Page 25 - REVIVAL Magazine

QI UIET nspired by his wife (sorry Marilyn,
hotographer Tom Kelly, having paid Ms Baker the sum of $50 for services rendered, featured her in a 1951 issue of a Golden
Dreams calendar...and the rest,
MODEL CITIZEN | CORRI SKILLINGSTAD
They’ve been icons of style, individuality and beauty in
the Western world since the 1800s. But to learn where it all truly began, we have to wind
the clock back--waaaaay back to 1895. Long before they were gracing calendars, leading the tattoo industry into daring new territories of artistic expression and having movies made about them. An illustrator named Charles Dana Gibson turned the world of women’s fashion upside down, when he set about drawing well-endowed women with long, voluminous dark hair and full lips.
At the beginning of WWI, President Woodrow Wilson formed what was known
as the Division of Pictoral Publicity in 1917. Intended
to instill patriotism in the masses and inspire troops, a series of posters were created featuring playfully-posed woman wearing all manner of military uniforms. With evocative tag lines like “Be a Man and Do It” and “Give ‘Em Hell, Boys!”, what apple pie American could refuse?
In 1949, a struggling actress named Norma Jean Baker was about to make pinup history for the Baby Boomer Generation. The then-22- year-old was having trouble nding work, having been recently released from contracts with both 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures.
P
as they say, is (American) history. All of us here who’ve had a hand in Revival owe a debt of gratitude to Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Paige, James Dean, and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, without whom the style and culture we celebrate would have been lost to the ages. We raise our glasses to you; for you are the hair, heels, Harleys and hotrods that built pop-culture America.
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MAGZSTYLE, JUNE 2014 25
Bettie and Jayne; you were the best, but you weren’t the rst), his illustrations soon became known as the “Gibson Girl”. Today, select
pieces of his work can fetch a handsome price at auction, particularly select pieces of his early work. Gibson illustrated many other subjects during his life, but none so culturally and artistically signi cant as his collection of buxom beauties.
“Getting Ready”
December 2015