--- title: Bachelorette Season Premiere: Looking Back at a 1950 Bridal Shower description: As 'The Bachelorette' returns for another season, a look back at a bride-to-be from the LIFE archives. canonical: https://time.com/3851977/bachelorette-1950-bridal-shower-photos/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T12:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:34.000Z og:title: Here’s What a Bachelorette Looked Like in 1950 og:description: As 'The Bachelorette' returns for another season, a look back at a bride-to-be from the LIFE archives. og:url: https://time.com/3851977/bachelorette-1950-bridal-shower-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5294002a7ba60900/6987eefacd68482cb109df10/150508-bridal-shower-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Wedding Shower 1951 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s What a Bachelorette Looked Like in 1950 twitter:description: As 'The Bachelorette' returns for another season, a look back at a bride-to-be from the LIFE archives. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5294002a7ba60900/6987eefacd68482cb109df10/150508-bridal-shower-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s What a Bachelorette Looked Like in 1950  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. May 18, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Bride's four showers. With this practical haul Peggy Cross is set to keep house. Caption from LIFE. Bride's four showers. With this practical haul Peggy Cross is set to keep house.Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. May 18, 2015 12:00 PM UTC If you were to take a time traveler from 1950 and plop her down in front of Monday night’s premiere of the 11th season of _The Bachelorette_, she’d likely notice a few key differences between the contestants’ lives and those of unmarried women in her day. The dresses are a little more risqué, the sexuality more overt and the plastic surgery comparatively rampant. When LIFE featured a bachelorette in 1950 — or rather, a “bachelor girl,” as the term _bachelorette_ hadn’t yet taken off — the story’s subject, 21-year-old Peggy Cross, unlike _The Bachelorette_’s bachelorette, had already found her betrothed. Until their wedding day, of course, she would formally remain a bachelorette, but she was busy making preparations. By all appearances, these preparations did not include a bungee jumping expedition or a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, but something altogether more practical: an accounting of all the _accoutrements_ of housewifery. _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. Bride's four showers. With this practical haul Peggy Cross is set to keep house. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Cleaning mitt that looks like strange tribal headdress was the first gift Peggy opened at her cleaning shower. Friends competed with fancy wrappings. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Peggy wearing one of her gifts. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Peggy testing out her new vacuum cleaner. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Headshot of the bride-to-be. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Peggy trying on clothes from one of her showers. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Shower guests signing a book. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Peggy and Fiance Steve, bringing home all but the bacon from the kitchen shower, need only an apartment and groceries to set up housekeeping. 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