In 1894, Golden Gate Park’s Midwinter Fair was the talk of the town. Featuring fairground rides, museums, an ostrich farm and the closest thing San Francisco ever got to an Eiffel Tower, the fair was a raging success with over two million visitors. There was just one element of the five-month exposition, however, that got visitors flustered and flabbergasted: the Gum Girls.
Hired to peddle chewing gum to the fair’s male clientele, the Gum Girls wore matching outfits, traveled in pairs, and were in the habit of whistling “Two Little Girls in Blue” any time they made a sale. Which was often. Chewing gum had only recently been transformed from its chicle-based roots into something fun and fruity. (The first fruit-flavored gum, Kis-Me, hit markets in 1886; Wrigley introduced Juicy Fruit just one year before the fair.) The song, penned by Charles Graham in 1893, became a near-constant refrain at the fair—particularly on the Midway, where the Gum Girls did most of their business.
As quaint as this all sounds, the Gum Girls were controversial figures from the very first day of the Midwinter Fair. For one, they flirted shamelessly with their male customers, largely motivated by the fact that they were working on commission. More scandalous still, they wore calf-length pleated skirts that exposed their ankles. That they also wore thick black stockings—meaning there was no bare flesh on display—did not quell the hullaballoo surrounding their revealing (by Victorian standards) attire.
One San Francisco Examiner reporter could barely conceal his ire while writing about the Gum Girls in April 1894. He did his best to denigrate the young women, implying they lacked grace and class.
The prevailing type of gum girl ranges in age from 25 to 40. Most of them are stout, with faces creased from experience. None of them are refined, of course … They never wear gloves, but their hands are protected from the wind by quantities of rings. From their necks boxes of gum are strung by means of a strap. The boxes are always open and the gum girl is always patronizing her own wares. With wagging jaws and a stereotyped smile she gazes at each passer-by and invites almost every man to purchase.
The report continued disdainfully:
Everybody calls the gum girls by their first names. To say ‘Mrs’ or ‘Miss’ would seem very inappropriate and if you don’t know their given names and say Mamie or Lizzie at a venture you are almost certain to strike it right. Old patrons ask the gum girls how their children or grandchildren are, and these attempts at wit invariably bring out a flood of choice slang.
Because the Gum Girls were routinely subjected to such disparagement, they found themselves on the receiving end of both verbal abuse and unwanted advances by men at the fair. (This was the primary reason they worked in pairs.) An incident on May 5, 1894, however, sent a loud and clear message to potential harassers all over the city.
