The Pin Up Database
I am a Jersey Girl at Heart but live in Florida for the last 20 years. I found a Gem of a Local Store called the Parisian Hostess and met the owner Tamara. I fell in love with her store and would shop there on a weekly basis. Her inspiration made me want to be a Pin Up Model. I joined the classes she gave about how to do Makeup, Victory Rolls, Eye Lashes and Posing. I was nervous in the beginning but she built up my confidence and self esteem. Tamara even helped coming up with my name Lavender Lady because of my Purple Hair and Tattoos. Doing Pin Up gives me so much happiness and confidence in myself. Can’t wait to see what the Future holds for me.
Published pinup model, vintage hair and wig stylist, makeup artist, creator of The Vintage Pinup Parlor. Vintage hair educator specializing in retro inspired and traditional hairstyling methods.
Hello my lovely darlings! I'm Em, a novice freelance model based out of Vancouver in the beautiful province of British Columbia, Canada. I absolutely love Pin-Up style: the over-the-top expressions, the dresses, the vintage lingerie, the make-up, the curls. I adore it all! I am especially over the moon about anything 40s and 50s inspired - think tea length swing dresses, circle skirts, and polkadots! I also enjoy me a good wiggle dress, of course!
I would love to get to shoot more pin-up looks! If you're interested in working together, please let me know a little bit about yourself 🙂
#vintagestylenotvintagevalues
Dottie was born in Long Island, NY but grew up in Tampa, Florida. Her grandmother and pinup namesake was always her biggest supporter growing up and would tell her stories of her glamorous life in Manhattan as they would play dress up in her rhinestones and furs. This is where Dottie’s love for the vintage and classic lifestyle began. She started modeling in 2012 and really found her passion in the pinup world as it brought her back to such fond memories. In her free time she volunteers for The Bomber Girls and she loves antiquing and going to yard sales.
Born in Flagstaff, AZ, I'm a 6th generation native from the Grand Canyon State. I use my pinup platform to bring awareness of mental and physical health issues of our Veterans, Active military and First responders by fundraising, event planning and pageantry. I work closely with veteran groups such as Diving Devil Dogs of AZ and Veterans IV Veterans. I've been doing pinup for over 13 years and enjoy the 40s and 50s classic style. For the last 3 years I've run a successful beard comp that has raised money for helping veterans with PTSD and Suicide prevention.
Born
Elizabeth Ruth Grable
December 18, 1916
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died
July 2, 1973 (aged 56)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place
Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Nationality
American
Other names
Frances Dean
Occupation
Actress
pin-up girl
dancer
model
singer
Years active
1929–1973
Spouse(s)
Jackie Coogan
(m. 1937; div. 1939)
Harry James
(m. 1943; div. 1965)
Children
2
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and she set a record of 12 consecutive years in the top 10 of box office stars. The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career.[1]
Grable began her film career in 1929 at age 12, after which she was fired from a contract when it was learned she signed up under false identification. She had contracts with RKO and Paramount Pictures during the 1930s, and appeared in a string of B movies, mostly portraying college students. Grable came to prominence in the Broadway musical DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), which brought her to the attention of 20th Century-Fox.
She replaced Alice Faye in Down Argentine Way (1940), her first major Hollywood film, and became Fox's biggest film star throughout the remaining decade. Fox cast Grable in a succession of Technicolor musicals during the decade that were immensely popular, co-starring with such leading men as Victor Mature, Don Ameche, John Payne, and Tyrone Power. In 1943, she was the number-one box-office draw in the world and, in 1947, she was the highest-paid entertainer in the United States. Two of her biggest film successes were the musical Mother Wore Tights (1947) and the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), one of her last films. Grable retired from screen acting in 1955 after she withdrew from her Fox contract, although she continued to perform on the stage and on television.[2]
Throughout her career, Grable was a celebrated sex symbol. Her bathing suit poster made her the number-one pin-up girl of World War II, surpassing Rita Hayworth. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photographs That Changed the World". Hosiery specialists of the era often noted the ideal proportions of her legs as thigh (18.5 in (47 cm)), calf (12 in (30 cm)), and ankle (7.5 in (19 cm)).[3] Grable's legs famously were insured by her studio for $1 million as a publicity stunt.[4] Describing her film career, Grable said "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on them."
Frank Powolny poster[edit]
Grable's iconic over-the-shoulder pose from 1943 (due to the fact she was visibly pregnant) was a World War II bestseller, showing off her "Million Dollar Legs".
In 1943, she collaborated with photographer Frank Powolny for a regular studio photo session. During the shoot, she took several photos in a tight, one-piece bathing suit. One particular pose consisted of Grable's back being to the camera as she playfully smiled looking over her right shoulder, the reason for this pose was the fact that she was in fact several months pregnant with her first child [12]. The picture was released as a poster and became the most requested photo for G.I.s stationed overseas. Grable's photograph sold millions of copies, eventually surpassing the popularity of Rita Hayworth's famous 1941 photo.
