Pin up girl calendars were a pretty big deal in the forties and fifties. During world war 2 you would find them everywhere. Hollywood was a nice distraction for anyone involved in the war. The hottest movie stars of the day could be seen in Pin-up art on the walls of barracks and ships of soldiers and sailors. Aircraft often had pin up girls painted on the nose or front of the planes.

Later on the home front Pin up girl calendars continued to win the hearts of Americans. Artists like Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas and George Petty painted portraits of women in provocative positions. Calender makers like Teshan would assemble these fantastic prints by famous artists into yearly wall calendars. Pin up girl calendars often took the form of adverts by local companies hoping to promote their product of service.

A popular trend to this day is for mechanics to put calendar girls on the walls of their shops or garages. Of course the pin up art of the 40s and 50s were much more subtle. While some used partial nudity, usually the nudity was only just implied. The general idea here is “less is more”.

Elvgren did girl-next-door calendar pin-ups for Louis F. Dow, a leading American publisher. In the early-1940s, Brown & Bigelow offered him $1,000 per pin-up, and he signed a contract to produce 20 calendar girls a year for them.