New Series! History Highlight: Prohibition Footwear

The traveling historians are not always traveling. Sometimes we are stay in place historians. However, this does not mean our lives are any less interesting. History Highlight is the opportunity for Amanda and I to share our research interests or what is going on in our thesis research.

A pair of Russian boots in criminal action. 

For this first History Highlight, I want to explore the exciting world of Prohibition footwear! When we think about Prohibition, we think gun, gangs, and wild parties. We don't think boots and running shoes. But shoes played a large role in Prohibition and helped drinking citizens avoid detection. 

The first shoe that resulted from Prohibition was the quickly popular Russian boot. Was it pretty? Not exactly, but it was perfect to hide that flask that the Prohibition Bureau was after. This wide mid-calf boot became an overnight sensation with women. The Russian boot had been in circulation since the late nineteenth century and provided women with practical comfort but also covered legs from indecent exposure. Prohibition changed the reputation of this boot from a practical and popular shoe choice to a racy and suggestive footwear because of its use to conceal illegal alcohol. Interestingly, the boot was fall out of fashion by the 1930's and the end of Prohibition. Despite their practicality for active women, it would appear that the boot's true appeal was its potential to aid in breaking the law. 

A cow shoe photographed after being entered into evidence.

Could you outrun the Prohibition agents in a pair of these?

The next Prohibition era shoe that caused a scandal was the cow shoe. Unlike the Russian boot, this was not in circulation prior to Prohibition. Rather, this was a shoe created by the rumrunners themselves. A rumrunner is exactly what it sounds like. A runner (or driver) who smuggled rum (or any other sort of alcohol) across state, county, and city lines for illegal distilleries to their distribution points. A byproduct of this activity would be NASCAR (a post for another day). They ran from the law, figuratively and literally. Prohibition agents and police would often engage car chases and foot chases to stop the runrummers. Rumrunners got creative. The enforcers were looking for human footprints. Rumrunners manufactured wooden fake cow hooves to attach to the bottom of their shoes. Cow shoes were born. They allowed rumrunners to hide their trails and hopefully fool their pursuers.

Prohibition was more than gin, gangs, and guns. It permeated to all parts of American life, included fashion. For more information about Prohibition, specifically the Prohibition Bureau, I have a website I created during my graduate studies that explores the world of Prohibition. 

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

     As promised. I have once again gone to another archive that focuses primarily on the trains that ran throughout the United States.  The archive was located in Balboa Park in San Diego.  The museum is 28,000 square feet located on the bottom floor for of the San Diego History Center.  The museum is the world's largest operating model railroad museum. This unique museum contains four enormous scale and model layouts, built by separate Model Railway clubs, which depict railroads of the Southwest in O, HO, and N scales.  The term scale refers to the reduced size of a model in relation to the real life train. In addition, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum features a Toy Train Gallery with an interactive Lionel layout for children and state-of-the-art theater lighting.
    The library at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum is quite neat and is filled with books. Years ago the librarian created a classification system to keep track of each of the different lines that ran across the country.  Another amazing thing that I found while in the library was original train time tables given to visitors embarking on a train journey.

     Model railroading has a very rich history in San Diego, specifically in Balboa Park. Its origins date back to the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition when legendary model railroader Minton Cronkite was asked by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company to build a  replica of the AT&SF railroad system in the Ford Building, the present day Air and Space museum.

     This display from the Exposition paved the way for other model railroad clubs to become involved in Balboa Park.  The San Diego Model Railroad Club, founded in 1939, moved to different locations in Balboa Park until 1948 when they were offered a space in the House of Charm building.  They stayed in the in the House of Charm until 1978 when the building was condemned due to fire.  At the same time, the La Mesa Model Railroad Club was looking for a new location.  As both clubs were in need of a space the idea to collaborate and create a museum where each club could build and create their own layouts was developed. The city of San Diego offered the clubs a space in the newly rebuilt Electric Building (present day Casa de Balboa) and  the San Diego Model Railroad Museum was created.

