The public, led by women and church leaders, grew more supportive of reform. In Texas, the state Restaurant Association denounced skimpy outfits and declared bare skin a violation of the state’s sanitary laws. Over time the campaign for modest dress for carhops met with more success than did the attempts to win wages for California carhops, or to unionize carhops in Dallas. The sheriff, the story related, said “the horse probably had shied at the girl carhops in shorts who are employed at a near-by beer tavern.”Īlthough the drive-in featured in LIFE was in Houston, I wonder if all the publicity generated by that story was responsible for the blossoming movement of Dallas women who objected to carhops dressed in “scanties.” One letter-to-the-editor charged that if drive-in owners had to rely on “cheap chorus comedy cavortings” then the carhops “should be paid show house wages.” But when another letter writer suggested male carhops should also be dressed in short shorts and boots, the drive-in burlesque heated up as a few roadside places complied, attracting mobs of women. Stories in the Dallas press about carhops at that time were flippant, like one about the couple thrown out of a surrey. The magazine’s cover showed an attractive teen dressed in a drum majorette outfit with what were then considered very short shorts. Meanwhile, in Texas the press was aglow with publicity about its carhops in LIFE magazine. The Industrial Welfare head, a woman, threatened to arrest drive-in operators who failed to comply. The drive-ins reacted negatively, being accustomed to paying no wages at all – carhops worked for tips only - as well as charging carhops for uniforms and meals. In January California’s chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare ordered 30 drive-ins to pay carhops the state’s legal minimum wage for women which was $16 a week. Issues surrounding female carhops came to a head in Texas and California in 1940. In many cases, they not only delivered sandwiches to customers, but also beer, sometimes working for drive-ins that were more tavern than restaurant. They worked long hours, often until late at night. for “girls for tray service.” In 1933 a Miami Beach drive-in looked for an “attractive curb waitress.”īy the late 1930s teenage girls and young women (25 at the very oldest) were commonplace in Texas and California drive-ins and were the subject of quite a bit of turmoil. In 1931 they advertised in Washington, D.C. The Hot Shoppes also came along in the 1920s. In the 1920s Pig Stands selling sodas and sandwiches in Texas offered the same service. Usually boys were hired to rush orders while the driver of a car, or horse-drawn wagon, waited impatiently along the curb in front. Curb service, usually for soda fountains in pharmacies, goes back to the turn of the 20th century. It’s not certain when she appeared on the scene. She is an object of nostalgia, even for those too young to have experienced drive-ins with carhops. Ever since the George Lucas movie American Graffiti in 1973, the female carhop has become an icon. The word “carhop” is almost certain to bring to mind a teenage girl dressed in a brief costume, possibly on roller skates.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |