1935 - Everyday Life

Everyday Life

Jockey brand briefs go on sale at Chicago's Marshall Field & Co. January 19, stocks of the new men's underpants are exhausted before noon despite a severe blizzard, and a U.S. patent on their construction principles is issued in August (see Cooper, 1919). Coopers, Inc. (formerly Cooper Underwear Co.) executive Arthur Kneibler saw a postcard last year showing a man on the French Riviera wearing a swimsuit that extended only from the waist to the upper thigh, was struck with the idea that an undergarment might be designed like an athletic supporter (commonly called a "jock strap"), and later this year refines his invention to give it a Y-front opening—fabric panels designed to provide a buttonless fly. Individually packaged in cellophane and displayed in special retail fixtures that permit self-service, the briefs create a sensation as millions of men switch from boxer shorts to the new underwear (see 1946).

Max Factor of Hollywood opens a super-colossal salon in the film capital (see 1914). Now 58, he has a factory that employs 250 people producing cosmetics and wigs.

Lancôme is founded by Paris perfumer Armand Petitjean, 22, who has worked for François Coty and introduces five fragrances of his own formulation; he will expand his line with Nutrix skin cream as he builds a company whose beauty products will gain worldwide distribution.

The frozen body of former Denver society queen Elizabeth McCourt "Baby Doe" Tabor is found in a mine shack at Leadville, Colo., March 5. Dead at age 80, she has been penniless since the death of her late husband, Horace, in 1899 (see Opera, 1956).

Chess master Alex Alekhine loses his world title to Dutch chess master Machgielis "Max" Euwe, 34, but will regain it in a return match in 1937.

Monopoly is introduced November 5 by Parker Brothers of Salem, Mass., whose executives rejected the board game in 1933 because it took too long to play, involved concepts such as mortgages and interest that players would find confusing, and had rules that were too complex (see Sorry, 1934). Unemployed engineer Charles B. Darrow, 36, of Germantown, Pa., has adapted the Landlord's Game, devised at the turn of the century by one Lizzie J. Magie to popularize the ideas of Henry George (see 1879), who believed capitalism could work only if no one was permitted to profit from the ownership of land. Quakers at a school in Atlantic City, N.J., have given local place names to the board properties, but Darrow is awarded the patent (it will make him a multimillionaire), and although Parker Brothers has come close to bankruptcy the new game will revive its fortunes.

The 21-year-old Toro Co. introduces its first power lawn mower for homeowners (see Rotary Power Mower, 1946).