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| This confectionery, with its multi-color décor, light bulbs, and polka dot flooring, must have made for an exciting experience for those who went there. Postcard printed before 1907 in Germany .
Some American purists in the early 1900s denounced confectionery
stores that served ice cream and sweet drinks because they were damaging the
morals of young boys and girls. They also blamed Greek immigrants – who owned and
operated many of the shops at the time – for engaging in unlawful activities to
make money.
“The men who own the ‘joints’ are as a rule rascals, and
stop at nothing short of murder to gain wealth,” according to Samuel Paynter
Wilson, the author of the 1910 book Chicago By Gaslight. Wilson wrote
that some of the shops had private quarters for boys and girls to engage in
romantic activities.
He also believed that the ice cream and drinks were spiked
with liquor. In one example detailed in the book, Wilson and a friend ordered a
popular drink at one of these shops, and both concluded that it was probably 80% alcohol. Wilson said
he promptly called the police, and the place was closed within 24 hours.
The postcard shown here is popular among collectors. The postcard
was printed in Germany and has an undivided back, which indicates that it was most
likely produced before 1907.
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Sally Rand danced at the Streets of Paris exhibit. Postcard printed by Curt Teich & Co, Chicago. Sally Rand was never supposed to perform her iconic “fan dance” at the 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago. The dancer’s requests to perform inside the Streets of Paris exhibit had been turned down several times. But Rand decided to take matters into her own hands by riding into a pre-opening party on the fairgrounds, uninvited, on a white horse wearing nothing but a velvet cape. The crowd loved it. Rand was arrested but released the next day, when she promptly accepted an offer to perform as the headliner in the Café de la Paix’s floor show for $90 per week. While her dancing broke boundaries and city decency ordinances at the time, her legacy was born and Rand made her cultural mark on the world. According to The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair by Cheryl Ganz, 29-year-old Sally Rand had previously worked as an acrobatic circus performer and film stuntwoman. She had also alread...
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