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Pin-up girl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pin-up girl or pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as pop culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display. Pin-up girls are often glamour models, fashion models, and actresses.
"Pin-up" may also refer to drawings, paintings and other illustrations done in emulation of these photos (see the List of pinup artists). The term was first attested to in English in 1941; however the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s. The “pin up” images could be cut out of magazines or newspapers, or be from postcard or chromo-lithographs, and so on. Such photos often appear on calendars, which are meant to be pinned up anyway. Later, posters of “pin-up girls” were mass-produced.
Many “pin ups” were photographs of celebrities who were considered sex symbols. One of the most popular early pin-up girls was Betty Grable. Her poster was ubiquitous in the lockers of G.I.s during World War II. Others pin-ups were artwork, often depicting idealized versions of what some thought a particularly beautiful or attractive woman should look like. An early example of the latter type was the Gibson girl, drawn by Charles Dana Gibson. The genre also gave rise to several well-known artists specializing in the field, including Alberto Vargas and George Petty, and numerous lesser artists such as Art Frahm.
The term “cheesecake” is synonymous with “pin-up photo”. The earliest documented print usage of this sense of “cheesecake” is in 1934 [1], predating “pin-up”, although anecdotes say the phrase was in spoken slang some 20 years earlier, originally in the phrase (said of a pretty woman) “better than cheesecake”.
These days men can be considered “pin ups” as well and there are male equivalents of attractive and sexy actors such as Harrison Ford or numerous male models. The counterpart term to “cheesecake” is “beefcake”.
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- Theda Bara
- Vilma Bánky
- Belle Bennett
- Clara Bow
- Mary Brian
- Louise Brooks
- Camille Clifford
- Betty Compson
- Joan Crawford
- Bebe Daniels
- Marion Davies
- Billie Dove
- Ruth Etting
- Greta Garbo
- Barbara Kent
- Bessie Love
- Barbara La Marr
- Colleen Moore
- Mae Murray
- Nita Naldi
- Alla Nazimova
- Pola Negri
- Anita Page
- Mary Pickford
- Dolores del Rio
- Norma Shearer
- Gloria Swanson
- Lilyan Tashman
- Olive Thomas
- Alice White
- Annabella
- Jean Arthur
- Josephine Baker
- Constance Bennett
- Joan Blondell
- Claudette Colbert
- Bette Davis
- Marlene Dietrich
- Alice Faye
- Janet Gaynor
- Jean Harlow
- Olivia de Havilland
- Sonja Henie
- Gypsy Rose Lee
- Vivien Leigh
- Carole Lombard
- Myrna Loy
- Marilyn Miller
- Sally Rand
- Ginger Rogers
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Thelma Todd
- Helen Twelvetrees
- Lupe Velez
- Mae West
- Toby Wing
- Fay Wray
- Loretta Young
In comic books, a pin-up is simply a full-page piece of artwork, most often without dialogue, that showcases a character, group of characters, or significant event, published within a single issue or annual rather than made available by itself as a poster.
In professionally published fan magazines for films and television series, a posed photograph of actors or actresses from the subject matter, but might also showcase specific scenes from the subject matter in photograph form (called stills) are occasionally called pin-ups. The label is very casual, though, as these types of fan media are more accurately described as posters.