Calendar Girl: Sweet & Sexy Pin-Ups of the Postwar Era (Hardcover)

by Max Allan Collins (Author)

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.

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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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Collectors Press (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888054786
• ISBN-13: 978-1888054781
• Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 10 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,126,684 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Just like the girl next door., September 28, 2003

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.