I want to share with you the 1946 calendar that I mentioned in my post yesterday. The calendar sketches are by Alberto Vargas. I must admit, I was not familiar with him so I "googled" him and learned that he is the most famous and prolific pin-up artist of all time. He was from Peru and came to America in 1916. His first encounter with America happened about noon at Broadway and Fourteenth Street (New York), when he
was suddenly surrounded by a lunchtime crowd of smartly dressed office
workers. Mesmerized by their grace, sophistication, and beauty, the artist decided he would spend his life glorifying the American Girl. He did illustrations for Butterick (patterns) and Adelson Hat Company. He also did paintings of all the Ziegfield Follies girls, for Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Hellmans Mayonnaise,Warner Bros, MGM, and Esquire Magazine. While working with Esquire, he started doing the yearly pin-up girl calendars until 1946 when he left the magazine. By 1950, Esquire had a law suit against him doing any of the calendars using his name. Well, when he went to work for Esquire, they shortened his name dropping the "s" from the end. Esquire had copyrighted his name, Varga. So, the court ruled that in the future he would have to sign his full name to his work. In the 1950s and 60s, he started doing work for Playboy Magazine. I am guessing this calendar may have been a give-away or gift to my great-aunt when she had her own hat store in downtown Charlotte. Anyway, I was curious about it and wondering what it's worth would be. When I "googled" that, I came up with a few calendars on e-bay - going for $100-$250!! Wow! You never know what you have in your treasures!
I think they are so pretty. I am sure in their time, they were pretty shocking to many. We've come a long way, baby!!
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| The cover |
