Long haired men in the Golden Era?

[FedoraFan112390]

Are there any examples of rare men who grew their hair long in the Golden Era?

 

[scottyrocks]

Does this count?

It seems his hair is longer than the usual of the time, but hey, you wouldn't think a guy who lives in the jungle would be able to find the time to have his hair cut more than a coupla times a year, wouldja?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

,
In Southern California, there were the little-remembered "hermits" who lived in the Santa Monica mountains. Most of them were First World War veterans who couldn't readjust to civilian life. In the 1920s and '30s, they lived in the hilly parts of Santa Monica in shacks they built themselves. Most hermits grew long hair and beards, and looked and dressed remarkably like the hippies of the '60s.


In the early 1930s, it became fashionable among some Hollywood actors to spend their weekends "living" among the hermits, running around shirtless and in blue jeans, eating and cooking squirrels, etc. I've got a 1932 Los Angeles Times newspaper article about it somewhere. The article laments that stars like Wallace Beery wore sweatshirts and dungarees in their free time. No mention, though, of what the hermits thought of these movieland thrill-seekers running around in their space.

 

[scottyrocks]

,
Most hermits grew long hair and beards, and looked and dressed remarkably like the hippies of the '60s.

Yep, there are only just so many ways to have long, unkempt hair, and clothes with that wear-all-day-every-day look.

 

[Tomasso]

In Southern California, there were the little-remembered "hermits" who lived in the Santa Monica mountains. Most of them were First World War veterans who couldn't readjust to civilian life.

A similar group of WWII vets lived on the beaches of SoCal, though I don't think they were longhairs. They were recruited off the same beaches for their swimming and diving prowess to be Navy frogmen (SEALS). Post war they returned to live off (spearfishing and diving for lobster) the ocean in shacks and were given several years to adjust before being run off. I recall a local sheriff saying how hard it was to roust them considering their service.

 

[Widebrim]

,
In Southern California, there were the little-remembered "hermits" who lived in the Santa Monica mountains. Most of them were First World War veterans who couldn't readjust to civilian life. In the 1920s and '30s, they lived in the hilly parts of Santa Monica in shacks they built themselves. Most hermits grew long hair and beards, and looked and dressed remarkably like the hippies of the '60s.


In the early 1930s, it became fashionable among some Hollywood actors to spend their weekends "living" among the hermits, running around shirtless and in blue jeans, eating and cooking squirrels, etc. I've got a 1932 Los Angeles Times newspaper article about it somewhere. The article laments that stars like Wallace Beery wore sweatshirts and dungarees in their free time. No mention, though, of what the hermits thought of these movieland thrill-seekers running around in their space.

Yes, I recall that interesting article that you posted, Marc.

Regarding Johnny Weissmuller (who many, I'm sure, don't know was actually born in Austria-Hungary with the name Johann), he was actually hassled once by a Naval officer in some Hollywood nightclub about his long locks. If I remember correctly, Weissmuller took the squid to town...

 

[Stanley Doble]

In the thirties and forties a "longhair" was a common name for a classical music fan. Many conductors and musicians wore their hair long and so did their fans. In this case long hair means brushed straight back and almost touching their collar.

In the mid twenties silent film stars were criticized for wearing their hair long. There was even a song about short haired women and long haired men, which is the rooster which is the hen? as women were bobbing their hair at the same time. Have seen a cartoon of that era showing male and female movie stars wearing identical length, slicked back hair. The caption explained that the reason movie actors cultivated those little mustaches was so you could tell them from the actresses lol.

 

[Stanley Doble]

"Haircut, please!" by Robert Benchley, from My Ten Years In A Quandary And How They Grew, written in the thirties. A humorous look at the long hair question.

Haircut, Please!

Among other things that I am finding it increasingly difficult to get, is a haircut. I just can't seem to bring myself to make the first move.

In my more soigné days I had no difficulty in walking right into a barber shop every Tuesday (I chose Tuesday because it is the day that Variety comes out) and saying, in ringing tones, "Haircut, please." Those were the days when I was known as "Beau Bob."

But gradually, as my life became more sedentary, I began to find it difficult to leave the house until after the barber shops had closed. Those that were open in the evening somehow didn't have the knack of fixing my peculiar hair-line in back so that I didn't look like a shepherd.

It got to be once every two weeks instead of once every week, and then once every three weeks. Now, for the greater part of each month, I give the impression of having just come from Oberammergau to look for a job. In Hollywood, it is just taken for granted that I am working in "Mutiny on the Bounty."

* * * * *

Several times I have tried having a barber come into my place and cut my hair, since it is obvious that I am never going to be able to get out to his place. This luxury, however, suffuses me with a sense of decadence, and I feel that all I need is three or four dancing girls to bring about the Revolution, with me at the bottom of the pile. Also, it takes quite a lot of nerve to call the barber.

The thing has now reached a stage where it is practically a phobia. When, by some convulsion of Nature, I do find myself in front of a barber shop in the daytime, I stand and look inside, hoping that all the chairs are occupied.

If they are not, I sometimes wait until they are. Then I go on my way with an easy conscience. I guess that the answer is that I shall have to learn to cut my own hair. I am dreading that phase.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I don't know if you ever heard about the german "Swingjugend" or "Swing Kids". In the late 30s and early 40s it was common for young men in germany to have a very short haircut (shaved back and sides) and join the Hitler Jugend. There were a few teenagers who listend to swing music and preffered the lifestyle of the UK and USA to the militarism in their own country. They wanted to appear "cool" and not like strong soldiers. I think they would be described as "slackers" today. They had a certain style to dress themselves in long suit jackets and also sported longer haircuts. Of course the Nazis didn't like to see that and often forced Swing Kids to cut their hair. The french Zazous were a related youth culture under the german occupation of france.

