During the long, lonely days of World War II, sweet and sexy beauties did their part for America by posing in sassy—and often humorous—pin-up calendars. These calendar girls, as they came to be known, motivated servicemen worldwide, reminding them of the sweet-smelling safe haven of home. When the men came home after the war, the demand for these calendars continued to grow well into the 1950s. Artists transformed simple, girl-next-door darlings into alluring icons, and painted them with scenic backgrounds depicting life in post-war America. With more than 600 full-color images, CALENDAR GIRL is a titillating tribute to these sumptuous centerfolds of yesteryear, to the artists who rendered them, and to the veterans who remember them.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Collins's vintage collection of sexy calendar girls takes kitsch to a new level. There's something at once innocent and provocative about these images, which Collins (who's written over 20 books for Collectors Press, including Elvgren: His Life & Art) organizes by month. The author opts not to comment on the photographs' sexist undertones, instead focusing on their artistic elements and the artists who created them. He assembles calendar photos from 1943 to 1957, showcasing the women who "paved the way for Hugh Hefner's Playmates" in outfits that range from the amusing (e.g., the March 1954 image of a woman dressed as a genie coming out of a bottle) to the scandalous (e.g., the August 1953 picture of a topless blonde drying her hair on the beach). Captions such as "When it's chilly out doors/At the end of the day/It's nice to come/To a warm negligee!" add further to the risque brashness.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A lavish coffee-table book, Calendar Girl is much more than an accumulation of colorful pin-up art. -- Antique Trader, June 25, 2003
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More About the Author
Max Allan Collins is a New York Times bestselling author of original mysteries, a Shamus award winner and an experienced author of movie adaptions and tie-in novels. His graphic novel ROAD TO PERDITION was made into a major motion picture by Tom Hank's production company, Playtone.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just like the girl next door.,
This review is from: Calendar Girl: Sweet & Sexy Pin-Ups of the Postwar Era (Hardcover)
This excellent book covers (from 1943 thru 1957) a section of the pin-up calendar genre, the Artist's Sketchpad. The calendar publishers of the day hit on the bright idea of having additional sketches and paintings surrounding the main pin-up image. This had the added advantage of not requiring the artists to think of humorous situations in which to place the `girl next door'. Leader of the pack, Gill Elvgren, didn't do sketch pad calendars, he could always think up some credible situation to show a gorgeous female with a raised skirt, he does have some paintings included though.
The book wisely shows each complete calendar page, so you can see the names and addresses of the companies that bought these give-aways by the million (those were the days when phone numbers had a bit of character, like MUrray Hill 2-4090, DEarborn 2-1935 or HYacinth 7-3595). Each monthly chapter has, on average, thirty-two pictures displayed on light colored pages and some pages have displays of those terrible four-line poems that seemed to be a requirement of any respectable girlie calendar. The introduction mentions ten artists who painted most of the pin-ups shown but the book has a major omission in that none of the pictures are credited. Artists like Moran, Munson, Elliot, Mac Pherson or Elvgren have signatures you can recognise on the paintings but I think it would have been helpful if the all the names were printed by each picture. However, here's an idea, get a copy of the stunning `Great American Pin-up' (ISBN 3-8228-1701-5) and spend a pleasant hour or so using the nine hundred pictures (by sixty-one artists) to identify all the paintings in `Calendar Girl'. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
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