The U.S. Army Had a Beard Contest In 1941, and These Are the Entries

In 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the men at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines had a beard contest. “The Unwritten Record,” a blog run by The National Archives, wrote about the recent find, saying the charming footage was “nestled among shots of city streets and training exercises.”

The memo announcing the contest was brief:

Look how proud these two beardless men were to have pinned it on the board!

Though there’s no audio, you don’t need ears to comprehend the glory in beards like this one:

Or this one:

Ooooh, what about this one:

Look at all of ‘em!

Though we have no idea who won (apparently that part wasn’t worth documenting), I’m fairly certain it wasn’t this guy:

Thanks to the miracle of digitization, the entire film documenting the event is available on YouTube in truly glorious HD.