Sunday, July 05, 2009

Happy Birthday, Bikini Swimsuits!

This Day in History 1946: Bikini introduced: "On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed 'bikini,' inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week."

Also on this day in history, Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right, Mama," his first commercial release and one of the all-time greats.

Thats All Right - Elvis Presley

4 comments:

Jake Murdock said...

And what a great day for all us hot-blooded American boys. My thanks to the French on this one.

Murdock

Ed Gorman said...

I still remember hearing that on a jukebox in a sleazy hotel where I shot pool. The year was `55 and I kept saying who IS this guy? He's great. Then came all those other Sun records one by one and man music was never the same again.

Kent Morgan said...

I first heard it on a juke box about 1 a.m. in the Occidental Cafe in The Pas, Manitoba, which is north of the 53rd parallel. A friend who was home for the Easter break from teacher's college played it and she said that the singer was going to be the next big star. The father of another of our friends owned the juke boxes and she helped him chose the records for different locations. We normally hung around another Chinese restaurant, the Paris Cafe, where the juke box was filled with Patti Page, Eddie Fisher, Georgia Gibbs, etc. The Occidental was next door to Modern Billiards (my other hangout) and the juke boxes in both places were primarily filled with western singers. e.g., Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, Kitty Wells, and Lefty Frizzell. My friend can't remember if it was her decision to expose Elvis to the customers in the Occidental rather than the Paris. But I've never forgotten where I heard That's Alright first. I'm reading a book by Amanda Petrusich titled It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. Of course, one place she visits is Sun Studio. Maybe I'll go down in my basement tonight and play Elvis, Carl, Johnny and Jerry Lee on my juke box.

Unknown said...

Gotta be a great jukebox with those guys on it.