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Some years ago I discovered that an uncle of mine was a professional pinup artist in the 1930s and 40s.  Now, to be fair, he was no Gil Elvgrin or Alberto Vargas, and most of his stuff was pretty tame by comparison.  He did mostly company promotional art...calendars, ink blotters, and the like...and I've never been able to find any personal works of his.

 He primarily worked for Brown and Bigelow publishing out of Saint Paul, MN, which has continued to produce promotional merchandise since 1896 and employed some of the best artists / pin-up artists in the country.  Powerhouse names like Earl Moran, Elvgrin, Zoe Mozert, Rolf Armstrong, and Norman Rockwell.

So, yeah...here's a calendar / ink blotter version of Judy for Spacely Sprockets.  And yes, that actually is the Jetson's home (video) phone number.  Before the age of the ball point pen (they didn't really become a thing until the mid-1950s) everyone used fountain pens.  Just as the name suggests, the pens were prone to leakage, thus the need for something to blot the excess ink onto.

Download them here and here.

Original Art by Alex Hiro
Colors and Edits by Phillipthe2 

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Comments

Robert B.

Yep, I miss those old pinup calenders. But nowadays with all the sexual harassment, hostile work environment and political correctness crap going on, hardly anybody does pinup calenders any more much less the nudie or topless ones. I had a 7 year long set of calenders that featured the same 16 girls in different places, poses, settings and state of undress. Apparently that photographer got his money's worth out of those girls and that one photo session, or the company did but somebody got at least 7 years worth of calendar sales out of it. Yeah I miss the good old days. But then again nose art, was, banned for a while after some General's wife became offended after seeing some of it and gave him an ear full until the coward gave in and said no more nose art. Until they realized the effect it had on moral and reinstated the tamer versions of it. After all who would ever recognize a Flying Tiger P40 or remember the Memphis Belle, the Enola Gay or Bock's Car, if it weren't for nose art these famous planes places in history would be occupied by tail numbers. Boring.

Robert B.

Anyway I can't wait to see who the next 11 months are.

phillipthe2

Well, nose art does live on, though it's modern equivalent is incorporated into the camouflage. My old unit's Apaches had stylized black on green jaguars on the engine covers that looked damn good...but we at least had the benefit of actual Disney art department guys in the unit. Otherwise, long gone are the days of Vargas girls on the sides of planes. Yeah, would we expect anything less in the Age of the Easily Offended.