roads. In the 20s, he financed a personal crusade against handguns.

Despite John R. ThompsThompson'sessive politics, his business would go down in history as one that refused to serve Negroes. Or, as civil rights leader Marvin Caplan put it in 1985, "If the chain is remembered today, it is not for its food, but for its refusal to serve it." Thomson died in 1927.

Where he stood on the question of public accommodations is unclear, but the chain faced numerous lawsuits by Negroes in the 1930s. However, the best-known case occurred in 1950 when a group of integrationists led by Mary Church Terrell was refused service in a Washington D.C. Thompsson's Restaurant.

The group was looking for a case that would test the validity of the district's century public accommodations laws. After three years in the courts, the Thompson case (for which the Washington Restaurant Association raised defense funds) made its way to the Supreme Court, which affirmed the so-called "lost" "anti" discrimination laws of 1872 and 1873 as valid.

Over the years, the Thompson chain absorbed others, including Henrici and Raklios. At some point, possibly in the 1950s, the original Thompson's was dropped. 

By 1956, Thompson operated the Holloway House and Ontra Cafeterias. In 1971, as Green Giant prepared to buy Thompson's, they had about 100 restaurants, including Red Balloon family restaurants, Henrici's Restaurants, and Little Red Hen Chicken outlets. 

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Sally Rand (Helen Gould Beck) 1904-1979, "Fan Dancer" at Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair of 1933 and "Bubble Dancer" at the Fair in 1934.

"Although reformers have raised a storm of protest over nude dancers in the Streets of Paris, the Oriental Village, and Old Mexico at the Chicago World's Fair, the dances have not yet been stopped. One of the girls, Sally Rand, is shown in her "Fan Dance," in which the feathers are her only covering, and do not cover her at times." Chicago, IL - July 22, 1933.

"I haven't been out of work since the day I took my pants off." Sally Rand.

She's considered an American icon in the world of entertainment although most contemporaries have no idea who she is until her legendary risqué "fan dance" is brought up. Then they put two and two together. Burlesque star Sally Rand was born in the Ozark Mountain town of Elkton, Missouri on Easter Sunday in 1904, her father a corporal in the Spanish-American War, and her mother a Pennsylvania Dutch Quaker.

Inspired by the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova, Sally became interested in dance at a young age and left home to join a carnival as a teen. She invariably became a cigarette girl, chorine, café dancer, artist's model, and circus performer (Ringling) through a series of introductions. She subsequently joined a repertory theater company and took acting seriously for the first time.

During the 20s she appeared in a number of stage shows. Films came her way as she was able to score work (due to her agile background in the circus) from Mack Sennett and Hal Roach in a few of their daredevil slapstick shorts. 

A Wampas (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) Baby Star of 1927, she joined mentor Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and entered feature films with a new name that DeMille gave her - "Sally Rand."

She decorated a number of silents, including westerns with Hoot Gibson and others, but a pronounced lisp hurt her career comes the advent of sound. It was at this juncture that the shapely dame decided to work on incorporating her talent for dancing back into her career. With the right mixture of enticement, imagination, and intricate feathery placement, Sally Rand came upon her secret formula to success.

As an exotic burlesque performer, she not only winningly ignited male libidos but found a steady gig for the rest of her days. A long-standing job at the Paramount Club in 1932 is where the idea of her "fan dance" was created.

Initially coming to Chicago in a show called "Sweethearts on Parade," in 1932, Sally soon accepted a position at the Paramount Club, in response to an advertisement for "exotic acts and dancers."

It was at the Paramount Club that she first performed the "fan dance," using two large ostrich feather fans purchased at a second-hand shop.

Following a "Lady Godiva" inspired stunt at the gates of the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair, Sally became a featured performer in the "Streets of Paris" concession and catapulted into stardom on May 30, 1933, with her performance of the now legendary "Fan Dance."

VIDEO

1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Sally Rand's Fan Dance Video

Nearly every account of Sally Rand's career includes the declaration that she "danced nude at the 1933 World's Fair."  Well, maybe.  As often as not Sally Rand's "nudity" was actually a body stocking or, perhaps, a coat of white theatrical cream.  Whatever the reality, the illusion was sensational.  As Sally manipulated two pink seven-foot ostrich fans to conceal and reveal much, but not all, only the eagle-eyed could successfully claim to have seen anything.

