MovieChat Forums > The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Discussion > What was with the hut on wheels on the b...

What was with the hut on wheels on the beach?

posted 9 years ago by JPLogan54
6 replies | jump to latest

and the rope she was attached to? Was she jogging in place in the surf?
That was bizarre.

[–] EleanorDashwood 9 years ago

The bathing machine was a device, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, possibly change into swimwear and then wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled wooden carts rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls; others have canvas walls over a wooden frame.

The bathing machine was part of etiquette for sea-bathing more rigorously enforced upon women than men but to be observed by both sexes among those who wished to be proper.

I did a quick search on line an found the above information.

[–] JPLogan54 9 years ago

Thanks

[–] nutsberryfarm 9 years ago

i'd like one.

🎍Season's greetings!🎅🌲

[–] Wendalou 9 years ago

I think the rope she was hanging on to was to keep her safe. If a woman got swept away her "bathing costume" would have made it very east for her to drown.

[–] FootOfDavros (8717) 2 years ago

Yes. Back in those days a woman could get quite hysterical at the prospect of getting into trouble in the water. The rope was a necessary device to keep a woman - of that time - safe...

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]