T-Shirts in the 1930s - 1940s

[thunderw21]

Those life photos are great! I plan on wearing alot of t-shirts with my hollywood waist trousers this summer.

Nice. Going to have to try that, too.

 

[Yeps]

Those life photos are great! I plan on wearing alot of t-shirts with my hollywood waist trousers this summer.

I would try that, and would probably look more like an extra in West Side Story more than anything else, but unfortunately my giraffe-esque neck looks really silly without a collar to shrink it a bit.

 

[frussell]

Depends on where you were raised, I guess.

I've never seen one photo or have a single memory of either of my grandfathers wearing a t-shirt. My paternal grandfather was a businessman who was mostly self-educated, and once he achieved success seemed reluctant to ever dress down. Perhaps it reminded him of his extremely poor beginnings to wear anything casual. I can still remember him driving to our country farm straight from work, and removing just his suit jacket to mow fields or cut jeep trails through the tangled brush. His idea of casual was a seersucker suit instead of wool pinstripe. It was not uncommon to see the end of his tie (loosened, never removed), his trousers and some nice dress shoes sticking out from under the old International Harvester or our WWII Willys while he worked on the engine. He must have spent hundreds on white shirts alone. The maternal grandpa was a dyed-in-the-wool cowboy, and considered a t-shirt the sloppiest thing a man could be seen wearing. I'm not as particular as either of them were, and could not live with out t-shirts, but I'll admit they both had a hell of a lot more style than I do with my modern casual wardrobe. Frank

 

[Warbaby]

Here's a photo from 1939-1940 with a young man wearing a classic striped t-shirt. (Looks like his trous could use a bit of a wash, though...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

You'll see quite a few young men wearing shirts like that in the various New York Worlds Fair home movies that are floating around -- they were quite popular casual wear in the summer of 1939-40. But they weren't *undershirts,* they were sold and worn as sportswear.

Printed novelty T-shirts for kids with pictures of popular licensed characters were being sold in the Sears catalog as early as 1948, but they go back even further than that. Somewhere around here I have a 1941-dated snapshot of my uncle wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an iron-on picture of Captain Marvel. But I don't think too many grown men would have gone around in such a shirt.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Twice Blessed 1945

Hep And Happy 1942

Benny Goodman Roll' em (The Powers Girl 1943)

 

[Fletch]

Here's a photo from 1939-1940 with a young man wearing a classic striped t-shirt. (Looks like his trous could use a bit of a wash, though...)

1940 Illinois tag; Standard Crown gas pump. Any idea of location? I'd guess upper midwest, from the crown, plus the fact that folks usually didn't travel all that far.

Car: 1938 Dodge, apparently towing a trailer.

 

[Warbaby]

This photo was from a photo album that sold last year on eBay - and one that I'm still kicking myself for not biting the bullet and buying no matter what the cost (it sold for $365). Hundreds of photos of a family that took long road trips every summer for more than 20 years, starting around 1920. Each road trip was documented and included photos of the family and their car parked beside every route sign of the roads they took. The brother and sister in this photo were about 3-4 years old when the album began.

<kick> Ouch! Damn!

Here's the first photo from the album:

This one is about 10 years later - with the daughter looking like a young Bonnie Parker:

<KICK>

 

[FedoraFan112390]

My grandpa, 1949 and 1973 (on left in the color photo)

 

[FedoraFan112390]

Thought I'd update my own topic...I never realized how common it was until recently, until I saw a few new pictures.
My great great uncle (1911-1970) wearing a T-Shirt and Slacks, mid 1950s:

My grandpa (1929-) wearing a T-shirt and slacks, between the mid 50s and early 60s. Wore a T-Shirt for most of the time even then, and now wears T-Shirts 90% of the time.

 

[FedoraFan112390]

When T-Shirts were underwear

I always find it weird to see Golden Era men wearing T-Shirts. It doesn't seem right, but it seems humorous somehow.

Clark Gable, Soldier of Fortune, 1955

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Funny, you mention the sideburns. I know a lotta folks from that era and they seemed to not adopt much of the fashions, except maybe wearing their hair a little longer, but not much, and long sideburns. I know a few who still look exactly as they did in the seventies, but older and grayer. Funny how the sideburns became so popular around here.

The first picture is a member of my family in 1949. The second picture is the same man (on the left) and his brothers in 1973. In that picture he was 53. His eldest brother, the one in the middle, was 63, and his middle brother was 61. Note all of them have long sideburns and are wearing wild, 70s clothes.

 

[Dinerman]

 

[Dinerman]

 

[Dinerman]

The term "t-shirt" or "tee shirt" goes back to at least the early 1920s, but it looks like at that time it described what we now call a sweatshirt.

Like Lizzie said, they started to become popular as sportswear around 1939.

Although I found plenty of references and descriptions to the 1920s "t-shirts", this is the only pic I could find, and it's only t-shirt inspired. 1929


1939


1939


1942


1944

 

[Dinerman]

Some more from 1939, part of a large ad campaign by Munsingwear, plugging t-shirts as both outer and underwear. It appears they were marketed as outerwear since their inception.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Thanks for the research and the pictures. "Coolest thing ever" Haha

I just remebered this pictures from 1930s franch with a lot of casual wear

 

[Dinerman]

In the 1920s and early 1930s, I'm finding references to crew-necked knit cotton sportswear shirts as the "Tennis Shirt". Origins of the term t-shirt maybe?

They were also known as "crew shirts" in the 1930s-1940s

 

[Metatron]

Thanks for the great research Dinerman!

Coolest thing ever! smooth!

 

[Dinerman]

1938