Grable's success as a pin-up girl furthered her career as a mainstream movie star. As her star continued to ascend, Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck expressed interest in broadening Grable's range as an actress. Zanuck attempted, on multiple occasions, to cast her in films that challenged her acting abilities, but Grable was reluctant; she felt insecure about her talent which rendered her unwilling to accept roles she felt required too much of her. Throughout her career, she was very cautious; she often worried about starring opposite well-known leading men. She preferred to star in up-beat and outlandish musicals, many of which followed the generic boy-meets-girl story tack. In fact, many of her movies were thin when it came to their stories, but they were high on energy during their song-and-dance sequences. Despite their lack of quality, Grable's movies were immensely popular, and Fox regularly channeled the profits it received from Grable's movies into their more prestigious movies.
I was born in Indiana but moved to Tennessee in my late teens. My mother introduced me to Marilyn Monroe at a very young age and I have been enamored with everything pin-up, vintage, and retro ever since. I started pin-up modeling in 2019 with my best friend and photographer Pamela Claytor. I have been very lucky to be a part of her vision and have her expertise along the way. I have been published 7 times so far and have 5 more publications coming up!
Published PNW Redheaded Pin Up. An officially sweatered member of the Capital City Dolls. Active in promoting Equality, Equity, Body Positivity, Inclusivity, Mental Health, Community Outreach, and Vintage Style Not Vintage Values.
Born
Rose Louise Hovick
January 8, 1911
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died
April 26, 1970 (aged 59)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation
Actress, author, playwright, vedette, dancer, entertainer
Years active
1928–69
Spouse(s)
Robert Mizzy
(m. 1937; div. 1941)
Alexander Kirkland
(m. 1942; div. 1944)
Julio de Diego
(m. 1948; div. 1955)
Children
1
Parent(s)
John Olaf Hovick
Rose Thompson Hovick
Relatives
June Havoc (sister)
Gypsy Rose Lee was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 8, 1911; however, she always gave January 9 as her date of birth. She was known as Louise to her family. Her sister, actress June Havoc, was born in 1912. Their mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, forged various birth certificates for each of her daughters—older when needed to evade varying state child labor laws, and younger for reduced or free train fares. The girls were unsure until later in life what their years of birth were.
Career
Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could make money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status as an elegant and witty striptease artist. Initially, her act was propelled forward when a shoulder strap on one of her gowns gave way, causing her dress to fall to her feet despite her efforts to cover herself; encouraged by the audience's response, she went on to make the trick the focus of her performance.
Her innovations were an almost casual stripping style compared to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease"), and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her stripping style, and—changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee—she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids on the Minsky brothers' shows. During the Great Depression, Lee spoke at various union meetings in support of New York laborers. According to activist Harry Fisher, her talks were among those that attracted the largest audiences.
In 1937 and 1938, billed as Louise Hovick, she made five films in Hollywood. But her acting was generally panned, so she returned to New York City where she had an affair with film producer Michael Todd and co-produced and appeared in his 1942 musical revue, Star and Garter.
Lee viewed herself as a "high-class" stripper, and she approved of H. L. Mencken's term "ecdysiast", which he coined as a more "dignified" way of referring to the profession. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a musical in which Havoc had appeared on Broadway, opposite Gene Kelly. Lee performed an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen.
In 1941, Lee authored a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders, which was made into the sanitized 1943 film, Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by Craig Rice, there are those who claim that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee's own correspondence to prove that she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her editor George Davis, a friend, and mentor. Lee's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. In December 1942, preliminary papers alleging breach of contract were filed in the Supreme Court against Lee by Dorothy Wheelock, associate editor of Harper's Bazaar, alleging that in August 1940 she and Gypsy entered into what Wheelock described as "an oral agreement to collaborate on a joint venture involving the conception, construction, development, writing, and exploitation of a literary work with a burlesque background. The agreement, Miss Wheelock went on, called for a 50:50 split on all income from sale of the book. She charged that she had lined up a publisher for the book when, in November 1940, Gypsy called off the collaboration ... Lee said she turned over notes and other material to Miss Wheelock and that the latter had then written 'a sample book'. However this sample book is not the book that was published, Gypsy declared. She denied any resemblance between Miss Wheelock's book and the book published under her own name, except such similarities might stem from the notes Gypsy turned over to Miss Wheelock. Simon & Schuster agreed to publish the book, Gypsy said, after the first three chapters were shown to them by Janet Flanner, a New York writer". The case was settled out of court.
Bonnie!