In 1979 the San Diego Society of N Scale was invited to join the collaboration. By 1980 the collaborating clubs were in the museum space and working diligently to create their one of a kind layouts. They succeeded, and in 1982 opened their doors to Balboa Park visitors.  In 1998 the San Diego 3-Railers joined the museum’s collaborating clubs.

To this day the museum remains the only American Alliance of Museums accredited model railroad museum.

Click the images to enlarge

      

I hope that you enjoy some of these images.  The last two are my favorite.  If you look closely it is a small crash and chickens are running around.

Night with the Andrew Sisters

Doris, friend Mayela and Amanda

     One of the fun opportunities on the California State University San Marcos campus is a series called “Arts and Lectures” that brings a variety of speakers, artists, scholars, and activists to the university. The most recent event was a troupe called “The Sweethearts of Swing”, a group which performs and reenacts the songs of the famed WWII era group, the Andrew Sisters.

    The Andrew Sisters, actual sisters LaVerne, Maxine, and Patty Andrews, began their career in the late 1930’s.  As girls, the three sisters we involved in singing and dancing and started their interest young.  Their first major hit, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon” brought them national success but it would be World War II that cement their popularity and fame.    They were active in the war effort and began touring, playing to American soldiers worldwide often touring with the likes of Bing Crosby.  In addition to touring, the sisters also brought their songs to Hollywood and performed in several films.  These wartime songs and films are how the sisters are best remembered now.  The sisters became the most popular female vocal group of the first half of the 20th century.

    The Sweethearts of Swing revive the glory days of the Andrew Sisters and bring their fun and comical performances to modern audiences. Although the room the event was held in was less than ideal, the Sweethearts did not let this stop their fun set. Besides singing hit songs such as “Rum and Coca” and “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” they brought the fun quips and banter that the Andrew Sisters were famous for.

    Although the event was meant to be fun and lighthearted, the Sisters did bring a more serious note to light when they sang the Armed Forces Medley for each branch of the armed services and asked audience members to stand when they heard their branch sung. This was made all the more serious by the fact that many of the audience members lived through WWII and some had even served and one in the crowd has even seen the Andrew Sisters. It made it very apparent how much of an effect the songs of the Andrew Sisters had on the generation living through World War II. 

    To finish the night the sisters ended with what is probably their most memorable and recognizable song, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” It was a perfect way to end the night. However, that wasn’t quite the end. The sisters came back out to answer questions and take photos with audience members. Amanda and I had decided ahead of time to attend the show dressed up in our best vintage attire. It was a great opportunity to break back into my favorite 1940/50’s dress, hair, and makeup. We must have been pretty well dressed because the sisters were absolutely in love with our hair and dresses.

    Overall, the night was fun, educational, and touching all at once. Too often we forget the popular culture of previous generations and how impactful it was on their upbringings.  This was a great opportunity to understand the Andrew Sisters in their intended context and what they meant to the generation of children, teens, and adults who danced to their music while worrying about a war overseas.

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum

Amanda

Doris

This semester of graduate school I decided to intern at a local museum near my house.  The Temecula Valley Museum is having me create digital interactive exhibits to go along with their main floor exhibit.  The first one that I have been working on is dedicated to the trains that ran from San Diego all the way through Temecula to Colton.  This train was built in 1881 and the line opened in 1882.  It started in National City, San Diego and traveled up through Oceanside and into Escondido.  The train then went eastward and traveled through Fallbrook, Temecula, Lake Elsinore and continued its way to Riverside where it eventually meet in Colton to meet the Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroads.

The rail line that command this stretch of track was the California Southern Railroad.  While one of the companies in service for the shortest time, the CS connected San Diego north before the Ocean line had been completed in the early 1900’s.

So in order to create an exhibit I have to spend the time doing the research that is not always at the museum that I am working at.  So I took the time to get in contact with Bruce from the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum.  Bruce is the archivist at one of the largest train libraries this side of the Mississippi River.  The archive has what every train enthusiast could ever wish for.  All the information in original documents on any train that was used on any California line.

