
CheeseCake – An American Phenomenon
This was the most amazing 1950s magazine to photograph! Is this Marilyn Monroe on the cover? I wish I could have bought this vintage pinup magazine for myself! It’s dated 1953.
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Posted by Jessica Murray | Mar 3, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
This was the most amazing 1950s magazine to photograph! Is this Marilyn Monroe on the cover? I wish I could have bought this vintage pinup magazine for myself! It’s dated 1953.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 16, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Where was modeling going in the 1950s, and what would future fashion trends hold? The main point of this article seemed to point out the sheer diversity of pinup models and beautiful women. An interesting picture was one of Rita Hayworth without makeup, and then made up. One of her movies, “An Affair in Trinidad”, was chosen by the National Photographers Association as “the sexiest and most provocative motion picture still ever made”.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 10, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
This article claims that Annette Kellerman was groundbreaking in making more practical swimwear acceptable… and did you know that shorts for women were invented in the 1930s?
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 12, 2019 | Featured, Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Did you know that the first Miss America was 5 foot 1, weighed 108lbs, had a 30 inch bust, 25 inch waist, 32 inch hips and brown hair with blue eyes? In comparison, Evelyn Ay, the 1954 winner, measured: 5’8, 132lbs, 37-24-36. Here is a chart and a picture to demonstrate the perfect female form of the 1950s, as decided by Vincent Trotta, a Miss Universe judge. He claimed that it was proportion, so a woman could be taller or shorter, just proportional.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 8, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
The article covers women’s baseball with interesting pictures showing women’s baseball teams from World War I and the 1950s (including pictures of Ruth Engle and Doris Sams), and also pictures of figure skaters and golfers to contrast fashion trends of the first part of the 20th century.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 14, 2019 | Featured, Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
By the early 1950s, beauty and publicity had become almost ridiculous, as evidenced by the crowning of Potato Queens (Marilyn Monroe), National Soybean Queen (and Miss Missouri), Sourkraut Queen, Queen Pickle.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Aug 23, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
These next few pages of old pictures are a history of chorus girls and showing skin on stage, from Can Can girls, to to Mae West, to the Zigfield Follies, and the Rockettes.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 6, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
This first article about the history of women in sports seems to claim that women are 2 inches taller (in 1953) than they were in 1850 because they’re free to exercise and play sports!
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Aug 17, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here is an interesting history of tobacco advertisements using pretty women and pinups as bait, and to gain broader social acceptance of smoking cigarettes! To explain changes in tobacco advertising, you have to take a historical perspective, which this article explains best. Briefly the history of tobacco ads (according to this 1953 article):
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Sep 4, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Wow. What a cool series of pinup and burlesque star history!
I’m not sure if there’s much of a point to the words in these pages, but the pictures show the history of fashion and burlesque with pictures including
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Aug 19, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here’s an interesting history of pinups in advertising! Showing pictures of billboards from the 1800s-1950s, with a focus on pretty girls in beer advertisements.
The next page shows samples of pretty women used to advertise books and, the latest thing, record album covers. Even classical music “moves off the shelves” faster when an attractive woman is pictured on it!
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Aug 13, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here are shown some lingerie and shapewear ads from the 1800s-1950s. The chemise replaced the corset cover by 1918, although shape wear was still worn in the 1920s to achieve that stylish “boyish” form. The inflatable bra of the 1950s replaced the “Victoria” bosom pad of 1879… such changes in lingerie styles and advertisements!
