The Table Tennis 49 - ITTF

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F rom ping-pong jewelry in Part V, we now turn to the ping- pong wardrobe in Part VI of our journey through U.S. newspapers from the early era. Apparel showed how greatly the new game fired the nation's imagination. This inspiration was on great display in the accompanying photograph, which may well be from a new summer resort entertainment described in the New York Sun in July, 1902: In the "Procession of Games, any number of persons, preferably young and pretty of course, may take part, their costumes representing different sports and pastimes. Ping-pong (table tennis), for instance, would call for tennis suits, accompanied by stringing of balls with rackets-the last two in miniature, of course. A woman's costume might [be] a short, Photo courtesy of Martin Holland Collectibles from the Early Era ... As Seen through U.S. Newspapers of the Day Part VI: The Fashionable Fanatic by Steve Grant (USA) plain skirt in grass-green satin, with flat bands in white satin to represent the lines of the tennis courts. A tunic of tennis net edged with balls trims the skirt." An article in the Utica (NY) Tribune in June '02 described a "pingpong costume....of white cloth and lace, with a willowy green mesh embroidered with regulation rackets," adding that a different definition of racket ensues when the costume comes home with bill attached and the father roars, "'What's this fool thing? What do you mean by pingpong anyhow?'," but then he himself gets hooked on the new game. From the Brooklyn Eagle in April '02: "The craze for ping-pong has naturally attached the euphonious name to articles of apparel. The ping-pong waist [bodice or shirt] is one of the latest manifestations." Its long tie has "the distinctive pingpong element, consisting of an embroidery of ping-pong racquets and balls." According to the crosstown paper, the NY Times, "These racquets are not half as attractive as the genuine tennis racquets which appeared upon waists and ties when tennis occupied a more prominent place in the public mind. The cat-gut strung racquets made a showy basket work for the embroiderer, but while similar racquets may be used for ping pong, an attempt has to be made to reproduce the vellum-covered heads, for otherwise the ignorant would never know a ping pong racquet was intended." From the NY Times in July: "A ping-pong waist in white tucked muslin has the ping-pong racquet in tan set into it upon the upper part, with the balls scattered like big dots around them. They are outlined in red…" "The ping-pong shirt waist has arrived," said the Syracuse (NY) Telegram in May. "...the ends of the cravat are ornamented with a ping-pong bat and ball, embroidered in colored silk. Sometimes the deep, turned back cuffs are similarly adorned." The drawing seen here from the Ogden (UT) Standard in June shows how those "who are devotees of the game embroider crossed rackets upon the left arm or upon one cuff." "As may be supposed," said a May article referring to Washington D.C., "the stores have not been slow to take advantage of the commercial possibilities of the craze...The ping-pong waist is prominently displayed in the shop windows and is a phenomenal seller." "Specially interesting," says a Salt Lake (UT) Herald ad in June, "is our mammoth stock of Ping-Pong Waists...These styles are universally known to be the latest New York fad." "Ping-pong shirt waists are very smart and new," said the Oshkosh (WI) Northwestern in June. "On the left sleeve near the shoulder ping-pong racquets are worked with washable silk in blue or red or brown, as desired, and the belt shows a border of the little designs over the entire surface. Hats come to match these waists and these are of the regulation sailor shape, but developed in Panama straw finished with a band of white taffeta. Instead of having a bow at the left side as customarily, the band extends into streamers at the back which reach to the waist, the end being embroidered with ping-pong racquets." From the Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette in July: "While the game of ping-pong rages it is going to give its name to all sorts of things. We are already familiar with the pingpong waist [and] the ping-pong gown…Now comes the ping-pong hat. It is worn when the ping-pong tables are placed on the lawn. It is a novelty in shape and trimming and said to be becoming." An April '02 ad in the Brooklyn Eagle introduces: "Ping-Pong Veiling. Something new, and it is pretty, too-for a veil or hat trim 6
Sure to interest you." A July Hints from the Shops column in that paper said, "The omnipresent ping-pong racquet appears on veils in various shades of brown." Said the Skaneateles (NY) Free Press in June, "From a popular millinery establishment comes hats on the upturned brims of which pingpong rackets and balls are appliqued in fancy straw. The crowns, too, are trimmed with silk scarfs embroidered in the same design. Then there are socks both in linen and silk in which the pingpong emblem is used as a decorative feature." "Pingpong hose, so called," said the Dubuque (IA) Telegraph- Herald in August, "have tiny rackets and balls worked over their surfaces." A June ad in the Brooklyn Eagle offered "Ping-Pong and Tennis Shoes for misses and children". "PING PONG SHOE LACES," said an ad in the San Antonio (TX) Express in June '02. "It's Ping Pong this and Ping Pong that, and the latest fad is the Ping Pong Shoe Laces for Oxfords. Lead the fashion and wear a pair of them." "Ping-pong...has become the excuse for a dozen new and fascinating little extravagances," said the Ogden Standard in July '02. The "drawing room girl....was never seen to better advantage,...with her skirts held tight in her one hand, while she plays with the other." Ball pockets on each hip were a feature of a dress illustrated in the paper in May, along with pleats for freedom of movement, under the headline "Ping Pong Fashions Foulard is the Acceptable Silk for Table Tennis Frocks." "The influence of the ping-pong craze," said the Nebraska State Journal in May '02, "is shown in nothing more remarkably, perhaps, than in the fact that women are actually having corsets made for the purpose of enabling them to play the game more skillfully and easily than they could in the ordinary garment. It has been found that the old-style corset not only hampers the form, but lowers the score." From the NY Times in June '02: "Some of the French corset covers are charming....In one waist there is a figure on either side below the insertion and edging. It is made of the insertion curled into the exact shape of ping pong racket and handle." Sometimes we collectors must plead ignorance as to whether a racquet image is tennis or table tennis, as with this ladies' belt in the NY Times in May '02: "Different from the other belts, and yet with the five slides and clasp over a soft black satin, is a tennis-or ping-pong-belt. The slide and clasps to this are a silver gilt, or it is just possible a gilt without the silver. The slides are narrow and with racquets upon them. The centre one is the longest, the slides on either side graduating. The clasps, which are shorter, are in butterfly shape, and have the racquets set diago- nally upon them." The Atlanta Constitution in September '03 had an ad for belts known as "Chain Girdles, with large Indian beads at intervals, Ping-Pong ball attached to each end..." Abraham & Strauss in the Brooklyn Eagle in June '02 advertised "Women's black pleated satin Belts, mounted with oxidized buckles in back and front, nicely finished in ping-pong design and several other styles....47c." A store in October offered "Ladies' Ping Pong Belts...trimmed with back ornaments and two side ornaments of miniature Ping Pong Racquets." In the San Francisco Call in December, an ad offered "Buckle Sets, 25c...Which includes ornaments for the sides and back, some in ping pong, others in flowers, medallions and other patterns, gold or oxidized." "Ping-Pong stocks [neckwear] and belts are innumerable and exceedingly chic, the ecru linen embroidered leading in popularity," according to the Ogden (UT) Standard in June '02. Under the heading of Women's Neckwear, an April ad in the Brooklyn Eagle offered, among other things, "Mannish neckwear ... Golfing and hunting stocks, Ping-Pong Stocks, Ascots, and Fourin-Hands." From a NY Times column in June: "Ping-pong stocks have the ping-pong rackets in black and white crossed on the white duck stock in front, and other rackets crossed on the two ends." One store the same month offered women "Windsor Ties for Ping-Pong Collars, of colored Madras, at...15c each." 7
Page 1 and 2: The Table Tennis Collector Journal
Page 3 and 4: Great Shots: Historic Photographs T
Page 5: This American patent, filed in 1889
Page 9 and 10: THE MUSIC OF TABLE TENNIS by Alan D
Page 11 and 12: Ping Pong (Your Serve) Ping Pong wi
Page 13 and 14: S This Tony Special Stiga picture b
Page 15 and 16: This postcard was sent by Tokyo spo
Page 17 and 18: Liechtenstein: 02.06.2008 Paralympi
Page 19 and 20: Cai Zhanghua, Deng Yaping and Kong
Page 21 and 22: Celebrity Photo T Gallery - an Upda
Page 23 and 24: F eatured Book: Twenty One Up, by l
Page 25 and 26: Erik Kenneth Muhr 2 Highgate Hill,

The Table Tennis 49 - ITTF

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