Published in a 1930 fan magazine, this article tells the story of the earliest days of cosmetic surgery in Hollywood:
"Telling the actual names of all the stars who have been to the plastic surgeon is an impossible task. They won't admit it, except in a few isolated instances...It is only lately that a few of them are beginning, not only to to admit that they've had their faces bettered, but to even go so far as to publicly announce it."
Click here to read more articles from PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE.
Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York nightclubs of 1937.
In the parlance of today it is politely called Rhinoplasty but back in the day, the verb "bob" was in use - which meant "to cut short" and no matter what you call the procedure, you'll see that the gent pictured in this photo-essay needed a nose-job PRONTO!
During the course of the past 63 years the triumphs of The Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery have been many and myriad. Established in New York in 1951, the organization was originally called The Society for the Rehabilitation of the Facially Disfigured, and they have been the pioneers in the art of tissue transplants and the aesthetic surgery movement in general.
The attached article was first seen on the pages of a 1959 issue CORONET MAGAZINE and it recalls many of their earliest achievements.
Here are some assorted musings concerning the budding cosmetic surgery scene of the early Fifties by the Hollywood movie queen Susan Hayward (1917 – 1975).
At the time this article appeared on the newsstands in 1952, there were probably fewer than 100 plastic surgeons throughout the entire United States and breast augmentation surgery was in its infancy, however advancements were being made daily as a result of the carnage generated by the Second World War. La Hayward was cautiously optimistic regarding the brave, new world of aesthetic surgery:
"The wonderful thing about plastic surgery is that it can do almost anything you want it to do... If you have a birthmark on your face or body, a good plastic surgeon can remove it. Even if you have such real disfigurements as a harelip, an expert plastic surgeon can achieve the impossible."
