Zoro (or Zorro) Gardens 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, [1] 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." [2]

Matthew Alice is incorrect, the women were indeed topless, as countless un-doctored photographs plainly show. The women did, however, wear G-strings. The men wore tiny loincloth-type shorts.

Excerpted with permission from the book: "San Diego's Balboa Park" by David Marshall, AIA Nate Eagle, a sideshow promoter who, with partner Stanley R. Graham, created the scandalous Zoro Gardens nudist colony. Located in a sunken garden east of the Palace of Better Housing (today's Casa de Balboa), Zoro Gardens was, according to the Zoro Gardens program, "designed to explain to the general public the ideals and advantages of natural outdoor life." Topless women and bearded men in loincloths read books, sunbathed, and acted in pseudo-religious rituals to the Sun God. According to the program, "Healthy young men and women, indulging in the freedom of outdoor living in which they so devoutly believe, have opened their colony to the friendly, curious gaze of the public." The public’s curious gaze quickly turned Zoro Gardens into the Exposition’s most lucrative outdoor attraction. Despite protests, Zoro Gardens lasted for the entire run of the Exposition. The area is now the Zoro Butterfly Garden.

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 next month "amateur nudists" demanded that Whalen investigate the showgirls as frauds, but he declined. One of the Zoro women rode through the fairgrounds [Gold Gulch]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."

Ruth from the Zoro Gardens program, 1935 (modified for Wikipedia)

Historic real photo postcard of Zoro Gardens ("Zorro" is a typo)

Cover of the official Zoro Gardens program, 1935.