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Drawing by george Petty 1955
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I've been collecting for some time illustrated
American Calendars Pin Up. The choice is large because many illustrators
worked on the topic, some of them remained famous : Vargas, Petty, Moran,
Mc Pherson, Elvgren etc … Unfortunately not all the paintings are
signed and sometimes the signature is unreadable. The European artist
is Aslan, he illustrated the monthly LUI from 1964.
In the end of the 50's, photos of pinups
appear in the monthly Playboy which offers as well a calendar every year
and will quickly replace paintings.
We can find Pin ups of different types :
Big 12 pages calendar : published by the famous magazine Esquire (Vargas,
Petty, Moore, Chiriaka ..). A big printed number is offered by Brown and
Bigelow as well, a publisher specialised in calendars, who was offering
to companies to make appear their name. Several companies share this profitable
market. Very few, certain companies engage an artist for their calendar
(Petty for Ridgid tools, Fritz Willis for Reno..), the printing is incomparable
with the calendars Esquire.
When the Pin-ups became fashionable, certain
tradesmen realised that it was much more interesting to sell the calendars
by page more than to sell the complete calendars; especially the most
expensive. This caused a scarcity of complete calendars. The pages which
I sell by one become from incomplete brochures…
Tear-off calendars : One Pin Up on a thick support, with small moving
pages in the bottom. The most famous is the one with naked Marilyn !!
They are very numerous, it is impossible to list them !! They exist in
several sizes, the much sought-after (but the most fragile) are called
"coat-hanger calendars", their are of a very big sizes with
a metal part in the top to hang up.
Desks : A cardboard of 16*14 cm format, where we can see a pin up changeable
every month, there is a base enabling a putting on a furniture. Note that
the paper is quite fine and fragile.
There exist also simple and double pages inserted in the magazine Esquire,
then Playboy, as well as other various objects : Card plays, matchbox,
diaries, etc… At the end of 50's, the photo appears with pin ups
of monthly Playboy and then Pirelli. They offer also a calendar every
year.
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To
get more details about an artist, click on the image of your choice !!
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petty
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Vargas
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Elvgren
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Moran
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Fritz
willis
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Munson
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Freeman
Elliot
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Withers
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All
Moore
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Chiriaka
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Mac
Pherson
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Thompson
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Al Brule
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various
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To get more details
about an artist, click on the image of your choice !!
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