Well, I clearly don’t know about my 50’s underground vice culture as the crew over at Blue Blood do, but I do love that sexy retro look. Their GothicSluts site has one of the best collections of steamy retro pin-up girls we’ve found and they really manage to capture the allure of girls like Bettie Page. This series of pin-up star Mary Jane is red hot and it’s not tongue in cheek kitsch either, they really have the right attitude for the times. Now, just to find me some bathtub Gin and a heavy .45 and we’re good to go.
Ah, the 1950s. Eisenhower was in charge, “The Honeymooners” ruled TV, Outfit boss Sam Giancana kept things orderly in Chicago and J. Edgar Hoover fondled his secret files while plotting his assault on left-leaning pinkos who wanted to fluoridate our drinking water. And Senator Estes Kefauver spearheaded a witch-hunt against a pair of Los Angeles photographers for selling dirty pictures of this hot brunette named Smoking Mary Jane… no, wait a second, I got lost in time, there — see what happens when you fuck around with a particle accelerator before breakfast? But seriously, folks: this unbelievably hot Smoking Mary Jane oozes the feel of the fifties in her style and her look; in this Amelia G and Forrest Black Gothic Sluts shoot, she’s all red lingerie, fishnets, black heels and legs to high Heaven. Back in the ’50s, though, we didn’t know about the filthy poses she offers for Amelia & Forrest’s lascivious lens — which is why, I submit, there’s no time like the present, and no chick in the world like Smoking Mary Jane.
AHHHHH!!! Classic pin-up didn’t involve nudity! Why does everyone get that wrong?
I think it does and it doesn’t. If you are talking about pulp magazine pages, then yes they were generally non-nude, but if you are talking about what some of those girls did at private parties, then no, it was just as porny as we are today.
Um Classic Pin-Up did involve nuidty, Leila. Look at the greatest Pin-Up painters: Vargas and Gil Evergreen. They both did Pin-Up nudes. Google it for yourself.
Playboy magazine was at the end of the Pin-Up era (1960s) but they were consider a Pin-Up NUDE magazine (to some degree they are still consider Pin-Up now). Vargas also drew nude pin-ups in Playboy, in my opinion they were some of the greatest.
Even Bettie Page did nudes!
Like seriously… where did you get the Classic Pin-Up doesn’t involve nudity thing??
From my understanding the term “pin-up” came from the fact that teenage boys would pin-up pictures of attractive women in their rooms, lockers, etc. Pin-up art came after the idea of pin-up girls and reached it’s height during WWII. I’ve seen some nose air of topless pin-up girls but for the most part “pin-up” didn’t refer to nude photography. But my understanding of this subject mostly comes from stories my grandfather told me and old pulp magazines I have from him.