Back in 1917, George Wesley Bellows' sketch of The Shower Bath was a huge hit with mainstream America. Time magazine can't quite explain the appeal.

The Shower Bath is full of a lot of naked businessmen who have just been trying to exercise. A scrawny little man is standing by the pool snickering at a brawny tub-of-guts who looks like Bully Boy Brewster. A bony oaf on the springboard is telling a dirty joke to a bald-headed codger with a pot belly. Goggle-eyed boosters paddle about in the pool or rub their misshapen haunches with towels. Near the showers is a scales for them to weight themselves on.

A clue to its popularity comes in a note accompanying its recent exhibition:

Jonathan Katz, in an extraordinarily clear and interesting catalog essay, reveals that the print sold out in three editions, suggesting more than a niche appeal. He also discusses the sexual mores of the period, and the fact that hetero-identifying men might maintain that identity and have liaisons with other men, as long as they maintained the male role.

We look again at the picture, and now we get it. Now we know why this was 1917's version of Big Mouth Billy Bass.

WOMAN #1: Look in the middle there. There's a banker, just like my Wally, out for some exercise but entranced by the wanton cavorting of some skinny queen. Look! His face shows sheer befuddlement, but that erection says "You go, boy!" Isn't it hysterical?

WOMAN #2: Ha. Men!