As you might imagine, the act was an unqualified sensation. At 29 years old, the diminutive (5' 1") damsel with the knockout figure (35-22-35) began packing them in by the thousands.  And it wasn't long before the shouts hit the fans.  Pillars of the community were outraged, public officials were consulted, and officers of the law were dispatched. Miss Rand found herself in court, answering to charges that certain performances at the Century of Progress Exposition were "lewd, lascivious, and degrading to public morals." To his credit, the judge was a man of sober perspective:

"There is no harm and certainly no injury to public morals when the human body is exposed, some people probably would want to put pants on a horse. When I go to the fair, I go to see the exhibits and perhaps to enjoy a little beer. As far as I'm concerned, all these charges are just a lot of old stuff to me. Case dismissed for want of equity." -- Superior Judge Joseph B. David, July 19, 1933

Some 22½ million paid visitors celebrated the Century of Progress in Chicago, ensuring that the name "Sally Rand" would be remembered for generations to come.

When the Chicago fair reopened in 1934, Sally perceived the need for something new: "I had to find a new twist." She decided on a bubble dance: "I wanted a balloon sixty inches in diameter, which is my height, made of a translucent or transparent material." The only trouble was that the biggest balloons available were a mere 30" in diameter. They were heavy red target balloons used by the War Department. Since no one knew how to make the required equipment, Sally fronted the funds for necessary experimentation herself. After numerous tests, the super-dooper, see-through bubble was born.

VIDEO

1934 Chicago World's Fair.

Sally Rand's Bubble Dance

In the 1930s she also appeared in legit plays including a stint as Sadie Thompson in "Rain" in 1935 opposite Humphrey Bogart. She would appear in later years at various revues, expositions and fairs still teasing and playing "hide and peek" with the guys, her act seldom straying from its original concept. 

She was arrested a few more times than she was married (at least three husbands can be credited to her marriage account). She continued to appear on stage doing her fan dance past age 60 and once replaced an ailing burlesque star Ann Corio in the stage show "This Was Burlesque" in the 1960s. She also shared the stage with burlesque topliners Tempest Storm and Blaze Starr. 

Sally's final appearance took place in Kansas City in 1978 and she died the following year.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

SALLY RAND PHOTO ALBUM

The Origins of Nude Swimming in Illinois Public Schools and Community Pools.

Debunked Myths & Urban Legends. 

Claim - If a boy had an erection, the teacher would make him stand on the diving board with a towel hanging on it.

Truth - By the time a kid got to the diving board, his weenie would have been tiny. Secondly, the towel weighs too much and would never stay in place. Every guy knows this is 100% true.

---

Claim - There was a chemical added to the pool water, so if a kid urinates, a red (or you pick a color) stream was visible in the water, so everybody knew who was peeing.

Truth - There is NO chemical that changes color when someone urinates in a swimming pool. Some dyes could cloud, change color, or produce color in response to urine pH levels in the water, but not a stream of color from an individual while peeing in a pool. These chemicals would also be activated by other compounds, producing false positives.

---

Claim - Boys swam nude because the teacher(s) were perverts.

Truth - Read the article!

---

Swimming pools were introduced in the U.S. by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the 1880s. In the following 25 years, those pools became significant sustainable revenue sources. Boys drowning was the second leading cause of death before age 16, after disease. The Y offered organized lessons and taught the fastest stroke possible, verified by the Olympics, the crawl stroke. In that pre-TV era, being the fastest was a big part of social entertainment.

However, in 1906, Edwin Foster, a Northwestern medical school graduate working at a YMCA (a typical situation), tested the water and discovered it was contaminated. This significantly threatened the business income because cholera and typhoid were transmitted through water. These diseases were still causing widespread, fatal epidemics that closed down cities.

In 1906, the standard YMCA pool procedure was to drain and refill the pool once a week. (This actually continued into the 1920s. In one case, in Spartanburg, SC, the 45,000-gallon pool was emptied and refilled twice a week into the 1920s.) In most cases, the men and boys swam naked, just like in rivers and farm ponds.

The YMCA National Council recommended using sand filters, which were known to be effective. What's available in the literature shows that by 1910, the first pool recirculating pump was installed, and by 1913, chlorine chemicals were being added to the water. (The Federal government was just beginning to require chlorination of public water.)

