"But first, for those of you whose taste is a little more earthbound..."

An embarassing song from a piece of legitimate theatre bad fanfiction, but at least slightly relevant nonetheless. The next genre I'm going to look at for the project is the Edwardian 'bathing beauty' subculture. The Edwardian era is a nine-year English period beginning with the death of Victoria I and the coronation of Edward VII in 1901, and ending with Edward's death in 1910, although it is often extended to include the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and ending at the beginning of World War I. The period has come to symbolise long, golden afternoons at the beach, garden parties, and

other fun activities that would be missed upon the beginning of the war.

One of the key aspects of the period was the "bathing beauty" subculture that emerged. Although mixed bathing was frowned upon or banned at most beaches, postcards featuring pictures such as the one on the right were sold frequently, possibly as a precursor to the swimsuit models of modern culture.

The bathing suits are very conservative by today's standards, but for the period would have been considered skimpy.

Another aspect of Edwardian bathing is the bathing machine, seen on the left. This was a privacy/dignity device which a woman would enter and change into her bathing costume. The machine would then be brought into the water so she could climb in without showing too much skin.

Thinking about how these ideas could be applied to the Floor Show, I had the idea that Frank could make his entrance in a bathing machine. It could be wheeled in by one of the dancers, and could be a plain bathing machine on one side, but the other side would be open, and covered in modern-day swimsuit model pictures. I feel that this would show irony, as a device meant for dignity and conservation would be covered in soft porn. It would also show the gratuitous nature of Frank's personality, and would probably make for a good comedy moment. I'd probably make the entire set themed as an Edwardian beach, but far less conservative. The colours could probably be monochrome, to match the old postcards, photographs and illustrations, but might make the scene less exciting and upbeat.