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Aug 15, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here is illustrated how two marketing companies used cheesecake pinup, double entendre, and sexual innuendo to sell mens shirts and bed sheets.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Jun 26, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Advertising to women, by attractive women! Here are some shapewear and corset ads, with a historical perspective. Gilda Grey and “other famous actresses” endorsing a fat reducing cream in 1923. Gypsy Rose Lee endorsing an electric shaver. Warner Brother’s Coraline Corsets of the 1880s(the corset alone was enough to sell it), versus the more straight fronted corseted shape of 1900 (this advertisement with pretty women) in an ad for Armorside Corsets. Finally, an ad for the “modern” 1950s girdle with stockings and garters which flattened both front and bottom, and could be best illustrated in a photograph.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Apr 11, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
“Today’s musical comedy stars replace the Grecian bend of The Florodora Girls with abandon, and little else” reads the headline. It mentioned the famous gals who have come from the anonymity of chorus lines, including: Eva Tanguay, Ann Held, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, Barbara Stanwyck, and Lucille Ball.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Apr 7, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
This article discusses how Hollywood press agents can create a national pinup sensation thru posting daringly sensual photos in select magazines. As examples, they point out Theda Bara in the first part of the 20th century, and the “modern” sensation Roberta Haynes.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Jun 22, 2019 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Enjoy these pinup pictures of Marilyn Monroe, declared “The All American Pinup” by the 1953 issue of Cheesecake – An American Phenomenon. Jane Russell said that “Marilyn is the most female girl I know”, and her only flaws were “a slight thickness behind the knees”.
The next page declares that “American business will spend close to $1,000,000,000 in advertising alone. At least one out of every three advertisements will feature a girl, who is bound to be pretty, shapely, and appealing.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 27, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
In World War I, Mary Pickford became the favorite pinup of soldiers when she dressed in uniform and toured the nation selling Liberty Bonds. In World War II, “demand for it [pictures of Betty Grable”] ran as high as 20,000 per week…”. “Able Grable”‘s legs appear in Army topographic maps designed to teach recruits how to hit their mark.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 30, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Wow. What an interesting 1950s perspective on the history of nude photography! The accompanying pictures include 3 “unusual photos taken about 80 years ago” (i.e., sexy pictures from c. 1870). The full color photo is a realistic modern figure study by Jules Alexander, of a nude woman posed next to an electric fruit slicer.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 28, 2021 | Featured, Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Burlesque has provided men with a variety of entertaining pinups. Notably, Ida Bayton’s white violin act in “The Taxi Girls” in 1914, and Lili St. Cyr’s bubble bath striptease that helped land her in 3D movies.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Apr 15, 2021 | Featured, Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Pinups thru out history have been used to sell everything from cosmetics to real estate. Sometimes, they had their origins in the scandalous worlds of peepshows and erotica. The scandalous Gilda Grey, famous for popularizing The Shimmy with her signature song The Shimmy Shewabble, helped sell a reducing cream in 1923. In 1925 she did the shimmy after a meeting to interest buyers in buying Coral Gables properties in Florida. The Shimmy, for which Gilda Grey was famous for, reportedly could be danced properly only with great difficulty and was considered primarily an exhibition dance. Similarly, the Cat Dance by Lilly Christine, had its origins in the realms of peepshows, but she crossed over into mainstream pinup model popularity and helped sell products.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 19, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here’s a scan from CheeseCake – An American Phenomenon. It’s a spread with Ed Sullivan’s Toastettes and film snaps of Marilyn Monroe’s appearance on the Jack Benny show. “It was wonderful,” said MM, “You know, Mr. Benny at 39 has all the charm and poise of an older man.” When Marilyn Monroe agreed to be on the Jack Benny Show, finally television had come of age and could compete with the movies. Cheesecake Pinups on the new medium of television!
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 13, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
“The Bust Line May be Best Line in TV”. This article explores how television was currently reshaping the Pinup phenomenon, remarking on Faye Emerson’s low cut gowns in the late 40s, but then turning again away from excess by raising bustlines and hemlines (referencing the Breen office’s revision in 1951, that apparently included a ban against showing intimate apparel on a moving figure). However, these restrictions had the result of making the female form more enticing, “A whisper echoes more than a shout”.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 5, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
How did the term “cheesecake” pinup originate? Origins of cheesecake, and the first pinup model and cheesecake photograph. An article about the history of American pinup.
Read MorePosted by Jessica Murray | Mar 15, 2021 | Old Magazine Scans | 0 |
Here’s an article about how rubbery faced Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar have “given viewers a steady diet of broad, yet biting, satire and made them like it. Among their targets have been male, as well as female, cheesecake…”
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