The Museum has amazing resources that not only include a complete archive, but also has the original Depot station, along with rebuilt engines, cars, and a wooden caboose.  Though I didn’t do it, the Museum also features a train ride down the original tracks of the Pacific Southwest.

While the museum is rather far south in the small town of Campo, it only took about two hours to get there and enjoy.  Not only does the museum have refurbished engines and cars, it also has the remains of trains used to rebuilt others.  It is a plethora of train memorabilia dating as far back as the 1850’s.

For any train enthusiast out there or anyone with little ones that love trains this is a great place to visit and experience.  Go, visit, ride and enjoy being in a true train environment.

Next week I am going to be visiting another museum on trains.  This one will be the San Diego Model Railway Museum in order to visit their archive as well.

Dr. Zahi Hawass- “Mummies have Magic”

   

On February 3^rd I attended a lecture at the San Diego Natural History Museum in beautiful Balboa Park. The world and TV famous Dr. Zahi Hawass (if you have seen any History Channel special on Egypt, you have seen him) came to San Diego as part of his book tour for his newest publication, “Discovering Tutankhmun: From Howard Carter to DNA.”

    Prior to attending the lecture I took the opportunity to revisit the current exhibit “The Discovery of King Tut.” This unorthodox exhibit allows visitors to explore the tomb of King Tutahkamun as archeologist Howard Carter would have seen it upon its discovery in 1922. However, the exhibit is made completely of recreations. This part seemed to upset a lot of people and I admit I was a bit shocked at the idea of paying to see fakes at first. Despite this initial hesitation, I visited the exhibit was pleasantly surprised.  To enjoy this exhibit you must first understand its purpose. This is NOT the King Tut treasures exhibit. This is the DISCOVERY of King Tut. Visitors are meant to learn about Howard Carter and his process of discovery. It’s a fascinating idea and it works well. Many know of the discovery but not of the effort it took to find, uncover, and then process the artifacts. The treasures were not just lying around in a neat and organized manner.

   The exhibit achieves this by walking guests through and showing recreations of what Howard Carter found and how he found them. The most impressive of this is the actual sized recreation of the four tombs that protected the sarcophagus. The display includes ropes and pulleys to give visitors an idea of the engineering it took to remove them carefully. Once you are done in the first half of the exhibit, you are ushered into the second half which provides you an opportunity to look at the artifacts up close. Here is where a minor but critical issue arose.

   I say this with all the respect in the world to the artists. The majority of the recreations in the exhibit are very well done. They were aged appropriately and there is a definite attention to detail. However this cannot be said of all the artifacts. Some looked lazily put together with gold leaf that was falling at the edges or paint jobs that look amateurish and brand new. There was clearly a team working on all these artifacts but it becomes obvious that some were not up to the task or got lazy by the end. Another issue I encountered was one I often find at museums, small children with their parents who are just not at the appropriate age to enjoy a museum. What made it worse was the audio guides given to each guest; after finding the way into some children's hands, they were being swung around and hit guests and or exhibits. It was something that, not only annoying to me and others, could have done serious damage.

   But finally, the lecture! Dr. Hawass is an entertaining academic with the power to make an audience as enthused as he is. This was not just a lecture of recent discoveries but also his way to call back tourists to Egypt. With the recent Arab Spring and Egyptian revolution, Egypt has suffered from a bad reputation as a dangerous place for tourists. Dr. Hawass fights against this mischaracterization of his country and explained that tourism is one of the best ways to save the Egyptian treasures that the world loves. He announced that plans to construct the largest museum in Egypt in underway to house the King Tut archive, a job that needs foreign tourism to be successful.

  However, the main theme of the lecture was the exciting recent discoveries made in Egypt. As seen in the news and in archeology publications, several tombs and public sites have just been discovered in the past months. There are also project in known sites that are hoping to uncover new information, such as the camera project in the Giza Pyramids. One project that should get everyone excited is Dr. Hawass’s work with Dr. Kathleen Martinez, from the Dominican Republic, that is hoping to find the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. This, Dr. Hawass says, will be the discovery of the 21^st century. And it is one I can’t wait to hear about!