Sun Beachgirl Quest, Chelsea Lifesaving Club
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Robin Whittle Updated 28 November 2010, from the original two images of 1 October 2000 rw@firstpr.com.au
In 1999 I purchased some slides from a second-hand dealer at Camberwell Market - a Sunday flea-market which I attended religiously until around 2005. They were very early 35 slides, from the late 1940s or early 1950s - judging by the motor cars and dress-styles. The film was hand-mounted in two pieces of glass stuck together with tape, so I guess this was before plastic or cardboard mounts were common.
Many of the slides were of individuals and homes, but several were of a beach event - evidently the Sun Beachgirl Quest. I have scanned two of these images (after removing the film from the glass slide and cleaning most of the mould from the film) and have provided them here for your interest.
The first one is a marvelous photo showing resplendent young women in the days before Lycra, bikinis and many of the complications we now take for granted. An announcer is at the microphone and perhaps the chap to his left is the DJ changing the needle on the 78 RPM turntable. A Digger is in a slouch hat and uniform and an elderly gentleman is wearing a hat.
The second image is presumably at the same event. While it doesn't show the Quest itself, it illustrates women in vibrant summer dresses - and some pretty bold sunglasses!
The dealer told me that he purchased these slides and many other photographs from an elderly woman whose husband had died some years ago. Clearly he was a keen photographer.
I hope you enjoy these gay glimpses of life about fifty years ago - probably about five years before I was born. If you can shed any light on the exact year they may have been taken, I would really appreciate it.
The above is the approximate text of a letter I sent to accompany prints of the images to the Chelsea Longbeach Surf Lifesaving Club and the Herald-Sun. (In those days, the Sun was a morning tabloid and the Herald was the afternoon broadsheet.) I didn't hear anything back from them.
Here are the photos at 770 pixels wide. Below each image are two links to larger files: 1000 pixels across and super-large 2709 or 2660 pixels across. These large images are much bigger than anyone's computer screen. They will take a while to load, but then you can scroll around and look into a moment from the past in great detail.
- girls-in-swimsuits-1000x733.jpg 126 k bytes.
- girls-in-swimsuits-2709x1987.jpg 423 k bytes.
- women-in-dresses-1000x689.jpg 100 k bytes.
- women-in-dresses-2660x1873.jpg 363 k bytes.
Update November 2010
I found a few more slides from this series. They are stereo 35mm square slides, in cardboard mounts.
I have also been in touch with a fellow who has more slides from this era, including of the Beachgirl Quest. Please let me know if you want me to pass a message to him.
These images were scanned with a CanoScan 9000F. It is tricky to get the film flat, so they are not as well focussed as they should be.
