McClelland Barclay

Barclay, 1930, Saturday Evening Post

I don't know much about McClelland Barclay (1891-1942)--his era came a decade or two before the WWII pinup era--but Wikipedia tells me he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (there's that Chicago connection again), painted lots of magazine covers, military posters and advertising art.

I have this ad in my collection just because I like it. She's a beauty, dontcha think?

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Inside the mind of a TV Guide stylist

Every few years you'll see modern advertising that's trying to invoke pinups of the past. Camel has done a lot of pinup art in their advertising, and mostly...? failed miserably. They did a calendar a few years ago that involved badly photoshopped versions of badly scanned Elvgren classics. When they've gotten their own illustrator to do original pinup paintings, the poses were awkward and the girls just didn't have that special spark. And they were too skinny. Natch.

In June 2003, at the height of Sex and the City popularity, TV Guide ran a special series of covers featuring the SATC girls as pinups. I saw it out of the corner of my eye at the checkout and was prepared to roll my eyes at the weak attempt, but when I picked one up and looked at it, I immediately recognized the vintage pinups they were emulating. Their stylist really captured the poses and expressions and lines and contrasts, while not copying 100% an actual painting. I was really impressed. The girls do look a *little* stiff, but they are pinups after all.

Next to each cover I'm showing the image I believe was the primary inspiration for the shot, although I do recognize elements from other, similar images as well. I'll spare you the details.

I've wanted to do this for awhile, and now this blog is the perfect excuse. Enjoy the SATC/pinup mashup!

Carrie/Elvgren


Charlotte/Moran


Miranda/Elvgren


Samantha/Elvgren

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I got The Shoes

What, you thought I was kidding?

a little press

Apparently Chicago media is a harder market to interest in this contest than Boston or Tulsa media, so I've only been contacted by one reporter so far. And she was from Columbia College :) Luckily, I have many internet-famous friends and friends-of-friends, so I'm still getting some media love, just not MSM. Which is fine with me.

Here's a link to the Columbia College story about my collection.

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Yours for the Basking

Frahm, date unknown

Art Frahm (1907-1981) isn't really remembered as one of the most skilled pinup painters. Like many, he lived in Chicago and worked during the 40s and 50s. He was a devotee of Sundblom, like Elvgren and others. And he achieved a certain amount of notoriety--at least in this decade--because of his campy paintings of women whose panties have fallen down around their ankles.

But Frahm's skill in depicting beautiful women was limited to painting their figures. Their faces were usually stiff, expressionless, doll-like, not unlike Elvgren's earlier work with Dow.

I actually don't have any of those famed "panties falling down" images in my collection, partially because they're silly (and not in a good way) and partially because the artistry was never really there for me. This litho is an exception. The face still seems a bit plastic, but the overall image is very appealing. She's a classic pin-up girl.

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bookish

Al Moore, 1949, Esquire

college student? librarian? teacher? (does it matter???)

P.S. I want those shoes.

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Mutual Admiration Society

Medcalf, 1953, calendar litho

From The Pin-Up Files:

Medcalf's pin-up work, like Elvgren's, set standards for artistry and imagery for his contemporaries. When Medcalf joined the staff of resident artists at Brown and Bigelow on March 18, 1946, he hoped to get some pointers from his two idols, Elvgren and Norman Rockwell, who were both contributors to the firm. When he met both men at a Christmas party that year, he was therefore stunned and flattered when they asked him how he imparted such a finished glow to his work.

Bill Medcalf's artistry could even been seen in the "roughs" or "prelims" he did before painting the final, larger pinup painting. I lucked out by finding a printed litho version of a black & white prelim featured in the trading card set "Painted Ladies" (in fact, I found three of them). You can see slight changes in pose and details, but both are gorgeous images.

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How to Bowl

Ballantyne, 1956, Artist's Sketch Pad

Brown & Bigelow regularly commissioned popular pinup artists on their roster--including Macpherson, Munson, Withers, Ballantyne and others--to do "Artist's Sketch Pad" calendars like this, with one primary image and related sketches in the background.

I found this calendar at an antique store in my neighborhood (for you Chicagoans, it's the one just south of the Damen el), and even though the pages are unsigned and there's no artist name mentioned on the cover page, I knew it was Joyce Ballantyne's work by the faces. The subject matter is also a giveaway... she loved painting nature scenes and sports scenes, and this calendar has an ice skater, a bowler, a fisherwoman, a guy in a health club locker room (something for the ladies, I guess), a boater, a swimmer, a hunter... you get the idea.

With the somewhat comic and patronizing portrayal of women in the poems and images, it's a little hard to believe a woman conceived them; I prefer to think she was under the thumb of some misogynistic advertising art director and had no choice. It could happen.

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Sunday 6:00 CST: server's back up!

They got the server back up a few minutes ago, so get your votes in now!

Sunday morning: video site is down

Ack! The video voting server went down about 8:30 Sunday morning. No idea when to expect it back, so hold onto that vote and check back later today.

Miss January Double Gatefold

Vargas, January 1946, Esquire Magazine

A "gatefold" is like a centerfold, except that instead of being attached to the magazine in the middle of the print (staples in the navel), it's attached at one end and then folded into the magazine. Most of the vintage Vargas pieces you'll find are gatefolds, or calendars published by Esquire that were collections of the gatefolds from the previous year.

This gatefold is rare because it was the only Varga Girl double gatefold Esquire published. It was attached at the end and then folded twice into the center. It's REALLY BIG, as you can see in the photo. The reverse side has small versions of all the Varga Girls for the coming year (or possibly the calendar for that year; not entirely sure), the "Varga Varieties of 1946: Esquire's 'round the year revue; Twelve to the bar, just for you".

The model in this painting is Jean Dean, Vargas' favorite redheaded model. I'll tell you more about her in future posts.

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