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T-Shirts in the 1930s - 1940s

Yeps

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,456
Location
Philly
repeatclicks said:
Those life photos are great! I plan on wearing alot of t-shirts with my hollywood waist trousers this summer.

I would try that, and would probably look more like an extra in West Side Story more than anything else, but unfortunately my giraffe-esque neck looks really silly without a collar to shrink it a bit.
 

frussell

One Too Many
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1,409
Location
California Desert
Depends on where you were raised, I guess.

I've never seen one photo or have a single memory of either of my grandfathers wearing a t-shirt. My paternal grandfather was a businessman who was mostly self-educated, and once he achieved success seemed reluctant to ever dress down. Perhaps it reminded him of his extremely poor beginnings to wear anything casual. I can still remember him driving to our country farm straight from work, and removing just his suit jacket to mow fields or cut jeep trails through the tangled brush. His idea of casual was a seersucker suit instead of wool pinstripe. It was not uncommon to see the end of his tie (loosened, never removed), his trousers and some nice dress shoes sticking out from under the old International Harvester or our WWII Willys while he worked on the engine. He must have spent hundreds on white shirts alone. The maternal grandpa was a dyed-in-the-wool cowboy, and considered a t-shirt the sloppiest thing a man could be seen wearing. I'm not as particular as either of them were, and could not live with out t-shirts, but I'll admit they both had a hell of a lot more style than I do with my modern casual wardrobe. Frank
 

Warbaby

One Too Many
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1,549
Location
The Wilds of Vancouver Island
Here's a photo from 1939-1940 with a young man wearing a classic striped t-shirt. (Looks like his trous could use a bit of a wash, though...)

GasStation1940.jpg
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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33,715
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
You'll see quite a few young men wearing shirts like that in the various New York Worlds Fair home movies that are floating around -- they were quite popular casual wear in the summer of 1939-40. But they weren't *undershirts,* they were sold and worn as sportswear.

Printed novelty T-shirts for kids with pictures of popular licensed characters were being sold in the Sears catalog as early as 1948, but they go back even further than that. Somewhere around here I have a 1941-dated snapshot of my uncle wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an iron-on picture of Captain Marvel. But I don't think too many grown men would have gone around in such a shirt.
 

Fletch

I'll Lock Up
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8,865
Location
Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
Warbaby said:
Here's a photo from 1939-1940 with a young man wearing a classic striped t-shirt. (Looks like his trous could use a bit of a wash, though...)

GasStation1940.jpg
1940 Illinois tag; Standard Crown gas pump. Any idea of location? I'd guess upper midwest, from the crown, plus the fact that folks usually didn't travel all that far.

Car: 1938 Dodge, apparently towing a trailer.
 

Warbaby

One Too Many
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1,549
Location
The Wilds of Vancouver Island
This photo was from a photo album that sold last year on eBay - and one that I'm still kicking myself for not biting the bullet and buying no matter what the cost (it sold for $365). Hundreds of photos of a family that took long road trips every summer for more than 20 years, starting around 1920. Each road trip was documented and included photos of the family and their car parked beside every route sign of the roads they took. The brother and sister in this photo were about 3-4 years old when the album began.

<kick> Ouch! Damn!

Here's the first photo from the album:

V_RoadTrip2.jpg

This one is about 10 years later - with the daughter looking like a young Bonnie Parker:

V_RoadTrip1.jpg

<KICK>
 

FedoraFan112390

Practically Family
Messages
646
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Thought I'd update my own topic...I never realized how common it was until recently, until I saw a few new pictures.
My great great uncle (1911-1970) wearing a T-Shirt and Slacks, mid 1950s:
19878210150276760284849.jpg

22617710150276760999849.jpg

28381210150276762534849.jpg


My grandpa (1929-) wearing a T-shirt and slacks, between the mid 50s and early 60s. Wore a T-Shirt for most of the time even then, and now wears T-Shirts 90% of the time.
31593130441477958512710.jpg

30572030441649625162210.jpg
 

FedoraFan112390

Practically Family
Messages
646
Location
Brooklyn, NY
When T-Shirts were underwear

I always find it weird to see Golden Era men wearing T-Shirts. It doesn't seem right, but it seems humorous somehow.

Clark Gable, Soldier of Fortune, 1955
17842%20-%20Soldier%20of%20Fortune.jpg
 
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Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
Funny, you mention the sideburns. I know a lotta folks from that era and they seemed to not adopt much of the fashions, except maybe wearing their hair a little longer, but not much, and long sideburns. I know a few who still look exactly as they did in the seventies, but older and grayer. Funny how the sideburns became so popular around here.

The first picture is a member of my family in 1949. The second picture is the same man (on the left) and his brothers in 1973. In that picture he was 53. His eldest brother, the one in the middle, was 63, and his middle brother was 61. Note all of them have long sideburns and are wearing wild, 70s clothes.
 

Dinerman

Super Moderator
Bartender
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10,562
Location
Bozeman, MT
The term "t-shirt" or "tee shirt" goes back to at least the early 1920s, but it looks like at that time it described what we now call a sweatshirt.

Like Lizzie said, they started to become popular as sportswear around 1939.

Although I found plenty of references and descriptions to the 1920s "t-shirts", this is the only pic I could find, and it's only t-shirt inspired. 1929


1939


1939


1942


1944
 

Dinerman

Super Moderator
Bartender
Messages
10,562
Location
Bozeman, MT
Some more from 1939, part of a large ad campaign by Munsingwear, plugging t-shirts as both outer and underwear. It appears they were marketed as outerwear since their inception.



















 

Flat Foot Floey

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Germany
Thanks for the research and the pictures. "Coolest thing ever" Haha

I just remebered this pictures from 1930s franch with a lot of casual wear

tumblr_n0lg01YKEJ1r5rhsmo1_500.jpg
 

Dinerman

Super Moderator
Bartender
Messages
10,562
Location
Bozeman, MT
In the 1920s and early 1930s, I'm finding references to crew-necked knit cotton sportswear shirts as the "Tennis Shirt". Origins of the term t-shirt maybe?

They were also known as "crew shirts" in the 1930s-1940s
 
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