The influential period Photoplay, which ceased in 1980, used a panel of industry experts to scrutinize actress' body proportions
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Winning proportions: Dolores Del Rio was voted as having the best figure in Hollywood in the 1931 issue of Photoplay magazine
Offering a fascinating insight into how the 'ideal' body type has changed over the years, a 1931 magazine debates which leading lady has the 'best figure in Hollywood'.
Twenty-one women were selected by the influential period Photoplay, which ceased publication in 1980, with their statistics scrutinized by a panel of industry experts. Even their glove and wrist sizes were up for assessment.
Overall the late Mexican movie star Delores Del Rio, then 26, was crowned winner - beating the likes of Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford with her 'warmly curved' silhouette.
The actress, who famously had a love affair with Orson Welles ten years her junior, stood 5ft 4.5in tall and weighed 120lbs according to the article. Her bust measured 33in, her waist 25in and hips 36in.
'Her selection definitely establishes the superiority of the roundly turned, warmly curved figure . . . She is a far hail from the straight up and down type,' the magazine notes.
Slate highlights that to a modern audience sensitive to body issues, the magazine feature seems 'abhorrent' with women’s measurements being 'explicitly' assessed.
However the perception of the ideal body type was shifting greatly at the time. During the Twenties, in the aftermath of World War I, a lean, flat-chested silhouette and generally androgynous appearance was in vogue.
But by the early Thirties fashion slowly started gravitating towards a fuller and more feminine figure.
'The general notion of what is a good figure no longer seems to be what [it] was a year or more ago when, influenced by the unsound fad which glorifies boyish forms,' the magazine continues.
'Mrs and Miss America survived on lamb chops and pineapple, oranges and lettuce.'
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ShareThe judging panel included Broadway producer Earl Carroll. He eliminated Swedish starlet Greta Garbo because he felt she was too slim.
'Backbones should not be social, protruding like clipped wings when low cut evening gowns are worn'
'He feels Greta should weigh more than she does, be closer to the weight she was in Sweden before she reduced to comply with our American picture ideals,' the editorial states.
In the end he made his final choice from Marion Davies, Dolores Del Rio, Clara Bow and Bebe Daniels - the ‘four girls who weigh the most for their height’.
'There is no sense of frailty about them. They are roundly turned. They are, in every instance, a far hail from any boyish form, and they are not the underdeveloped, adolescent type,' he explained, before selecting Del Rio as winner.
Runners-up: (From left) Marion Davies interested judges because of her 'well-developed' figure, Joan Crawford was rated high by one judge and Bebe Danies came very near to being winner in the 'contest'
Fellow judge Earl Christy, an American artist who was responsible for many of the Photoplay front covers, also expressed distaste for skinny women.
‘Backbones . . . should not be social, protruding like clipped wings when low cut evening gowns are worn,' he warned.
'They rob a women a that lovely, rounded look. They are reminders of the mechanism of the body, of joint fitting into joint. Joints of course are very important, but they function quite as efficiently unseen.'
He immediately eliminated two girls from his list for this reason and three more because when they stood with their feet together 'daylight was visible between their knees.'
In the end he plumped for the film and stage star Bebe Daniels for her 'glowing warmth' and 'lovely symmetry'.
Vital statistics: This chart from a 1931 issue of Phototplay magazine reveals how Hollywood's leading ladies measured-up - it states that many went on 'starvation diets' to conform to 'American picture ideals'
New York-based doctor AL Goldwater, also weighed in on the discussion. He wrote: 'I most earnestly hope that a star who has curves and looks as a women should look will be granted as having Hollywood's best figure.
'There was something in that old rumor about men preferring a more curved figure than women feel ideal'
'I know the tremendous influence the screen exerts on modern life. And I am a little dismayed by the number of girls and young women who come to my office suffering from anemia and low blood pressure. Too often their ailments can be traced to ill-advised and strenuous dieting.’
Like Carroll he picked Del Rio as the star with the best body.
But going against the general verdict, the only female judge, famed dressmaker Hattie Carnegie, opted for the slimmer actress Constance Bennett.
'Miss Bennett is a trifle slim perhaps, but to my mind, she more than atones for this but her carriage and by the way her head is placed on her gracious shoulders,' the late fashion expert said.
Controversial: The March 1931 issue of Photoplay asked which leading lady had the 'best figure in Hollywood'
'It looks as if there was something in that old rumor about men preferring a more curved figure than women feel ideal,' the magazine followed.
In the end Del Rio, who was away from the acting scene at the time due to a kidney infection, was voted as having the best figure in Hollywood with 13 points. Bebe Daniels was runner-up.
The magazine concludes: 'Beauty is what it always has been and always will be, the result of health.'
The article came from the March 1931 issue of Photoplay, the premier film fan magazine of Hollywood from its 1911 founding through the 1950s.
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