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.

Pin Up Girls Took The World By Storm

Glamour and romance was the order of the day, Hollywood opened a window to the world with their motion pictures, and the world was introduced to the ultimate women of the era, names such as Betty Grable, Hedy Lamarr, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Russell, Jean Harlow, Marie Mac Donald and more recent names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Marylyn Munroe, sent messages of perfection, beauty, style, glamour and romance to many hearts both male and female.

Photographs of these beautiful woman were popular and nearly every man in the forces had their favourite pin up girl on the inside of their lockers, painted on the noses of their aircraft, post cards tucked into wallets to be take out when they had a moment between their arduous and difficult lives.

Many women aspired to imitate these screen goddesses, their clothing was copied, hairstyles were changed, make up imitated. Cinemas were usually played to packed audiences thrilling to see their favourite actress.

This was an era when women represented perfection, perfect curves in al the right places, they posed in clothing that showed enough but not too much, allowing the imagination to run wild. Photographers captured an aura of mystery, provocative poses sent pulses racing.

In its heyday pin up girl posters and calendars were extremely popular, and could be found almost everywhere. Magazines not to be outdone published pictures of these sweethearts, and these in turn would be cut out and pinned up in schoolboys lockers, swapped among classmates, young hearts sighing and wishing that they could meet the girl of their dreams.

Betty Grable, was sighed over in her Academy award nomination film The Gay Divorcee (1934), and her other Academy Award nomination Film The Pin up Girl (1944) she set a standard that many aspiring actresses strived to follow.

And in 1936, Dorothy Lamour shot to fame with her movie Jungle Princess (1936).

And Lana Turner whose sultry looks sent heart racing in her movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

A forerunner to the pin up girls was the Gibson Girls, Charles Dana Gibson, produced the first Hollywood pin up girls, they were depicted with hour glass figures, bouffant hairstyles, long shapely necks and pixie faces. The style was certainly glamorous, and a perfect forerunner for what was to come. It is believed that Charles Gibson used his wife as the first Gibson girl.

Why do women inspire men, and why is it that women posing provocatively as pin up girls will send hearts racing? It is part of human nature to be inspired by beauty, although many of these glamour women were not classically beautiful, then gave a picture of sensual allure that was captivating. Hollywood did their part in promoting these pin up girls, the millions of calendars, posters, postcards, magazine, newspaper articles on each star, was the forerunner to today’s media frenzy of the rich, famous and glamorous who grace our screen today.

Although this era is long past, today there are people who still collect pictures of these glamour pin up girls. One cannot forget that they certainly captured the imagination of the people.

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.