Bathing Suit Wrestling, Historical, Sexy Modern
femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fciwomenswrestling.com Yan-Krukov-pexels.com-photo-credit.
September 21, 2021,
Sensuous shapely actresses wearing bathing suits on the big screen have been a fascination for many water, sun and curve lovers like us, decades over.
Do you remember some of the great gorgeous ladies in a bathing suits scenes over the years?
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones.
The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Fresh faced and sexy Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed portray the women in their lives, and the supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, Claude Akins, and George Reeves.
The film won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), and Supporting Actress (Donna Reed).
In 2002, From Here to Eternity was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
A cinematic masterpiece for certain.
No doubt a bathing suit scene was a contributor. Truly.
What was even more of a masterpiece was the beach scene with Deborah Kerr.
Now, some were mesmerized by her acting, and that would include us, and some were more fascinated with her bathing suit, ourselves included once again.
We took it a step further.
What would she look like wrestling another gorgeous woman in a bathing suit?
Symbolically we found that out when we began to watch the lady pros in the squared circle.
In the 1950’s – 1960’s they wore the signature bathing suits and boy did they look great.
They would soon become the fascination of women wrestling fans around the world.
Interesting concept when you consider how swimwear got its start.
The history of swimwear traces the changes in the styles of men’s and women’s swimwear over time and between cultures, and touches upon the social, religious and legal attitudes to swimming and swimwear.
In classical antiquity and in most cultures, swimming was either in the nude or the swimmer would merely strip to their underwear.
We didn’t realize those older cultures were open minded in their thinking.
Or quietly obsessed with sensuousness.
In the Middle Ages, swimming was strongly discouraged, and into the 18th century swimming was regarded as of doubtful morality, and had to be justified on health grounds.
Comparatively speaking, see what we mean?
Even in the Victorian era swimwear was of a style of outer clothing of the time, which were cumbersome and even dangerous in the water, especially in the case of dress-style swimwear for women.
Thankfully female swimmers escaped that fate.
Since the early 20th century, swimming came to be regarded as a legitimate leisure activity or pastime and clothing made specifically for swimming became the norm.
Finally.
Before the popularity of the two-piece swimsuit, and then the bikini, virtually all female swimwear completely covered at least the wearer’s torso, and men also wore similar swimsuits.
While the bikini has increasingly found popular acceptance since the 1960s, the one-piece swimsuit has maintained a place on beaches to this day, especially for curvier women.
In some situations, the wearing of a one-piece swimsuit may be mandatory or expected, as in the case of school swimming events and international swimming events.
Which brings us up to women’s wrestling in the 1960s.
There would be an occasional bikini worn in the ring but even in the 1960’s the predominant style was the full bathing suit.
The trend continued in the 1970’s as Vivian Vachon took her wrestling journey to the screen in the now classic film Wrestling Queen.
Diane Vachon (January 23, 1951 – August 24, 1991) was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known by her ring name Vivian Vachon. A member of the Vachon family of wrestlers, she was the sister of Maurice and Paul Vachon, and the aunt of Luna Vachon.
She is considered one of the best female wrestlers of the 1970s.
In February 1971, she became the California Women’s Champion.
She became the American Wrestling Association‘s (AWA) Women’s Champion for a time, defeating Kay Noble on November 4, 1971. In the early 1970s she starred in the movie Wrestling Queen, which also included her brothers and other wrestlers.
The full bathing suit thrived in the 1970s.
The wrestling world was captivated by the television program Wrestling At The Chase.
Wrestling at the Chase (May 23, 1959–September 10, 1983) was a professional wrestling television series of local and national historical importance in the field of television wrestling. The show was recorded in St. Louis, Missouri, on KPLR-TV, Channel 11. It was promoted by the St. Louis Wrestling Club, which was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance.
The show was the brainchild of Sam Muchnick, president of the St. Louis Wrestling Club, and Harold Koplar, who owned KPLR and the old Chase Park Plaza Hotel. The two were together on an airplane in 1958 and wondered how they could put wrestling into St. Louis-area homes. A few episodes under that name were filmed elsewhere locally.
The WWF also filmed some episodes at the Chase.
The original series began on May 23, 1959 and ran until September 10, 1983. KPLR-TV, Channel 11 produced and televised the matches, which were held at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis’ Central West End and televised at 10:00 A.M
Initially, the matches were broadcast live on Saturday nights and repeated on Sunday mornings. This production method was later replaced by a live-to-tape system, meaning that while the performances were recorded for later broadcast, they were shot entirely in one take as if airing live, so that no allowances were made for unforeseen or unscripted developments or events.
The show produced approximately 1,100 episodes over its 24 years. On a few occasions, for matches that would attract larger crowds, the show would be recorded in the Kiel Auditorium or the St. Louis Arena.
What we loved was that they provided tremendous opportunities for women to wrestle like Marie Laverne, Suzette Ferreira, Joyce Grable, Leilani Kai and others.
Fortunately the trend continued during the electric 80s but less so in the theatrical 1990’s where the fitness girls began to take over.
With the emergence of DWW in Europe during the early 2000s, the bikini and more specifically the thong would become the attire of choice.
At FCI Women’s Wrestling, bathing suits are still in favor and there are numerous wrestling companies around the world where girls still wrestle in full bathing suits. Why?
History has a way of repeating itself.
A true classic never goes out of style.
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OPENING PHOTO femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fciwomenswrestling.com Yan-Krukov-pexels.com-photo-credit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Here_to_Eternity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_swimwear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-piece_swimsuit
http://wrestlingqld.org.au/1967-womens-wrestling-team/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestling_at_the_Chase
https://www.starwear.us/lady-wrestler-tank-style-one-piece-swimsuit/
