| The Pin Up Girl | | | | where he had been since 1911. While there, he |
| Before we talk about the curvy, swervy, | | | | had studied in both Geneva and Zurich, and by |
| plus-size-bikini-clad Hilda, the stage is going to be | | | | the time had made his way here, he was already |
| set with a little history of the pin up girl. I'll take | | | | a gifted talent coming into bloom. Within three |
| you back in time now, with a short story about a | | | | years he had hung his own shingle and was |
| few of the most talented and popular Pin Up | | | | painting store fronts and window displays for New |
| illustrators in American history. | | | | York City merchants. |
| Earl Christy, (1883-1961) | | | | One warm afternoon in May 1916, while painting a |
| We'll begin with the prolific Earl Christy, who's | | | | window display for a downtown merchant, he |
| porcelain-doll-like illustrations appeared on | | | | was approached by a employee of the Ziegfeld |
| everything from Hollywood magazine covers and | | | | Follies and asked to show his work to the great |
| commercial advertisements to sheet music and | | | | Ziegfeld himself. Within forty eight hours, he was |
| postcards. His work can be found going back as | | | | commissioned to paint 12 portraits of the leading |
| early as 1906. His movie posters and covers he | | | | stars of the 1919 season of the Ziegfeld Follies. |
| painted for "Photoplay" and other | | | | They were for the lobby of the New Amsterdam |
| Hollywood magazines are now valuable collector | | | | Theatre. |
| items. | | | | From that first commission on, Alberto Vargas |
| Earl Moran (1893-1984) | | | | was an artist in high demand. |
| Earl Moran's artistic genius appeared on everything | | | | He painted every major star of the Ziegfeld |
| from Sears and Roebuck catalogs to Life | | | | Follies and later major Hollywood stars like Betty |
| magazine and millions of Brown and Bigelow | | | | Grable, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Ava Gardner |
| Calendars. How he's remembered most is through | | | | Linda Darnell, Marlene Dietrich, Loretta Young, and |
| his pin ups. Moran's stunningly rendered pastel | | | | even Marilyn Monroe all posed for him. |
| "visions" offer more situational variety | | | | In 1940 he replaced the great George Petty at |
| than any other major illustrator. Of his most | | | | Esquire magazine and by 1945 was the most |
| enduring legacies are his 1940s paintings of a | | | | famous glamor illustrator in the world. |
| breathtaking young model named Norma Jean | | | | Baby boomers all know him as the creator of |
| Baker. He painted more images of her than any | | | | Playboy Magazine's Vargas Girl. He painted over |
| other artist. | | | | 150 of his Vargas Girl masterpieces for Playboy. |
| Rolf Armstrong (1889-1960) | | | | He was married over forty years to the love of |
| Rolf Armstrong was another famous Brown and | | | | his life, Anna Mae Clift. When she passed away in |
| Bigelow calendar artist. After arriving home from | | | | 1974, he lost most of his creative drive and |
| a trip to France in 1919, he opened a studio in | | | | worked just a few more times doing The Cars |
| Greenwich Village where he painted the Ziegfeld | | | | "Candy O" album cover and two |
| Folly girls. Later, while in Hollywood, all the great | | | | album covers for Bernadette Peters. He passed |
| stars of the era posed for him. Popular actresses | | | | away in Los Angeles in December, 1982. |
| like Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich | | | | Now, the reason this article was written...to talk |
| and Katherine Hepburn were all painted by him. He | | | | about the most shapely, wondrously round, |
| even talked Boris Karloff into posing for him on | | | | perfectly proportioned, plus size, pear shaped |
| the set of the original "Frankenstein". | | | | beauty in Pin Up girl history: Duane Bryers' |
| He refused to work from photographs and was | | | | "Hilda" |
| always on the quest for the perfect model. When | | | | One night, while prowling "Google |
| asked why he preferred a live model over a | | | | Images" for curvaceous content, I found |
| photograph, he said, "I want the living | | | | myself at Les Toil's Big Beautiful Pin Up Gallery. I |
| person in front of me. As I look at her again and | | | | clicked through and followed his fun and curiously |
| again and again while I work, I get a thousand | | | | titled links looking for the well-nourished, feminine |
