Zoro Garden Nudist Colony

Zoro (or Zorro) Garden Nudist Colony was a reputed nudist colony, composed in its first season only of comely young women, at Balboa Park's Pacific International Exposition in San Diego, California. Although the San Diego Historical Society has posted a timeline based on contemporary newspaper accounts indicating the "colony" was composed of actual nudists, [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/exhibits/weird/zoro.htm] local historian Matthew Alice has stated that the women were "wearing flesh-colored bras, G-strings, or body stockings so everything was zipped up tight." [http://www.sdreader.com/php/ma_show.php?id=91]

The Historical Society timeline states that the county's district attorney, Thomas Whalen, inspected the "colony" the day before the opening of the world's fair in May 1935 and approved it. The admission charge was 25 dollars. The next month "amateur nudists" demanded that Whalen investigate the showgirls as frauds, but he declined. One of the Zoro women rode through the fairgrounds on a burro and was arrested but was "acquitted and rode again under police supervision."

Protests came from the San Diego Council of Catholic Women, the Women's Civic Center and the San Diego Braille Club, and a few days later the city manager announced that there would be no "indecent" shows in Balboa Park during the second season of the exposition, which opened in February 1936. It was announced that the 1936 nudist colony would consist of "a play of lights on beautiful figures." In that year two men joined the lineup of "nudists." On August 27, 1936, according to the timeline, the colony closed "after an argument with Exposition officials about finances."