1946 - Everyday Life

Everyday Life

World chess champion Aleksandr Alekhine dies at Estoril, Portugal, March 24 at age 53 on the eve of a title match against Soviet chess master Mikhail Moiseyvich Botvinnik, 35, who has beaten five other seeded World Chess Federation players, including Polish-born U.S. master Samuel Reshevsky, 35, who held the U.S. title from 1936 to 1944. The world title will remain vacant until 1948 (see 1948).

Kansas City, Mo., inventor Joel G. "Jack" Doyle devises the first powered rotary lawnmower for the local Rotary Power Motor Co. Demand from suburban homeowners brings a flood of orders to retail chains that carry the mowers.

The skimpy two-piece bikini swimsuit shown at a Paris show creates a sensation 4 days after the first U.S. Bikini Atoll atomic bomb test. Designed by French mechanical engineer Louis Réard, 49, and modeled by a stripper (Réard describes it as "four triangles of nothing"), it competes with a similar swimsut designed by couturier Jacques Heim, 47, but Réard has better marketing skills. The New York Herald Tribune runs nine articles about the bikini, and Vogue magazine editor Diana Vreeland says it reveals "everything about a girl except her maiden name." Banned at Biarritz and other resorts, it will not be seen on U.S. beaches until the early 1960s.

Frederick's of Hollywood has its beginnings in a New York mail-order business founded by local entrepreneur Frederick Mellinger, 33, who has returned from the war in Europe with the idea of selling sensuous and sophisticated European lingerie by catalogue. He offers racy black panties, bras, and nightgowns at a time when proper young women wear white undergarments. He will move to Los Angeles next year, introduce the first padded bra, and introduce the world's first push-up bra (the "Rising Star") in 1948.

New York fashion designer Ceil Chapman (née Mitchell), 32, wins the American Fashion Critics' Award. Her elaborate, feminine styles have attracted customers who include Greer Garson and Mary Martin.

German clothier Hugo Boss struggles to revive his 23-year-old business, having fallen into bankruptcy before the war. Like so many others, his factory allegedly made uniforms for the SS, the Wehrmacht, and Hitler Youth, and it may possibly have employed prisoners from concentration camps. Boss himself has been ostracized, stripped of his voting rights, and fined 80,000 deutschmarks, and the company will not recover until the early 1970s, when it begins manufacturing high-priced men's suits and sportswear.

Former Lachasse designer Hardy Amies establishes his own London haute couture business, having served in British Intelligence during the war (see 1934). Now 37, he will introduce a ready-to-wear line in 1950 and be dressmaker to the queen beginning in 1955.

Paris couturière Jeanne Lanvin dies July 6 at age 79 after a career in which she has joined with a few others in setting the style for world fashion (see perfumes, 1925; 1927)Her daughter Marguerite will head the house until her own death in 1958, and others will continue the house into the 21st century.

The repeal of U.S. order L85 October 19 permits dressmakers to lengthen skirts, ending wartime austerity.

Estée Lauder, 38, makes her first sale to Saks Fifth Avenue. Born Josephine Esther Mentzer, the New York beautician has joined with her husband, Joseph, 54, to open offices at 501 Madison Avenue and convert a West 64th Street restaurant into a factory producing a moisturizer called Youth-Dew, developed with financial and technical support from A. L. van Ameringen (see 1929). Having opened concessions at beauty salons 2 years ago, the Lauders now close those concessions, add more department stores to their customer base, and will make and market cosmetics whose sales will grow to exceed those of Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, or Revlon.

Tide is introduced by Procter & Gamble, whose synthetic detergent is the first to be sold in America and the first strong enough for washing clothes as well as dishes (see Persil, 1907). It eliminates the need for repeated rinsings that consume great amounts of water to get rid of soap residue. By the end of 1949 more than one out of every four U.S. washing machines will be using Tide. An orange-and-yellow box designed by Donald Deskey will attract buyers with its concentric circles and promises of a "New washing miracle," "Oceans of Suds," "cleaner CLOTHES, sparkling DISHES," and by 1996 Tide will account for an estimated 30 percent of the $4 billion heavy-duty U.S. laundry detergent industry (P&G will control half the total $4.3 billion laundry-soap business), with P&G's Cheer, the runner-up accounting for about 8 percent. P&G will sell Tide in 20 countries, including China, the Philippines, Russia, and countries in the Middle East.

The new Westinghouse Laundromat is a front-loading machine that requires a low-sudsing soap or detergent.

British-made nylon hosiery goes on sale in December (see 1940). The Allies used parachutes during the war for parachutes, tents, and other material; the stockings are the first nylon consumer goods made in Britain.

Crown Cork & Seal Co. introduces the Spra-tainer—the first seamless, lined, and lithographed aerosol container (see 1945). The pressurized cans will soon be used to package insect sprays, paints, hair sprays, deodorants, shaving cream, and even food products (see food [Reddi-Wip], 1947).

Timex watches are introduced by Norwegian-born U.S. entrepreneur Joakim Lehmkuhl, 51, who in 1940 was sent to New York by his government in exile to take charge of the Norwegian Shipping Center and in 1943 was elected president of Waterbury Watch Co., famous for its Ingersoll watch (see 1892). Lehmkuhl made it a producer of timing mechanisms for bomb and artillery shell fuses and now moves it back into watch production, dropping the Ingersoll name because it is associated with the $1 price. While $1 will no longer buy a watch, Lehmkuhl's mass-produced Timex watches at $6.95 and up will soon account for 40 percent of U.S. wristwatch sales as Waterbury Watch becomes U.S. Time Corp. (see photography [Polaroid], 1950).

Seiko watches are introduced in Japan by K. Hattori & Co. Founder Kintaro Hattori began in 1881 selling foreign-made watches to high government officials. He made his own clocks starting in 1892.

The United States has 610,000 divorces, up from 264,000 in 1940.

Texas gambler and admitted murderer Benny Binion arrives at Las Vegas, Nev., with his family and several suitcases stuffed with cash. He will soon open a hotel under the name Binion's Horseshoe and operate a casino from a table in the hotel's cafeteria, and when desperate gamblers lose their cars, homes, and even ranches, Binion will take possession.

The 105-room Flamingo Hotel and Casino opens in the fall on what will become the Strip on the south side of Las Vegas, beginning the transformation of the Nevada city into a resort of grandiose hotel-casinos. "Murder Incorporated" veteran Benjamin (Hyman) "Bugsy" Siegel arrived from Los Angeles 5 years ago to bet on horses and has built the city's first large hotel-casino with backing from syndicate boss Meyer Lansky, now 42; although it was supposed to have cost $1.5 million its final cost has been $6 million (much of it "skimmed" by Siegel; see crime, 1947); the Flamingo will be relocated and enlarged within 50 years to have 3,642 rooms as hydro-electric power brings air conditioning to make Las Vegas livable even in summer (see Desert Inn, 1950 Kerkorian, 1955; energy [Glen Canyon Dam], 1966).