| fresh, vivid impressions... all the glow, exuberance, | | | | imagery I had started out that night looking for. |
| and spontaneous joy that leaps from a young and | | | | After I got done admiring Les' talent, I went back |
| happy heart." | | | | to his homepage and clicked on a cheerful teal |
| Armstrong's pastel pin ups of his idealized, scantily | | | | and yellow banner with the name |
| clad,"girl next door" have a distinctive, | | | | "Hilda" written across it. I clicked on it, |
| luminous and shimmering quality to them. His | | | | not prepared at all for what I was about to see. |
| paintings of healthy, nubile young women are | | | | As soon as the page opened, I stopped and |
| some of the most memorable of all the famous | | | | looked in wonder. It was one of those moments |
| illustrators. He was truly a man of rarefied talent. | | | | when you're seeing something with which you're |
| George Petty (1894-1975) | | | | completely taken; the world around you seems to |
| The Pin Up finally exploded into the popular culture | | | | disappear, and everything goes completely silent |
| with Esquire Magazine's introduction of | | | | as your focus narrows, taking in what's in front of |
| s"Petty Girl" in 1933. Slender, flirtatious | | | | you. |
| and extremely shapely, the Petty Girl became an | | | | Discovering Hilda was like discovering lost treasure. |
| American institution, capturing our hearts and | | | | I recognized her right away. I remembered her as |
| minds for more than twenty years. From 1933 to | | | | a perfect likeness of what I had for years |
| 1956, her images were seen in tens of millions of | | | | idealized in the feminine form; round, soft, |
| places; every where from magazines and | | | | pear-shaped, plump, and shapely to the extreme. |
| billboards to playing cards and match books, even | | | | If one's natural male instinct is to respond to the |
| aircraft "nose art" in WWII. In 1950, | | | | rounder, softer, more generously proportioned |
| she was made into a movie starring Robert | | | | woman, you will understand why there is so much |
| Cummings and Elsa Lanchester. | | | | to like about her. From her long, soft legs, girlish |
| Gil Elvgren (1914-1980) | | | | face, plump, inviting arms, to her hips, round and |
| No pin up gallery is complete without displaying the | | | | wide, you see a vision of femininity forming in |
| breathtaking talent of Gil Elvgren. His enchanting, | | | | front of you. Add to all that her ample, |
| dreamy renderings of the nubile female form | | | | well-developed breasts, soft, yielding tummy and |
| cannot be eclipsed in genius by any other artist. | | | | glorious hip-waist ratio, and you discover she is an |
| He was sublimely talented! A student of the | | | | ideal example of full-figure perfection. The perfect |
| Minneapolis Art Institute, he liked to paint girls who | | | | plus size, pear-shaped,nubile beauty. |
| were new to the modeling business. He believed | | | | Unlike the stick-thin, female icons so popular |
| the ideal pin up was a girl witha fifteen year old | | | | today, Hilda has not one angular feature. She |
| face on a twenty year old body, so he combined | | | | sublimely embodies the old fashioned womanly |
| the two. During the forty two years spanning | | | | ideals of "round and soft". She is |
| 1930-1972, he produced over five hundred | | | | feminine to the nth degree. |
| paintings of beautiful young women, nearly all | | | | Duane Bryers was the first illustrator to use plus |
| painted on oil and canvas. Today, his fully | | | | size models as subjects in his pin up art. |
| developed, finished works of art are second only | | | | Sometimes he didn't use a model at all and |
| in value to the paintings of Alberto Vargas. | | | | painted from memory or fantasy. A feat, |
| Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) | | | | according to pin up artist Les Toil, "most |
| The most prolific and famous glamor illustrator of | | | | impressive!" |
| all time is Alberto Vargas. The son of Max | | | | "Hilda" is owned by Brown and Bigelow |
| Vargas, a famous and talented photographer in his | | | | This article was made possible through research |
| own right, Alberto learned to airbrush from his | | | | from various sources on the web including Google |
| father before he was a teen. Most don't realize he | | | | images, The Pin Up Files, and the Hilda page of |
| was actually born in Peru, and didn't come to the | | | | Les Toil's Big Beautiful Pin Up Gallery. |
| US until 1916. He arrived on Ellis Island via Europe, | | | | |