In 1926, the American Public Health Association published the first guidelines for swimming pool management. These guidelines were updated every one to three years, as needed. Those guidelines recommended that males swim separately, take a soap shower, and swim nude. Unadorned, undyed tank suits were recommended for females.

The APHA pool management guidelines were not about nude swimming but sanitary pools, which meant disinfecting the water. Consequently, male nude swimming was recommended in every edition until 1962. When one studies the APHA guidelines and those issued by other states, such as the State of Illinois in 1948, (where they flatly state that sanitation is best preserved if people are separated by gender and swim nude. That came from fourteen of the best swim coaches, sports physicians, sports professors, and water sanitation specialists the State could put on a board.)

Chlorine was challenging to use effectively because pH had to be managed in addition to having enough chlorine to kill bacteria. It was not discovered in 1939 what was called the breakpoint in water chlorination. It was then possible to make chemical tests that pool managers could use. However, WW II intervened, and the equipment for automatic chlorination was unavailable until the late 1940s.

A few months after the U.S. entered WW II, the L-85 Regulation was implemented. This mandated the minimum use of cloth for clothing since it was needed for munitions. It also stopped the sale of home sewing machines. During that time, it became patriotic for men and boys to swim nude. A review of camp archives shows that nude swimming at camp became virtually universal during WW II. However, hygiene and convenience were recognized, and nude swimming at camps continued into the 1960s, beginning to fade in the mid-1950s.

In 1948 and 1956, the Boys Club Operations manual required and recommended that boys swim nude. The YMCA and Boys Club Operations manual both stated it was incumbent upon the boards of directors to abide by the state and American Public Health Association guidelines.

The public school boards responsible for schools with pools also had to abide by the state public health and APHA pool management guidelines. That's why we swam nude in school pools.

By the way, pool filters get clogged with fabric fibers even today. 

sidebar

Case-in-point: put a load of shirts in a clothes dryer after cleaning the lint filter. After drying, check how much lint is in the lint filter.

It wasn't until the late 60s or early 70s that nylon suits became widely available. However, the fibers clogging the pool filter were only part of the story. The Public Health officials wanted to avoid telling all swimmers that their swimsuits were probably contaminated by polluted water from their last swim at the beach or outdoor bathing place. As corroboration, recall that they used to have laundry tubs of chemicals you were to drag your suit through and then rinse when you swam at a co-ed city pool.

sidebar

Girls were lent swimsuits because pool filters would get clogged with fabric fibers. Secondly, girls' suits were sterilized with safe chemicals that left no residue in the fabric to affect the pool water. Boys were never lent swimsuits. It was swimming nude or bringing your own swimsuit.

The 1948 State of Illinois Public Health Association pool management guidelines State, specifically stated that to preserve female modesty, they could wear unadorned, undyed tank suits after they took a nude soap shower. That's why females wore suits.

Now, as for YMCAs and nude swimming. If one researches this Nation's newspapers, one will find that when YMCAs ran ads for learn-to-swim, it was stated in both the display ad and the reporter's commentary that boys swam nude and only needed to bring a towel. In a few cases, the boys were photographed swimming naked, and the photographs were published in the town newspaper. It was a socially-expected practice since they were men and boys and had nothing to be ashamed of.

By 1962, most Americans lived in the suburbs, and most boys (who did most of the swimming) did not swim in polluted outdoor water but swam in city pools. Automatic chlorination was controllable to adjust for contamination in pools. Medicine had conquered Polio, and the medical profession was confident curative medicines could stop outbreaks of any disease that might be transmitted by pool water. Also, in 1962, there was no public outcry to end male nude swimming and no feminist pressure.

In 1962, the American Public Health Association dropped the nude swimming recommendation because it was no longer needed to preserve public health. This insight is important because it underscores why male nude swimming was recommended and required for more than 50 years. The Y and schools continued nude swimming into the 70s and, in a few schools, into the 80s.

So many people today do not know about the era of nude swimming. After mentioning swimming naked in High School to people in "you won't believe me… but" conversations, people thought it was creepy or that the instructors were pedophiles. Records show a few were good, decent men, but the vast majority of the thousands worked with boys as swimming teachers, coaches, or lifeguards. Naked swimming was just the way it was. It was seldom sprung on the class as a surprise. Typically, the students knew from a year or two before that they would swim naked when they reached that point.

It wasn't an urban legend but a normal part of life in a different and more self-confident time. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.