Here at This Was A Thing, we’re no fashionistas (although Ray would argue otherwise), but even with our limited knowledge, it’s hard to avoid noticing the current trend of tapered, tighter clothes. But in the early 1900s, a garment rose to popularity that shunned that trend toward tightness, boasting extra fabric and a looser fit. More than that, this particular clothing item became so identified with certain groups that its name was used when describing a notable riot in the 1940s that was emblematic of social tensions of that time, and involved United States servicemen, the Latin-X and Mexican-American community and a mysterious, unsolved murder…

Ray teaches Rob about the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots which occurred 80 years ago this week, and the events which precipitated so much violence and unrest; how London’s “drape suit” traveled across the pond, got a name change, and was sported by celebrities from Cab Calloway to Frank Sinatra; the 1990s swing revival that brought back both the music and clothing of that era (and produced some famous earworms); and why these riots provide one of the earliest examples of clothing styles becoming synonomous with cultural tensions between different social and ethnic groups.

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TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLESEPISODE CLIPS

Cherry Poppin’ Daddies - Zoot Suit Riot (Full Length Mp3 + Lyrics)

A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal) ~ Bob Crosby & His Orchestra (1942)

Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher

The Who - Zoot Suit

Royal Crown Revue - Hey Pachuco

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

“Happy Bee” and “Private Eye”

• Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro