Random Things About A Nudist Colony That San Diego Put On Display For Public (12 items)

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  (#1) The Exhibit Was Part Of A Movement Away From Living Cultural Displays

  The 1930s saw an increase in nudist shows at world's fairs and exhibitions. However scandalous they may have seemed, these displays were a follow-up to a much more offensive type of exhibit. Live cultural displays were common throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, sometimes known as "human zoos." 

  These exhibits featured people from remote locations around the world living in staged versions of their home environments, which often included recreations of their living quarters and food sources. The St Louis World's Fair in 1904 hosted many living exhibits, including displays of Congolese, Philippine, Native American, and Inuit peoples. The participants acted out scenes from their daily lives for fair-goers, who had not had a chance to travel the world and see foreign lands and people for themselves. These types of exhibits eventually became widely criticized, and ceased due to perceptions of racism.
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  (#2) The Nudists Were Hired Performers, Rather Than Actual Naturists

  Many of the "naturists" who performed in Zoro Garden were "Sunday nudists." Some of them had already performed at Chicago's Century of Progress world's fair, which took place in 1933-34. However, Queen Zorene (Yvonne Stacey) claimed that she was an authentic nudist rather than simply a performer in the show. She quit her role after the first season of the exhibition and took her nudist act on the road. She continued her nudist performance career until the 1950s.
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  (#3) The Performers Were Not Fully Nude

  Even though there were no rules in San Diego about nudity in exhibitions like Zoro Garden, the performers were not actually nude. They were close, though – their uniforms included g-strings and loincloths. Some of the performers also wore barely-there tights that enhanced their figures, but couldn't be seen from a distance.
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  (#4) Rituals To The Sun God Were Performed Five Times Per Day

  The Zoro Garden exhibit was run like a sideshow event, mainly because it was created by sideshow promoters Nate Eagle and Stanley R. Graham. Kate Clark, who wrote a play about Zoro Garden, explained the concept:

  The original colony was kind of like a zoo. People could go any time of day between 11 AM and midnight, and when they got there, they never knew what the people would be up to.

  The people inhabiting the faux-colony went about their lives cooking, playing volleyball, and sunbathing in the nude. One of the staples of their routine was a 20-minute performance of a "sacrifice to the Sun God," which was done for the benefit of the viewers five times per day. The routine didn't have any true religious significance, though the exhibit was said to be inspired by Zoroastrianism. 
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  (#5) Zoro Garden Was The Biggest Money Maker For The Exhibition

  In spite of the controversy that surrounded Zoro Garden, it quickly became the biggest money-maker at the Pacific International Exhibition. The colony featured an amphitheater-like setup, where visitors could enter and take seats on bleachers to watch the nudists go about their supposed daily lives. 

  Entry to the exhibit cost 25 cents; however, many visitors preferred to use the very conspicuous peep-holes in the wood fence to catch a glimpse of the nudists for free. Later on, the price of entry was raised to 75 cents.
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  (#6) The Colony's "Queens" Caused A Stir In The Media

  The leader of the Zoro Garden nudist colony was known as Queen Zorene. It was a role played by multiple women during the exhibit's two-season run, and a highly coveted gig. The first Queen Zorene was 22-year-old Yvonne Stacey, but just before the end of the first season she left the show and 20-year-old Ruth Cubitts took her place.

  Cubitts was quickly replaced for the second season by her sister Florence, 19, who went by the stage name Tanya. There were several Cubitts sisters in the Zoro Garden exhibit. It was Tanya who brought the character of Queen Zorene to the media, flying to New York and doing interviews naked. She went on a full press tour after the exhibit ended.
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  (#7) There Were Plenty Of Protests Against The Exhibit

  Although the Zoro Garden colony wasn't breaking any laws, there were still plenty of protests around their exhibit. Groups like the Council of Catholic Women and the Women’s Civic Center voiced their opposition to the display, and were joined by an unlikely opponent of the nudists: the San Diego Braille Club. In the end, there was little the protesters could do. In spite of their actions, the Zoro Garden attraction remained popular and lucrative.
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  (#8) San Diego Didn't Have Public Indecency Laws In the 1930s

  Although the nudist colony was considered to be shocking and offensive by many locals, there was technically nothing they could do about it. In the 1930s, there weren't any public indecency laws on the books, meaning the runners of the exhibition could do what they pleased. Zoro Garden had been approved by District Attorney Thomas Whalen, who had viewed an "undress rehearsal" before the exhibit opened. He declared it to be "no worse than you would see at a burlesque show."

  Nowadays, there are laws in place that make displays like Zoro Garden unlikely in the future. For a 2016 play depicting the historic exhibit, the actors were required to wear "nude suits" rather than perform naked. The new laws state that performers must be wearing at least the minimum amount of clothing that is required by public beaches. 
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  (#9) By The 1930s, Naturism Was A Growing Trend World-Wide

  Nudism, also called naturism, was a trend that flourished in Europe before spreading to the United States in the early 20th century. "Nudist cults" began popping up throughout the Midwest in the 1930s, and they received a lot of negative attention. 

  The country was in the middle of the Great Depression, and Americans were divided over the concept of nude sunbathing. In 1932, for instance, a highly politicized debate raged in Chicago over the right to soak up the sun's rays in public. There were rumors of a nudist colony forming in rural Indiana, while around the same time a colony in Michigan was raided and its leaders charged with public indecency. 

  One group in Illinois took offense themselves at being called a nudist cult, insisting that they just liked nude sunbathing. In their defense, they told the press, "We are not a cult, not a sect, not vegetarians."

  As for the nudists of Balboa Park, the marketing materials for the exhibit claimed that they were "healthy young men and women, indulging in the freedom of outdoor living in which they so devoutly believe." The exhibit was designed with naturism in mind, in spite of the drama the movement was causing elsewhere.
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  (#10) A Performance Group Recreated The Zoro Garden Experience

  In 2016, a TV and live event series called "Parkeology" did a deep dive into the history and often-overlooked places of Balboa Park. One part of the series focused on Zoro Garden, entitled "The Naked Truth: The Rise And Fall Of America’s Only Public Nudist Colony In Four Acts."

  The creators of the play, Kate Clark and Whelton Jones, sought to bring the idea of Zoro Garden into the present. Clark told the San Diego Uptown News, "Reenactments solidify things as being in the past. The plan is to have different modern things incorporated, like, there will be a juice there and some people will be wearing Crocs." Performers also have to wear nude suits, as per new city laws regarding public nudity.

  Clark also reflected on the general sense of scandal that surrounds the history of the Zoro Garden exhibit:

  Part of this project is about the absurdity of having them in nude suits. Another part involves looking at what was happening during this era that allowed this to occur and asking why that’s not possible now. My hope is that people realize that people have always been weird. So many people have this attitude about "The Past" that people behaved better, and I think this gives an interesting window into a moment of experimentalism in California that was pre-World War II that was taking place during the Great Depression.
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  (#11) The Garden Was Named After Zoroaster, Founder Of Zoroastrianism

  Although the name Zoro Garden had been "borrowed" from another nudist colony in Roselawn, IN, the garden was said to be named after Zoroaster. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, dating back to Persia around 4,000 years ago. Zoroaster (sometimes called Zarathustra) was said to be a prophet who called for followers to worship one god instead of many.

  Zoroastrianism shaped the ancient Persian Empire, and is believed to have influenced the development of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths. However, Zoroastrianism's ties to Zoro Garden end with the name. The side-show promoters were being very creative when they came up with their "Sacrifice to the Sun God" routine, and there were no other religious references.
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  (#12) Today, The Site Serves As A Butterfly Garden

  Zoro Garden has been made over into an ideal home for butterflies. The space features plants like butterfly bush, foxglove, and California lilac, which feed butterflies from their larva stage through their metamorphosis. There are also small pools carved into the stone plant beds that serve as drinking spots.

  The species that visit the garden include monarch, swallowtail, sulfur, and skipper butterflies. And for those who want to know about the garden's risqué past, a large sign near the entrance tells the tale of the 1935-36 exhibition.

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