[Archive of Photographs of the Todd Sisters, 1930s-era Show Girls.]

A wordless visual documentary of the Todd Sisters, show girls

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This collection of sixty-four vernacular photographs is a visual record of the Todd Sisters, show girls. We find little about their career, but we do find them listed in an entertainment variety show in Pennsylvania, circa 1934.¹ We imagine that while the Todd Sisters might not have made Broadway, they were active within a regional mid-Atlantic circuit of popular entertainments, amongst fellow lesser lights.

The Todd Sisters’ photographs are almost all posed shots, intended to show the young women and their appealing talents. The women are shown in a variety of poses: seated upon an outdoor circular wicker table, a small banjo held in two hands; seated lengthwise on a bench, a a large folding screen in the background; wearing a silk Asian-styled outfit with blouse, pantaloons, and a small parasol held overhead; seated in a large wicker chair with shapely legs on a footstool, a baby doll placed in the shot for some intended effect; lying in the grass amidst leafy foliage with one off-the-shoulder outfit revealing just the slightest view of a bared breast; standing with a small fan opened, held in one hand to cover the chest area, while the other hand daintily lifts up an outer portion of a very short skirt with thumb and fore-finger; modeling a a one-piece swimming suit with a large towel spread out behind a shapely figure, etc.

The overall theme of these photographs is to show beautiful girls in postured vignettes intended to be appealing and glamorous.

One interesting smaller format photograph shows a large group of women in two-piece bathing suits looking up and being photographed by a shutterbug at great height and some distance, an interesting, although not novel, perspective shot.

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