The Deadly 1936 Heat Wave Helped Popularize Shorts in the US

In addition to causing heatstroke and heart attacks, the extreme heat and lack of sleep drove people to make rash decisions and simple mistakes that proved equally deadly. People swam in disease-ridden rivers and floated on inner tubes despite not knowing how to swim. Sand-pit swimming holes were popular along rivers, but they also swallowed people whole. A middle-aged man in Nebraska fell off his roof while attempting to sleep on it overnight.

In some cases, people’s own possessions betrayed them. A tin roof-topped house burned down in New York after the metal became too hot. Tire blowouts caused numerous collisions. Electric fans, lacking modern-day protective cages, mangled and maimed people across the country.

“The heat can kill you in a lot of creative ways,” Williams says.

In July, the Des Moines Tribune ran the headline, “Wear Little Clothing If You Like—It’s Legal.” This reminder to Iowans about their sartorial rights not only reflected the fashion norms of the era, but it also underscored how liberal Des Moines was on the topic.

That wasn’t the case in Yonkers, New York, which did have an anti-shorts law. On July 10, Rose O’Gorman and William Matthias were fined $10 each (around $220 in 2026) for violating the city’s ban on wearing shorts in public. Although a sympathetic judge suspended their fines, O’Gorman and Matthias—who wore shorts hoping to be caught—took their case to the New York Court of Appeals. In 1937, they won, liberating bare legs in the New York City suburb to this day.

Yet, the 1936 heat wave didn’t spark a lasting, widespread fashion revolution. “Overall, society went back to hats and gloves, but I do think it paved the way,” Williams says. “The heat wave summer of 1936 changed a lot of minds.”

In the following decades, more people came to embrace shorts, and by the 1950s, they were here to stay.