The Blue Laws were created by Christian extremists to prevent people from having any personal enjoyment on Sundays.
The laws prevented any sort of entertainment, including sports, on Sundays. They also included no haircuts, no shaving, no soda, and other activities.
Below is an article on how Ocean City circumvented those freedom-hating laws in 1927.
Circumventing the Blue Laws
The Ocean City Chamber of Commerce announces that plans have been finally completed and subscriptions received for the erection of a $300,000 natatorium and beach club.
The project, which is being promoted by the Chamber of Commerce, in the words of Major Joseph G. Champion, will be Ocean City’s “only genuine amusement.”
Because of the city’s ordinance prohibiting the operation of amusements of any kind, and even the sale of soft drinks on Sunday, amusement proprietors have never located here, and so well has the natatorium idea seized the interest of the city’s residents as a ‘project that will retroactively prove beneficial to the resort that more than $100,000 has already been subscribed for its erection.
The natatorium will be allowed to operate on Sundays and has also been given the endorsement and support of the city’s clergy.
The natatorium will be erected this winter at Sixth street and the boardwalk and will provide accommodations for 3,000 bathers.
Source: The Pleasantville Press. (Pleasantville, N.J.), 22 July 1927.
