Seven Bathing Beauties – 1925

Treasure Chest Thursday
By Don Taylor

I’m looking at a page from the Donna Darling Collection for this week’s Treasure Chest Tuesday. The page consists of seven women in bathing suits from 1925.

BATHING BEAUTIES from the MOTION PICTURE STUDIOS FEATURING DONNA DARLING

Donna had two shows with Bathing Beauties.

• In 1920 and 1921, her “California Bathing Girls in a Beach Promenade” appears to have consisted of five girls plus Donna.
• In 1924 and 1925, her Moving Picture Bathing Girls traveled the country. This show often had the tag “Motion Picture,” “Hollywood Motion Picture,” or “California Motion Picture.” So, I am confident that these photos came from that show which ran from about September 1924 until July 1925.

Besides Donna, I know the 1925 show included[i]:

• Alyce Louyse – Hawaiian Dancer and Bather from Mars.
• Betty Bryant – of Ziegfeld’s “Miss America”
• Clarice Allyn – Petite Toe Dancer
• May Walker – Blue Singer and Beach Flirt
• Mildred O’Brian – Sennett Bather – Palm Beach Bather
• Rose Lasgo – Christie Comedies Acrobatic Dancer

I believe these photos are of:

Image 1 shows Donna. She was in the center of the page with the others surrounding her.

Image 4 is the only photo of a woman wearing ballet shoes. Clarice Allyn is advertised as a “Petite Toe Dancer” in several articles and advertisements, so I’m pretty sure it is her. While looking for photos of Clarice on the internet, I came across the Purdue Exponent, a publication of Purdue University which indicated that Donna and the show played at the Family Theatre in Lafayette, Indiana, on February 26, 27, and 28. Further searches for Clarice were fruitless.

The 1925 newspapers mention two additional women that may have been in the show. Florence Rielliso (Spectacular Dancing) and Helen Dawn (Hollywood Society Girl).

That leaves five photos still unidentified. They could be photos of any of the following women:

1. Betty Bryant of Ziegfeld’s “Miss America,” A prize winner.
2. Helen Dawn – Hollywood Society Girl.
3. Rose Lasgo – Christie Comedies Acrobatic Dancer
4. Alyce Louyse – Hawaiian Dancer and Bather from Mars; Christie Comedies.
5. Mildred O’Brian – Sennett Bather – Palm Beach Bather; In singing and dancing.
6. Florence Rielliso – Spectacular Dancing.
7. May Walker – Blue Singer and Beach Flirt.

Bathing Beauty #2	Bathing Beauty #3	Bathing Beauty #5
Bathing Beauty #6	Bathing Beauty #7

The photos from this page were used in a collage showing seven of the nine women appearing in the show in Peoria. So, the date of the pictures is definitely between September 1924 and February 1925. Articles from the show also mention that the show consisted of Donna and eight beauties, but the photo in the clipping only showed Donna and six beauties.

A quick review of Google search results found nothing about the women, certainly no photographs. So, the photo identification mystery continues.

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Actions

Follow up and search other records for the eight women with Donna in her Bathing Beauty Show.

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Sources

[i] Donna Darling Collection – Part 19 – The Bijou Theaters