Chief Askew's Diary: July 10, 1930

He yearns for rain; Alamo Theater shows 'Tanned Legs'

Chief Askew was entirely focused on the weather again today, “the hottest day we have had in several years.” Indeed, the Atlanta Journal acknowledged a record-setting 99.7 degrees that day, topped by 100 degrees the next. Atlantans broke another record in their water use: 40.5 million gallons, some of it going into swimming pools and lawn sprinklers, with officials pleading with residents to conserve.

The city of Newnan was providing between 750,000 and 800,000 gallons of water a day during the heat wave. Fortunately, Newnan was getting a new water pump with capacity of a thousand gallons a minute, according to a report in the July 11 Newnan Herald.

One way to beat the heat was to go to the movies. At The Alamo on Newnan’s downtown square, a release from a new studio called Radio Pictures — soon to be renamed RKO — was playing. It was called Tanned Legs. Paid subscribers can read on about this bit of fluff, which captured the last flame-out of 1929 before the stock market crashed.

The movie poster from Tanned Legs was accessed via Wikipedia.