Here are some cartoons that make fun of the Zazous or Swingkids...They are from the early 40s.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

eden ahbez (formerly George Alexander McGrew; April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), an American songwriter and recording artist. (Photo above is from the 1940s.)

Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy," which became a #1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole and has since become a pop and jazz standard.

During the 1930s, ahbez lived in Kansas City, where he performed as a pianist and dance band leader. He probably also lived in New York City for some time.

In 1941, he arrived in Los Angeles and began playing piano in the Eutropheon, a small health food store and raw food restaurant on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The cafe was owned by John and Vera Richter, German immigrants who followed a Naturmensch and Lebensreform philosophy influenced by the Wandervogel movement in Germany. He was a vegetarian.

Their followers, known as "Nature Boys" and who included Robert "Gypsy Boots" Bootzin, wore long hair and beards and ate only raw fruits and vegetables. (Photo below is from the 1940s.)

Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, eden ahbez traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.

 

[Widebrim]

^^More proof that studying Oriental mysticism and practicing vegetarianism lead one to grow one's hair and beard long. lol

 

[Stanley Doble]

This one is a bit of a surprise - Buddy Ebsen. You may remember him as Barnaby Jones or Jed Clampett but in the thirties he was an eccentric dancer who appeared in Broadway Melodies of 1936 and 1938 with a Beatle like mop top.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Ebsen

Scroll down about half way and see a head shot of Buddy in 1936.

I can't account for it except as part of his comic dance act.

 

[filfoster]

I don't know if you ever heard about the german "Swingjugend" or "Swing Kids". In the late 30s and early 40s it was common for young men in germany to have a very short haircut (shaved back and sides) and join the Hitler Jugend. There were a few teenagers who listend to swing music and preffered the lifestyle of the UK and USA to the militarism in their own country. They wanted to appear "cool" and not like strong soldiers. I think they would be described as "slackers" today. They had a certain style to dress themselves in long suit jackets and also sported longer haircuts. Of course the Nazis didn't like to see that and often forced Swing Kids to cut their hair. The french Zazous were a related youth culture under the german occupation of france.

Here are some cartoons that make fun of the Zazous or Swingkids...They are from the early 40s.

The 'Swing Kids' are the subject of the movie of some years ago called....wait for it....'Swing Kids'. My WW2 reenactor/collector buds don't like it but I think it's fun to watch and a decent evocation of the time. I was somewhat shocked to read an account of their persecution in Richard Evans' scholarly 3-volume history of the Third Reich-I think the second volume, 'The Third Reich in Power', as I had imagined the movie to be mostly made up dramatization.

 

[cookie]

It is amazing how the whole Nazi regime was basically geared up for war from the get go. Blokes like Churchill picked up on it but not the ruling elite of Europe unfortunately. The total regimentation of life into militarism in all its forms is a shocking example of what Nazism truly accomplished and hoped to spread inexorably across Europe.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

It is amazing how the whole Nazi regime was basically geared up for war from the get go. Blokes like Churchill picked up on it but not the ruling elite of Europe unfortunately. The total regimentation of life into militarism in all its forms is a shocking example of what Nazism truly accomplished and hoped to spread inexorably across Europe.

That's right. I am glad that I am not born in the 1920s. There was almost no way to excape the propaganda and have a normal childhood. The swing kids didn't really fight against the nazis but they didn't believe the propaganda and dreamed of a better future.


@filfoster: Your friend was right. The movie isn't very accurate. But it made the topic more accessible for the mainstream. For example: I bet they didn't dance lindy hop/ jitterbug like in the movie.

 

[resortes805]

Similar to the zazou and swing kids, Pachucos in the US wore comparatively long hair that they swept up into Elvis style pompadours and ducktails; this was the late 1930s and early 1940s mind you, years before that look was popularized in the 1950s. Their Mexico City counterparts wore slicked back shoulder length hair and were called tarzanes, after, you guessed it, Weissmuller's long haired Tarzan.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Yes. "comparatively long hair" is right. I guess it was only less tapered/shaved on the back and sides. When combed back it still could look inconspicuously but the long hair on top would fall on the faces while dancing. If the hair would touch the collar this would already considered very long.

Here is a picture with haircut that would be called "long" back then and only "medium" today.

from this page http://www.sam122.sk/photos/index.htm

I guess a little longer an we have the Zazou, Pachuco, Swing Kid haircut.

 

[Kahuna]

Another one of the hermits was William Peter Pester, known as "the Hermit of Palm Springs". Here he entertains Rudolf Valentino while he was making a movie in the area in about 1920.

Here's another picture. Hard to imagine this was the 20's and not the 60's isn't it?

More here (scroll way down): http://www.harpguitars.net/knutsen/historicalphotos.htm

 

[ButteMT61]

Lots of guys (my grandpa was one) had the "Shemp" (a la Three Stooges) hairdo which doesn't look long, but it is. I kinda have my hair like that now, and when I shake it out, people are shocked how much hair I have lol
But it's short in the back, which gives the illusion of shorter hair...

 

[Kahuna]

Now that I think about it Albert Einstein would certainly qualify.