Women on Display: Gender and the Great Lakes Exposition

Description

This exhibit examines the ways that women were involved with and depicted at the Great Lakes Exposition.  The expo was held for two summers, during 1936 and 1937, along the shore of Lake Erie, just north of downtown Cleveland.  Like all regional and world's fairs, the Great Lakes Exposition was held to promote industry, business and consumerism.  Female imagery ranged from the blatantly sexual casino and peep shows to the fresh faced, wholesome, young women who acted as official hostesses, and the society matrons who were icons of respectable, middle-class, values.

Credits

Judy MacKeigan

Sections

Fun on a Dump

The organizers of the Great Lakes Exposition chose to hold the event along the often neglected lakefront, on the site of a former city dump.  Civic leaders pointed with pride to the transformation of this area, while the national media often poked fun at the idea.

Greetings from the Girl Next Door

The official hostesses of the Great Lakes Exposition were young, local women, chosen for their wholesome, good looks to represent the expo in a variety of ways.   They were dressed in nautical style uniforms to emphasize the Great Lakes theme of the expo, and dubbed "Yeomanettes."

The Nudity Controversy: Vulgar or Artistic?

The organizers of the Great Lakes Exposition originally banned nudity and "cheap, vulgar" entertainment at the expo.  But the 1936 season included several entertainement venues that featured nude, or semi nude women.  Those venues were not present in 1937, but one local nightclub owner challenged the no nudity ruling by hiring fan dancer, Faith Bacon to appear on his showboat.

"I Pledge You Clean Entertainment"

Impressario Billy Rose came to Cleveland for the 1937 season of the Great Lakes Exposition and created the spectacular, Aquacade.  Rose claimed that vulgar entertainment was a curse and promised to provide the expo with clean, family entertainment. The Aquacade water show featured Olympic swimmers, Johnny Weismuller and Eleanor Holm, dozens of synchronized swimmers, dancers, and showgirls, and a patriotic grande finale.

Gender Matters

Gender roles in the 1930's were fairly well defined.  World War I and the "Roaring Twenties" had allowed women freedoms they had not had in the Victorian age, but stereotypes and tradtional roles for both men and women still held sway.