Pin-Up Girls – Thirties, Forties & Fifties
The desire for pin-up girls really came into it’s own with the development of the movie industry. Audiences flocked to see their favourite stars in their latest movie, and then sought to have their pictures on their bedroom walls or in magazines.
Soon fans were clamouring for photos of their favourite movie or theatre stars, and so an industry of glamorous photos to cheer people up in what was an era of drabness and war began.
Katherine Hepburn, Betty Grable, Maureen O’Hara to name but a few were made more famous by their photos being used on calendars, stuck on schoolboy lockers and in army barracks.
There were man’s ideal of the “perfect woman” and the movie studios invented fictitious life stories around them to make them even more appealing.
Pin-up girls represented everything an average woman in the street aspired to and reflected a glamorous side of life that was sadly missing in the forties and fifties.
In the thirties such stars as Vivien Leigh, Greta Garbo and Dorothy Lamour had graced our screens and given us all an outlet outside our ordinary lives. As it was gradually realised by the movie moguls that there was a great thirst for glamour pin-ups so the industry began to grow.
Central to all of this of course was the glamour photographer. Gradually these photographers became almost as famous as the models themselves, and by developing new ideas as to how to capture the best images possible, the pin-ups became more and more sophisticated.
The pin-up photo of Jane Russell in the film “The Outlaw” however caused quite a lot of controversy and was considered at the time to be extremely provocative and daring. How times have changed!
The servicemen’s lives during World War II were relieved by their pin-up photos which were plastered over the walls and lockers in their barracks. “Nose art” painted on the cockpit of planes became the norm and helped the men to face the horrors of the war and brought some normality to what was a terrible time in their lives.
The pin-up photographs became a tool in the advertising and music industry. It was soon realised that a glamorous woman’s photo could sell products such as washing machines, cars etc. So another industry was born.
The music industry used pin-up photos of the artists themselves to promote their new albums and so it was not just the movie stars that were being sought after.
Newspapers started to appreciate the selling power of the pin-up and began using more and more glamorous pin-up photos in their papers and magazines.
Agents for actresses and singers recognised an opportunity for free publicity and started to supply newspapers and magazines with photos of their clients for publication.
The fashion industry itself started to use glamorous stars to promote their designs and shows and so the pin-up girls became more and more in demand. What had started out as a trip to the theatre or cinema for relaxation and a time away from the day to day drudgery of everyday life became a huge and successful industry within itself.