Photo Friday: Dancing (Bird) Girls Edition

Good morning!

FRIDAY. IT'S HERE. IT'S NOW. I am glad to see the weekend within reach!

Today for Photo Friday, I have been admiring a few photosets featuring these little girls, a group of New Orleans sisters in the 1920's who also had a flair for dramatic dance (and dramatic dance costumes!). My, aren't they cute, though!!

Folks, here are the Ames sisters, circa year of our Lord 1925:

From oldest to youngest (as identified in this photo), the girls are Barbara, Mary Eloise, Marjorie, Alice and Dorothy. Marjorie, the little dutch bobbed girl in the center, reminds me of a prettier Barbara Hutton with her blond hair and dark eyebrows...she would grow up to be the mother of guy running this altogether too fun photo set. According to this caption, the Ames' mother signed the older three girls up for acrobatic dance lessons when they were bored with nothing to do one summer, and soon the two younger siblings joined the act, which they continued throughout high school, even opening their own dance studio. I love how dramatic and darling these little costumes are, and the idea that in the twenties', you could just join a dance studio without any of the dark, hypersexualized pageant overtones of today's over-glitzed, over-glamorized youth dance competitions (dude, Dance Moms. I'm just sayin). Look how precious and ethereal the girls look in black and white, in the midst of their poised posings.

While this dress is the hands down the one I'd most want to wear (hello, proto-Stevie) :

The bird costume, which two of the girls actually wore, IS KILLING ME FOR HOW CUTE IT IS. Look at the faux-avians in motion:

And this one:

Did you notice the headpiece is a beak and eyes? And how the crepe feathers actually remind one of a pterodactyl? The little girls' mother made their dance costumes, and I think she knocked it out of the park on this one. I can't even imagine how excited I would have been about this as a little girl. What colors do you think it was?

I have to get crackin' on estate sales, but you can read more about the girls and their eventual brushes with big time show business, including sharing performance bills with a lot of well known vaudeville names, in the caption to this professional photo from the forties'. There are A TON more photos where this came from (including this and this group shot, which is precious, and this photo of three of them, which is weird!), along with other snaps of non-musical (but just as interesting) members of the family.

So! Got any plans this weekend? Which of these little dance snaps are your favorite? Found any crazy old series of photos lately? Let's talk!

That's all for this week, but I will catch you right back here on Monday. Have a fabulous WEEKEND, YES, PRAISES, and I'll see on the other side! Til then.