Looking back in Springfield: ‘Sennett’s Bathing Beauties’

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

Beginning in 1915, Keystone Studios film director and producer Mack Sennett, known for his slapstick comedies, began to assemble young beautiful women, known as “Sennett’s Bathing Beauties” for his films for promotions.

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

The women were popular with film audiences and made public appearances and were in newspapers, on postcards, and in theater lobbies, some going on to be film stars on their own.

This photo from 1924 shows Elsie Tarron, Thelma Hill, and Evelyn Franciso, members of Sennett’s “The Little Dippers” swim club in a promotional image distributed to local Springfield theaters ahead of Sennett’s films.

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