The Lure of the Beach by Robert C. Ritchie

Author:Robert C. Ritchie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520215955
Publisher: University of California Press

7

The Modern World Intrudes

The twentieth century started with a general sense of peace and prosperity. As always there were political, social, and diplomatic issues demanding attention and filling the newspapers. In the cultural world, the rise of modernism caused conservatives fits and brought joy to the young and adventurous. Away from all the hustle and bustle, the easy lifestyle at the beach continued to prosper. Dazzling Coney Island was in its heyday and gleamed in the night as it entertained millions. Elsewhere, the height of the surf or the evening dance attracted attention among those fortunate enough to loll at the beach. This world would soon be shattered by war and then depression, and each affected the beach resorts. Yet they continued to grow in numbers and geographic extent as resorts started to dot the coast nearly everywhere.1 But no matter where they were, all resorts would be challenged by an unprecedented number of social, technological, and fashion changes. Among them was the arrival of sunbathing, which was perceived as a boon to good health. This would force the evolution of the swimsuit, and if the sun was so good, why not just go nude? The latter was not something most resorts wanted to encourage. The same was true when hand-held cameras started to appear—not all resorts encouraged their use, as the casual photo could be too revealing. The automobile made the seashore even more available to many, and as the numbers grew and people went to the beach less for therapy than for recreation, safety loomed as an ever-more-important issue. One aspect of the war would also change who was at the beach. Aristocracies all over Europe were either displaced—as in Russia—or financially weakened nearly everywhere, and so their dominance at many resorts ended. In their place, celebrities—movie stars, novelists, and sports figures, who were now followed closely by the popular press—crowded the resorts. So the postwar era ushered in many challenges.

A “Norwegian Riviera” emerged on the southern coast in Sorlandet. Artists and writers had flocked to the area in the summer; then, with paid holidays and the railway reaching the coast, boarding houses and cottages brought in a more diverse group of bathers. So by the 1930s the region was established as a summer retreat during the all-too-brief summers.2 Far to the south in Sicily, with its much longer summers, the high bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Palermo decided it needed a beach resort and created one along the coast at Mondello. Beginning in 1912, art nouveau villas (a style still in fashion), clubs, a bathhouse, and hotels created a summer place that is still quite exclusive.3 In Portugal it was royal patronage that created the first resorts. King Luis I, concerned about his wife’s health, started in the 1870s taking the family to Cascais Beach, just west of Lisbon. Cascais and its neighbor Estoril quickly attracted Portuguese nobility. The latter, which promptly built a reputation as the luxury resort, hosted numerous European royals during World War II when they escaped to neutral Portugal.

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