--- title: Vintage Spring Break: Southern California Beach Vacation, 1947 description: Spring break in the 1940s meant bonfires, beauty pageants and beach-side swing dances. canonical: https://time.com/3730930/spring-break-1947/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-10T12:00:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:29.608Z og:title: This Is What Spring Break Looked Like in 1947 og:description: Spring break in the 1940s meant bonfires, beauty pageants and beach-side swing dances. og:url: https://time.com/3730930/spring-break-1947/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde75d32f013312c3/698781fae53aba66724d7e08/150303-spring-break-1947-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Spring Break 1947 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What Spring Break Looked Like in 1947 twitter:description: Spring break in the 1940s meant bonfires, beauty pageants and beach-side swing dances. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde75d32f013312c3/698781fae53aba66724d7e08/150303-spring-break-1947-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What Spring Break Looked Like in 1947 > Sponsored content. 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Dancing by day to music of a portable radio, students shuffle through the soft footing. Most of them stayed at Balboa Beach for four or five days. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 10, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Thanks to MTV and _Girls Gone Wild_, spring break in the late 20th century got a bit of a reputation. Between misplaced bikini tops, wet t-shirt contests and cheap beer flowing steady as the tide, the mid-March madness is often about as wholesome as Cinemax after midnight. But it wasn’t always this way. Back in 1947, when [LIFE accompanied 10,000 young men and women](https://books.google.com/books?id=fUgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=california+boys+and+girls+flock+to+the+seashore+to+spend+a+spring+holiday+in+sand+and+sunshine&source=bl&ots=l7kr-JoH95&sig=0TFEs6oR-TrDF%5FVS-tu%5F441iQ-M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9sP0VOiJG4K6ggSEkYOwDQ&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=california%20boys%20and%20girls%20flock%20to%20the%20seashore%20to%20spend%20a%20spring%20holiday%20in%20sand%20and%20sunshine&f=false) to Balboa Beach in Southern California for spring break, the shenanigans wouldn’t have scored any higher than a PG rating. Daylight brought beachside dancing, boat races, beauty pageants and sunbathing. The evening hours found students aglow in the warmth of bonfires as portable radios churned out the tunes of the day. (Top hits that year included “[Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikzZ7dgO00Q)” and “[Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHt98%5FlKP0k)”) In the following decades, the chasteness of spring break loosened with changing sexual mores. The 1960 movie _Where the Boys Are_, which followed four college women on a spring vacation to Fort Lauderdale, reflected a range of sexual attitudes in its characters’ hopes for a week on the beach. One was looking for a husband, while others considered the benefits of premarital sex. The film, released during the winter, inspired throngs of students to flock to Florida, and for more than just the sunshine. Simultaneously, it frightened parents into exercising any remaining shred of authority to stand between their daughters and the debauchery depicted in the movie. Some, according to LIFE, shelled out to send their kids anywhere but Fort Lauderdale. “I’m not sure the moral climate is any safer on these Bermuda cruises,” one mother said, “but at least she’ll get in trouble with a higher class of boy.” _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Caption from LIFE. Dancing by day to music of a portable radio, students shuffle through the soft footing. Most of them stayed at Balboa Beach for four or five days. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Arms and legs cluttered the whole beach when Glendale students spread out on their towels to sunbathe. They used gallons of lotions and suntan oil. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Pretty girls like Helen Koford (above) and Joan Atwater (next slide), both 18, had lots of chances to show off their bathing suits. They put them on before breakfast, wore them all day every day. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Pretty girls like Helen Koford (previous slide) and Joan Atwater (above), both 18, had lots of chances to show off their bathing suits. They put them on before breakfast, wore them all day every day. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Beach clown's ancient suit won first prize in men's novelty contest. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sheepish contestant poses in a suit called "Spirit of Glendale." Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Here two Glendale teams race past a marker buoy in a photo finish. Man in the background is too lazy to race. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Spring break in Southern California, 1947. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Dancing by night, two jitterbugs hop to swing music broadcast over public-address system. Even in the cool evenings many wore bathing suits. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Gathering around flaming "G," Glendale students sing a school song. The bonfire was made with pieces of old telephone poles. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ## Transcript 50 years ago you weren't expected to go to college. It was finish high school and go get a job. Now it's finish college and then figure out how to get out of debt. Taking selfies, posting stuff about what you're doing, we have different portals that allow us to be more selfish. The biggest difference between being a teenager now and 50 years ago. I think we have more responsibility for things. Is the technology and the resources that we have. The way we communicate with each other and the way we interact with one another. [ MUSIC ] The latest dance is the jerk. Partners. Face each other. Three feet apart then langorously sway their upper swine and arms while rhythmically punctuating the undulations with a savage pelvic thrust. [ LAUGH ] Oh dear. Pelvic thrusting? That still exists. One you've got to name the number one there you go. Twerking. The thing that's what it used to be called when I was in middle school. Yeah when girl's doing it that. [ LAUGH ] And then guys are like beat alright it's dry humping basically. [ LAUGH ] There it go it's dry humping. I don't get authority at home. We're just a bunch of people who go about our business and live under one roof. My parents are definitely more authority figures than they are friends. for me, but sometimes it can be friends. Depending on the conversations we have, sometimes it's, Kristen, I have a story to tell you about my day at work or Kristen, how are you feeling? Or Kristen, do you like a boy? It always goes back to do you like a boy. It's all right to get blasted, if you can be. Can be witty or brave. But if you get sloppy, you're way out. Glue- sniffing and marijuana are also out, because they bring on major trouble from the cops. I don't think drinking is popular among my friend group. But it is definitely popular among this generation. This generation loves pushing the envelope and trying to get away with. What they know they shouldnt be doing? I mean, when you watch movies, you know you get, you can get the sense where, oh, if they can do it then we could do it. A lot of people are using mari, marijuana right now. It's so normal now, like everybody just talks about it just like in the most like loose terms ever. Kids just go out and like do whatever they want. Behind every reasonably well- heeled teenager lurks a stereo set endlessly playing the Beatles. Big in the older set: the twanging social protests of folk singer Bob Dylan. [ INAUDIBLE ] teenager, [ INAUDIBLE ] stereo set and this we play with the Beatles. [ INAUDIBLE ] and the older set, the twanging social protest of folk singer Bob Dylan. I'm not going to lie, this morning I was listening to the Beatles. State Motel, we've been getting into a lot. State Motel, I love Artig [ INAUDIBLE ]. Monk is. Oh, I think Monk is amazing. Yeah we listen to a whole bunch of different genres. [ LAUGH ] I was going to say, like, Travis Scott and, and then they just started talking about the Neighborhood. And I was like, what? [ CROSSTALK ] I don't want the parents that are going to watch this til they go Google the Weekend and they listen to their music. [ LAUGH ] Well, I don't know. I think they've heard worse. It is scary not knowing what you're gonna do but I'm really excited to figure out like, the next step after high school. No. I don't think that it's easier to, living today as a teenager. Those pressures don't allow us to connect with like, older generations. 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