Pinup History IX: 1930s Pulp Pinup

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Pinup History IX: 1930s Pulp Pinup

The scandalous fun of the roaring 20s came to a screeching halt when the stock market crashed in 1929. Unable to keep up the extravagance sustained by spendthrift millionaire clients, the colorful dance halls and opulent nightclubs of the bygone era, like the Ziegfeld Follies, dropped their curtains for the last time in the early 30s. As live entertainment lost its elite financial backing, new forms of diversion rose to fulfill the destitute population’s need for distraction.

Film became one of the most popular national pastimes in the 30s, providing a generation that came of age during the Great Depression a luscious escape from their impoverished lives. Audiences fell in love with beautiful movie stars and became enchanted by the spectacular costumes, sensational dramas, magnificent dance routines and slapstick comedies that offered a romantic alternative to their own dreary reality.

Along with the alluring fantasy of film came the equally sensational pulp magazine. Pulp magazines, so called for the inexpensive pulpwood paper on which they were printed, were cheap paperbacks or periodicals that captivated America’s hungry imagination with exciting detective adventures, rollicking cowboy stories, Hollywood gossip, and of course, voluptuous babes. Entrepreneurial publishers were quick to cash in on this last feature, making a point to include scantly clad beauties on the cover of the film fan periodicals, weekly tabloids and pulp novels they released. The resultant new pinup became the standard of the genre for decades to come.

Unlike the artistic nudes, erotic photographs, dance hall icons or Ziegfeld beauties of previous fame, the 30s pulp pinup was a mythical woman, born from the imaginations of the various illustrators who brought her to life. The escapist mindset of the Depression era was eager to indulge in an outlandish fantasy world as far away from reality as possible and their pinup icons reflect this attitude.

The pinups of this time period were caricatures of sexuality, with exaggerated features, eye-popping proportions and wardrobes that defied all laws of gravity or logical design. They were typically styled in one of two ways: the vixen victim, with torn dressed revealing her sexy underthings, or the bodacious wild child, wearing nearly nothing as she endeavors some flirty feat.

Above, the damsel in distress in a 1935 Spicy Detective and below, the daring beauty from Paris Nights of the same year.

Unlike the movies which were primarily distributed as family fun, the guilty pleasure of pulp unapologetically catered to adults. Lurid material, deemed obscene on the silver screen, defined the appeal of the pulp stories, science fiction paperbacks, and Hollywood tabloids as well as the pinups that populated them.

Magazines like Film Fun, Amazing Stories, Screen Humor, Weird Tales and the Black Mask were just a few of the many titles sold at newsstands regularly featuring pinup art.

A New York newsstand, 1935. I’m sure he’s buying just for the articles…

Pulp magazine continued to be popular well into the 60s, with artists and illustrators consistently incorporating sex appeal with fiction. While the 30s pulp pinup would evolve and reach her peak in the decades to follow, she remains the classic model and continues to define the idea of the pinup to this day.

Up next, a glimpse into the portfolios of two of pinup godfathers: Enoch Bolles and George Quintana.

Dream Beauties

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