Man at Tropical-Themed Outdoor Party Backdrop, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Man at Tropical-Themed Outdoor Party Backdrop, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Man at Tropical-Themed Outdoor Party Backdrop, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-9FD288

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Somewhere in the 1950s, someone decided that an outdoor gathering needed a wall of dark plastic sheeting painted to resemble giant tropical foliage, because the actual outdoors apparently wasn't scenic enough. The man standing in front of it wears the era's standard-issue leisure uniform — Hawaiian-print short-sleeve shirt, light shorts, wristwatch — the complete postwar American male at ease, dressed for relaxation with the same systematic thoroughness he brought to everything else. He is glancing down at something off to his right with the expression of a person who organised this party and has already noticed the first thing that has gone wrong. The tropical theme was enormously fashionable in mid-century suburban America, riding the wave of tiki culture and the romanticised Pacific that World War II veterans had carried home and immediately tried to recreate in their backyards at a fraction of the cost. The painted plastic behind him was someone's confident solution to the problem of not living in Hawaii, and it looks exactly as convincing as it needed to.

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