The Bee’s Knees

Here is an Al Jolson recording of “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” to listen to as you peruse the tale of Louise Rosine’s bare knees and her subsequent arrest.

The incident was loosely incorporated into Boardwalk Empire’s 20th episode, “Two Boats and a Lifeguard.” In Boardwalk Empire, Louise was a novelist from California (but from San Francisco) and Jimmy Darmody’s wife saved her from going to jail.

The real Louise Rosine incident also pops up in a book about Miss America pageants, wherein it is noted that at the same time Louise was sitting in the hoosegow, one pageant contestant, Margaret Gorman, was being much admired for a photo in a daring one piece bathing suit with her stockings rolled down. 16-year-old Margaret became the first Miss America. “There She Is, Miss America” (2004) by Elwood Watson and Darcy Martin, covers “the politics of sex, beauty, and race in America’s most famous pageant,” and talks about the summer of 1921 and even the beach lizards:

“Atlantic City’s bathing suit ordinances caused quite a stir throughout the summer of 1921. Many young women argued for one-piece suits without stockings because they were much less cumbersome for swimming. Yet older women, led by the League of Women Voters, waged a letter-writing campaign extolling the city for its strict enforcement of bathing attire rules. In fact, Atlantic City hired additional beach patrols, separate from lifeguards, to police the beaches for scantily clad women and the ‘bald beach lizards’ who ogled them.”