Ah - the great ironies of life. It's always struck me as vaguely hilarious that while lingerie scenes were effectively banned from the Hollywood mainstream for over three decades, the printed media was literally saturated with cheesecake imagery - particularly newspapers and women's magazines. Many of the glossies opted for illustrations over photographs, and considering the level of quality, it's easy to see why.
Lingerie ads were often beautifully rendered in classic pin-up style, somehow managing to look both risque and tasteful at the same time. No need for racy pulps or Esquire calendars here, not when Ladies Home Journal featured artwork every bit as sexy as Vargas or Elvgren at their best. Common tabloids and mail order catalogs included much the same material as the more prestigious publications, making these visual delights available to everybody.
I remember sneaking the Sears and Monkey Ward catalogs into my bedroom and then looking at the lingerie sections with a flashlight under the covers.
ReplyDelete