Our Public Image...
— from it’s inception, Miami Beach has used advertising and promotion to offer up differing views of itself: the free-wheeling anything goes town with gambling and girls; a fun-filled family-friendly beach town; and a cutting edge international jet-set and art-oriented playground.
Miami Beach Greetings
In the early days, Miami’s image was projected to a male-dominated world. The money-maker and vacation decision-maker was predominantly male. Sun and fun came with a hint of male-oriented salaciousness thrown in.
Bathing Beauties
While Carl Fisher would use elephants to project clean family fun on the Beach, bathing beauties were used to promote a more risqué view of beach life.
Beach Beauty Contest
The proprietors of the Miami Beach bathhouses started organizing bathing beauty contests in the 1920s that “shamelessly” exposed women’s legs as a means of generating positive publicity for the fledgling winter resort. Wolfsonian FIU Library
1920s Bathing Beauties
In the early days of Miami Beach it was not common to actually swim, and the long flowing styles reflected that. By the 1920s suits showed bare legs, arms and backs better adapted to actually taking strokes.
1940s Bathing Beauties
Bathing suit styles became more casual in the early ’40s as women took over more male roles with the entry of the U.S. into WWII.
WWII Beach Promotion
As Miami Beach became a major training base during WWII, military periodicals published to keep up the morale of the officer candidates and technical trainees in Miami Beach, featured illustrations of women that the average GI might encounter at the beach. Wolfsonian FIU Library
Beach Golden Years
Promoting Miami Beach as a retirement center started early. Golden years in the golden sunshine was a big draw that would later dominate the Beach. Wolfsonian FIU Library
Chimp&Girl
The bathing beauty as a Miami icon took all eye-catching forms. This is a visual pun on the Wild Life of Miami Beach.