Pool Mannequins were a popular method of flaunting social status among wealthy suburbanites in the early 1950’s. Initially marketed as “Buster’s Perpetual Beach Babes” in the 1948 edition of Buster Crabbe Swimmer’s Guide, they were intended to showcase the large capacity of the magazine’s home swimming pools. After numerous advertisements featuring the dolls were printed in Time Magazine, they quickly became synonymous with the first phase of the Plastic Renaissance and started appearing on billboards and newspapers across the nation.
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Early magazine advertisements featuring pool mannequins,
published in Issue 15 of the Buster Crabbe Swimmer’s Guide, May 2, 1948 -
Early magazine advertisements featuring pool mannequins,
published in Issue 15 of the Buster Crabbe Swimmer’s Guide, May 2, 1948
As the mannequins’ popularity continued to grow, affluent elites began purchasing their own plastic dolls to populate their outdoor patios. Following the Soviet occupation of Amazonas in 1952, rubber and plastic imports were limited by the US government under the Stevenson Administration, making plastic mannequins a highly sought-after commodity. Owners of dolls made with synthetic (or “phony”) rubber were shunned and socially ostracized, while those who could afford high-end latex models were praised by onlookers for their commitment to the “uncanny realism” aesthetic. “Pool Parties” became a common event within wealthy social circles, where entire homes and backyards would be filled with plastic humanoids dressed in the host’s finest attire and posed as if in the midst of a drunken banquet. These gatherings would later serve as inspiration for the 1965 Pool Party Murders, where the bodies of victims would be deliberately posed in hot tubs and lounge chairs to recreate early Crabbe publications. The murders would also give rise to the term “Pool Dummy/Floatie” as a derogatory way to refer to blonde Californian girls, who were the primary targets of the gruesome attacks.
Pool Mannequins
These were a popular method of flaunting social status among wealthy suburbanites in the early 1950’s. Initially marketed as “Buster’s Perpetual Beach Babes” in the 1948 edition of Buster Crabbe Swimmer’s Guide, they were intended to showcase the large capacity of the magazine’s home swimming pools.
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