This is sort of an interesting article:
Nylon was first introduced around 1939 and was rapidly in extremely high demand in the US, with up to 4 million pairs of stockings bought in one day. The riots occurred between August 1945 and March 1946, when Du Pont shifted its manufacturing from wartime material to nylon stockings, at the same time launching a promotional campaign
Heh.
In August 1945, just 8 days after Japan’s surrender, Du Pont announced that it would move back to producing stockings and newspaper headlines cheered “Peace, It’s Here! Nylons on Sale!” Du Pont’s announcement indicated that nylons would be available in September and the motto “Nylons by Christmas” was sung everywhere. Du Pont originally forecasted that it would be able to produce 360 million pairs per year but this estimate turned out to be over-aggressive. The resulting production delays led to shortage and as a result, riots broke out.
The first riot occurred in September when a small post-war shipment of stockings went on limited sale around the country. Stores were flooded with mobs of women, clamoring to get their hands on a pair of nylons. The riots then grew in severity. In November, 30,000 women reportedly lined up in New York; 40,000 women in Pittsburgh queued up for a mere 13,000 pairs. A headline in Augusta, Georgia read “Women Risk Life and Limb in Bitter Battle for Nylons” and went on to detail how crowds clamored into the store, knocking down shelves and displays along the way.
That’s our mothers or grandmothers he’s talking about there, brawling over pantyhose. Who knew.
Is it fair to call this a nylon bubble? At any rate, certainly some of Tyler Cowen‘s low-hanging fruit. If you haven’t read his book The Great Stagnation, I highly recommend it: very well-researched, and a fascinating counterpoint to Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near.
Comments
13 responses to “Nylon Riots”
It wasn’t “pantyhose!” Nylons were held up by garders. That dangled off of girdles. Or you had to wear a “garter belt.”
They also came with seams in the back.
Or unseamed.
And, you folded the tops over, so you could hook your garters into them.
During WW2, according to Philip Wylie, women had sex with American soldiers for a pair of stockings (nylons), and a chocolate Hershey bar.
1946 was the year the two piece bathing suit was invented.
Sorry. Those were not pantyhose which came on the market much later. These were regular hose held up by garters and garter belts.
Pantyhose? You dummy! I can see you’re not a leg man.
worth taking a punch for
lips heal
legs are better in nylon
‘lanched
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/122203/
My grandmother tells me that the first nylons didn’t get runs in them: the weave was different, and they were practically indestructible.
The manufacturers soon fixed this obvious flaw, and the rest is history.
Well, “nylons” generally refers to any kind of hosiery made of nylon, though it’s interesting some poeple apparently feel strongly about the nomenclature.
A rose by any other name…
As one who remembers her mothers nylon stockings, during the war she would take them to one of our local department stores and have them mended if they got a run. The nylons that women wear today are almost untouchable or they get a snag or run and maybe it’s time for Barbara Boxer to get involved :o)
Huh. Somehow I thought everyone knew about this already. I’m surprised to see someone reacting with surprise.
Thanks you lord…I never have to wear nylons again. EVER!
The great humorist, James Thurber, had his marriage come a cropper when he observed one day that when his wife went out to lunch, the run in her stocking was on the right leg. When she returned that afternoon, the run had moved to her left leg!
[…] This riot is perfectly understandable. […]
[…] and as expected, demand soared after the war ended. And by “soared,” we mean that there was actual rioting in the streets when sole source DuPont couldn’t possibly meet that […]