As I've written, the big band era is one of my favorite times in recent history, and I read pretty much everything I can find about it.
One thing I'm curious about is sex relations in those days, and from what I've read, contrary to the rightie-tighties who dream of "tradwives" and that sort of fantasy, the young folks got it on with considerable enthusiasm back in the day.
I found this sex study in a 1938 issue of Life magazine. It summarizes the results of a survey of 1,300 college students. One of their findings was that one in four college girls had had sex; one girl had had sex with more than 20 men.
Half of all college men had had sex. And among the half who hadn't, three-quarters wouldn't care if the girl they married wasn't a virgin.
So, as always, guys and dolls love to fuck each others' brains out. Don't you?
 |
| Jitterbuggers! |
Incidentally, I found this ad in the same issue of Life. I don't think Simoniz car wax would use a nude woman with boobs to the breeze to advertise its products today, but back in the 1930s, no one seemed to mind. In fact, obviously customers liked it or Simoniz wouldn't have done it.
And in the same issue was news of a jitterbug contest in which the dancers got pretty wild, humping, wiggling and gyrating crotch to crotch with grand enthusiasm. The granny panties are a bit of a disappointment, but the boys and girls didn't know any better, so I guess they didn't miss anything.
A 1937 issue of Life had a photo essay on college co-eds, freely discussing their enthusiastic sex lives. And these were not big city girls but girls from the heartland. They dated lots of different boys and "necked" with them all.
In a 1940 issue of Life I found an essay on student artists, painting and sculpting their nude classmates. The magazine claims Yale co-eds are the hottest.
And speaking of artists, Zoe Mozert was one of the most popular pin-up artists of the day; in fact, she is credited with inventing the term "pin-up" by adding the phrase "cut me out -- pin me up" to the side of her sexy girls. Interestingly, she was not abashed to use herself as the model for her nudes, either using mirrors or painting from photos. Below she is in her studio posing for herself.
 |
| Zoe Mozert posing for herself. |
 |
| A Mozert pin-up. |
 |
| An illustration from Spicy Stories magazine. |
 |
| A Mozert calendar girl. |
Then there was a lot of erotic art that was not published in general interest magazines but that was still widely available. There were, of course, the sleazy "Tijuana Bibles,"but I'm talking about art and stories that were published in news-stand magazines dedicated to sex. They would have erotic drawings as part of raunchy stories.
Of course, those Tijuana Bibles were quite explicit -- and very popular!
I guess the lesson to be learned, if there is one, is that men and women love sex and will indulge in it every chance they get, and when they can't get the chance, they think about it and enjoy reading about it and looking at images of others being sexy or having sex. Who knew?
A popular song from 1939, She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor.
And this one by the same band, from 1931, My Girl's Pussy.
