During World War Two: My Little Pin-Up Girl

Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth weren’t the only stars who sat for pin-ups during the war; their photos were simply the most popular.

The idea of pin-ups (technically, they were just photos of women) were nothing new by the Second World War. Victorians and Edwardians, of course, had French postcards, which ranged from fully-clothed women to women in their underwear to full-on nudity and everything in between.

Victoriana and Edwardiana also brought us the gorgeous and aspirational Gibson Girl, with her voluminous hair, impossibly tiny waist, curvy proportions, and obvious humor and intelligence. She first appeared in 1887 and was not to be dethroned until the First World War, when women ditched corsets for less structured undergarments that allowed them to move more freely, plus the metal used in corsets was needed for the war.

During the 1920s the Ziegfeld Girl was queen of the pin-up world. Photos of Glorified Girls were in demand, and like the French postcards of earlier decades, some pictures were more risque than others.

Then in the 1930s, George Petty painted pictures of busty, long-legged women doing everyday things in various states of undress (The general rule of thumb among collectors is that the more clothed the woman, the earlier the work). These became known as Petty Girls and were so famously popular that a movie entitled The Petty Girl would be released in 1950.

Historians and war buffs differ on how the concept of the World War Two pin-up girl got started. Modeling agent Walter Thornton claimed in 1948 that he had started the craze after he got in trouble for pinning a photo of his girlfriend to the wall of his tent during his time in the service. Sensing that current boots wanted their own pretty girl photos to hang on the wall, and they didn’t all live in tents, in 1940 Thornton handed out about five thousand portraits of young hopefuls that he just happened to have with him, thus igniting the pin-up phenomenon.

Thornton said all this to the AP which published an article about it, but seeing as no one corroborated the story and ol’ Wally was known for bending the truth if not outright lying, it’s very unlikely he was the Father of the Modern Pin-Up.

It’s generally agreed that pin-ups began to be published in magazines and newspapers starting in 1941 with the July 7, 1941 issue of Life Magazine, which featured a two-page spread of Dorothy Lamour, who was raking in magazine covers by the handful that year. The article claimed that she was the number-one photo in Army lockers.

The pin-up craze didn’t really catch on until 1943, however, when servicemen began writing to Life Magazine and asking for pin-ups. The media responded by sending hundreds of magazines overseas, often without ads. Yank Magazine was a gold mine as well. The women the servicemen wanted to see didn’t have to be famous or even professional models, and they sure didn’t have to be overtly sexy (Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” video probably wouldn’t have gone over well.). A little bit of “cheesecake,” or suggestiveness, often showcasing the subject’s legs, was plenty. If a pin-up lady was married with or without children, so much the better, because it made her more accessible but not necessarily in a sexual way.

Some have said this is one of the reasons Betty Grable’s famous over-the-shoulder shot became so popular–the media constantly touted that she was a wife and mother.

What effect did these photos have on the men who looked at them day after day? Overall, they went a long way to raising morale and reminding the soldiers who they were fighting for, but if the photo backgrounds were of real places, they let the soldiers project themselves into other, more desirable locales.

Besides the everyday pin-ups, there were four major pin-up artists of the war. One was Alberto Vargas, whose “Varga Girls” would often grace nose art on bombers and who would keep painting until 1974. There was also Gil Elvgren, whose paintings almost looked like Vargas had a head-on collision with Norman Rockwell. Then there was Earl Moran, who excelled at calendars and whose women were often depicted in soft focus and not much else. Finally, there was Zoe Mozert, who not only painted pin-ups but often used herself as a model. While the women in these artists’ paintings were often almost comically unrealistic, they filled a need as well.

I would go into more detail about them, but what they produced was basically porn to some degree, so anyone who wants to find out more should be warned that what’s out there may not be family-friendly.

Anyway, the servicemen might have wanted mostly everyday pin-ups and painted Varga Girls on their bombers, but Hollywood was always welcome, of course. Here’s a gallery of iconic and not-so-iconic actresses who sat for portraits, plus a few who would become icons after the war (See more here):

Donna Reed

Not too long before she played the 1950s supermom we all know and love, Donna Reed posed for pin-ups.

Esther Williams

Esther was not only a popular pin-up, but she always took a waterproof portrait of herself to camps with swimming pools so the servicemen could play “Capture the Esther.”

Veronica Lake

Can’t have a pin-up gallery without Veronica Lake, who had to give up her trademark peek-a-boo bangs during the war because the women war workers who imitated her were getting injured on the job.

Lana Turner

Among Lana’s many admirers were the entire RAF training school in Carberry, Manitoba, Canada, and she signed a pin-up just for them.

Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner was another pin-up favorite, having signed with MGM in 1941, three years before this photo was taken.

Dale Evans

Yep, this is the future Mrs. Roy Rogers.

Lita Ward

Also known as Amelita Ward, Lita appeared on the screen between 1942 and 1949. Her short filmography consisted of B-movies and she also acted on the radio.

Ella Raines

Ella amassed a healthy body of credits (no pun intended) in both B-movies and prestige pictures during her career, so she must have been a welcome sight to the servicemen.

Lina Romay

Lina Romay was a busy lady, what with singing with Xavier Cugat’s orchestra and acting in films, but she wasn’t too busy to pose for pin-ups.

Ingrid Bergman

Bergman, who was rocketing to fame in America as a result of movies such as Intermezzo and Casablanca, pioneered natural beauty and this carried into her pin-ups.

Lucille Ball

Before Desi and I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball was marketed as a screen siren.

Jane Russell

After the release of the racy and controversial film, The Outlaw in 1943, Jane Russell was another no-brainer for the pin-up world.

Lena Horne

Lena, who was coming up in stardom with her performances in such films as Cabin In the Sky and Stormy Weather, got in on the pin-up game, too.

Nancy Porter

Nancy Porter only had two film credits to her name but she still joined Club Pin-up Girl. And yes, the firecracker is a wee bit Freudian.

Marilyn Monroe

Sometimes stars were discovered as a result of pin-ups, and Marilyn, who was known as Norma Jean Dougherty during the war, was one of those.

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Guys will be guys, and when the servicemen of World War Two (and other wars, for that matter) were stuck out in the back of beyond fighting a war with no women anywhere, pin-ups had a steadying effect. Even if some of them contributed to an unrealistic view of women, the pin-up was an interesting phenomenon and its own kind of art form.

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Bibliography

West, Michael. “The Birth of the Pin-Up Girl: An American Social Phenomenon, 1940-1946.” Spring 2020. University of Iowa, Doctor of Philosophy. Iowa Research Online.