Video: The Lady Lifeguards Of Manhattan Beach, Circa 1940

We came across this incredible historic gem of a film this week, featuring the extraordinary training of the first female lifeguards of Manhattan Beach. The film, dug out of the public domain section of the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive (the wing housing the collection of U.S. cultural history), is a wonderful document of life on beautiful Manhattan Beach in 1940. I was impressed by the old-timey swimsuits, ridiculous drill-like training routines (can someone please explain what is going on starting at 3:47?), and the hilarious canned orchestral soundtrack, which has been parodied thousands of times since its heyday.