5. Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties were one of the earliest examples of what later became known as “jiggle”
Mack Sennett was one of the early kings of the silent film era, perhaps most famous for his creation of the Keystone Kops, named for his own Keystone Studios. Among his contributions to the evolution of film as an entertainment medium was the car chase, though in Sennett’s hands, they were filmed for comedic effect rather than the dramatic and often violent interlude they eventually became. Another contribution was a collection of constantly changing women performers which he made famous as Sennett’s Bathing Beauties, which first appeared in 1915. Sennett had his epiphany regarding the act while reading a newspaper report of a minor automobile accident, which included a photograph of a female victim. According to Sennett, he was drawn to the photograph because “The young lady’s knees were showing”.
The Bathing Beauties included, at one time, later actresses Gloria Swanson (though she denied it for the rest of her career), and Carole Lombard. Eventually, the Beauties, whose entire role in their appearances was to appear in what was then considered scanty attire, were featured in live performances. They continued to perform well into the 1920s. Sennett’s Bathing Beauties were blatantly exploitive, though accusations of such were non-existent at the time and he likely would have simply shrugged his shoulders had they arisen during his career. Throughout their existence, the Bathing Beauties appeared simply to display increasingly daring feminine beach attire, often interrupting scripts for which they contributed nothing other than a display of calisthenics, a brief aside intended to entertain the male members of the paying audience.