Tacoma bathing beauties posed for the camera during the Tacoma Yacht Club Bathing Girl Revue on July 4th, 1924. A new kind of girl was coming to the light in the twenties. A girl, who exercised, ate right and wasn't afraid to show off her bare arms and legs and bob her hair. Bathing suit designer Annette Kellerman's one piece suits were appearing at swimming holes across the country. Tacoma was riding the crest of this fashion; the fledgling Miss America contest (then called the Inter-City Beauties Contest) had in 1922 abolished restrictions on scandalous swimwear. They allowed contestants to wear the one piece swimsuits with stockings rolled down, or no stockings at all. America took a deep breath and then applauded or protested. In Tacoma, this contest seems to have taken place with little or no complaints. Grace Copeland was judged Tacoma's most beautiful bathing girl, out of 32 contestants.
