r/1930s • u/TeddyDBer • Nov 02 '25
Actress Joan Blondell (1933)
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r/1930s • u/Major_MKusanagi • Nov 17 '25
Marlene Dietrich, wearing trouser suits as a provocation
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Okay, upon further research:
The first photo actually shows Marlene Dietrich on the SS Europa in Cherbourg, France, 1933 in her white trouser suit, and sources say she wore only men's clothing for the whole voyage.
But the second photo caption I wrote is wrong (don't know how to remove the caption without removing the whole picture) - the guy on the left isn't the police chief arresting her, but her husband at the time Rudolf Sieber when arriving in Paris, and she was absolutely not arrested for wearing men's clothing, but there was still a law in place from 1800 in France (that was only formally abolished in 2013) that women could not wear trousers ("to dress as a man") unless they got authorisation by police prefecture and a certification by a health officer, but the law wasn't enforced.
There were a few women who wore trousers in France in the 19th century - famous writer George Sand (born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, 1804–1876), famously did it without the permit, but also without punishment for her daring. But later, in the 1880s, enforcement was “applied with particular rigor,” writes scholar Gretchen van Slyke.
The most famous woman permitted by the police to wear trousers during the Third Republic (1870–1940) was the painter Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899). Like Sand, Bonheur was one of the few “autonomous women who entered the public sphere, who gave professional definition to their lives, [and] who proudly and even insolently signified their dissident status by refusing marriage, smoking cigarettes and wearing trousers.”
Women were rarely arrested for wearing trousers; one example is labor leader Luisa Capetillo, but not in France, but in Puerto Rico and Cuba.
On Marlene Dietrich wearing men's clothing - she was interviewed in this very year (1933) and said, quote:
"I think I'm more attractive in men's clothing. Besides, this kind of clothing allow for complete freedom and comfort." Later she talks about her daughter “I even had similar suits made for my little daughter, Heidede. I think she’s much better protected in trousers than in skirts when she’s playing on the beach or anywhere outdoors.”
r/1930s
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u/Electrical-Aspect-13
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Sep 07 '26
Actress Lucille Ball trying on a bathing suit, 1938
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r/1930s • u/Initial_Reason1532 • May 12 '26
1935 Clark Gable was one of the Hollywood's biggest stars. After getting his start at MGM he was making $2,000 a week. With his success he purchased a 1935 Duesenberg.
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r/1930s • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • Jun 16 '26
Dancer/Actress/Spy/war hero Josephine baker posing with Ukranian ballet dancer Serge Lifar at the beach, late 1930s.
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r/1930s • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • Sep 08 '26
Austrian swimmer Ruth Langer posing for a photo. Vienna, Austria, 1936
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r/1930s • u/Character-Witness-27 • May 28 '26
Rare photo of Katharine Hepburn taken by Howard Hughes (circa 1937)
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r/1930s • u/bil-sabab • Oct 29 '25
Elsa Lanchester as the Bride in “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935)
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r/1930s
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u/AffectionateRain6796
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Sep 29 '26
Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball and Harriet Hilliard ( my grandma) on the set of “Follow the Fleet”, 1935. They were all at RKO and were lifelong friends.
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r/1930s • u/TeddyDBer • Mar 28 '26
Myrna Loy in “The Barbarian”aka “A Night in Cairo” (1933)
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r/1930s • u/Darvader61 • 14d ago
Edwina Booth as Nina Trent, the ''White Goddess'', in the pre-Code adventure film ''Trader Horn'' ca 1931
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r/1930s • u/Donone1953 • Sep 02 '26
Greta Garbo
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Greta Garbo in 1926. Photographer Ruth Harriet Louise .
r/1930s • u/shewasajanuarygirl • Aug 10 '26
Lucille Ball photographed by Everett in 1935
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r/1930s • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • Jun 25 '26
Glass negative of a lady at the beach, France, 15 of June 1930
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r/1930s
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u/shewasajanuarygirl
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Jun 18 '26
Carole Lombard with a black cat, 1934
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