Pin-up girls during World War II
When you think of pinup girls, it’s most likely to bring to mind images of raunchy centrefolds in Playboy Magazine, than something wholesome and homely. But during World War 2, photos of natural girls in tasteful bathing suits became the nation’s stars – a symbol of better times and a longing for fun – not something that could be classified as risque.
It wasn’t just professional models who became pinup girls. Friends or families photographed every-day girls who had never modelled before and sent their snapshots to papers and magazines. The most attractive girls were published and ultimately became collectable items for men in the military. Pictures of pinup girls adorned tent walls and mess halls, and some of the girls even became mascots for army battalions.
Historical consultant Dr Madeleine Hamilton did her thesis on Australian pinups of the 1940s and ‘50s as part of a Ph.D at Melbourne University. Her research inspired director Angela Buckingham and producer Yvonne Collins to make a documentary called Paper Dolls, which charts the growth of the Australian pinup through the recollections of three former pinup girls as well as some WWII veterans – who share how these pictures were morale boosters for men fighting in the war.
Running at 52 minutes, the documentary doesn’t seem long enough to tackle what is a surprisingly dense topic. After viewing, it almost brings about more questions than any really satisfying answers about the social standards of Australia at that time.
“You’d think the subject of pinup girls would be light and fluffy,” says Dr Hamilton on the phone from Melbourne. “But it does raise a lot of questions about relationships between men and woman, about women’s roles in Australian society during the war, their contributions to the war effort and propaganda…”
She has always had a fascination with women in the 1940s and ‘50s, particularly interesting women who live on the edge. “Borderline kind of women – good versus bad,” she laughs. “I guess that’s what interested me about pinup girls – that they turned out to be seen as more good than anything else.”
The documentary explores the line models couldn’t cross if they were to keep in favour with the public and government censors. “If they stayed nice, well that was fine,” Dr Hamilton explains. “Anything nude or a pose that was a bit questionable… well that would of been a more underground thing and the general public wouldn’t have seen it.
“There was a general approval for these photos that were kind of specific to the war. But after the war, opinions changed and images became more fallacious and had more of a sexual tone to them.”
The most interesting aspect of the documentary is the interviews with the three ex-pinup girls, now aged in there eighties. There is Lois Blacklock, who was a 15-year-old mascot for the ill-fated 2/21 division; Linda Browne, who received nearly 200 letters from lonely servicemen; and Adelie Hurley, who later became the first female press photographer in Australia.
“On the whole, many of these women saw being a pinup girl as a positive experience and they were proud to have contributed to the war effort in anyway they could. Many of them kept all of the letters they received over the years, so they must have seen them as very valuable and meaningful.”
