CO-EDS August 1942 / WWII Pin-up Girls

After the heavy post last time, let's lighten it up a bit with some cheesecake and a peek at the war era pin-up. The death of the girlie pulp in the late 30s meant the loss of painted covers, sepia nudes, and frolicking line-drawn lassies, but I must admit that the replacement is growing on me. The pin-up girl of the 40s has an everywoman appeal and real personality on display in addition to her more tangible assets. These are women you'd be proud to bring home to mama and who will behave themselves chastely while you cower in some miserable foxhole with c-rations for dinner. In the ever-changing undulations in trends in appreciation of the female form, this was a good time to be a leg man, as tall girls with legs for days hung on barracks' walls from the boot camps in the states to the bunkers of Europe to the battleships of the Pacific. The lass on tonight's cover most certainly caught my eye, and, in my own lascivious fashion, I just had to scan her. The curve of the bow set against the curves of the female form makes for a nice composition.


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CO-EDS v02n02 (1942-08.Collegian)(D&M).cbr
Get the cover to cover scan here!

The contents page names the angler as Kay Paige of the University of California (the sort of detail I like to include so that a googling senior or family member might one day get an unexpected shock). This bow fishing sure looks fun. I'm a catch and release sort of guy, but I'd be willing to give it a try for pan-fish like bluegill (aka brim to you southerners or sunfish to you northerners) or mangrove snapper and the like. I seem to recall seeing gents fishing (hunting?) this way from atop towers over the outboard from the position where a guide might pole from in flat fishing. Maybe I even remember seeing some sort of bow with a reel attached, though it's hard to imagine much of a fight after one of these large, specialized arrowheads strikes. I'll include the pages from the article. Damn, girls who fish are sexy ;)


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The contents page for the rest of the issue:

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I'll snip out and highlight the column at left:



My 5 year old girl asked me this week in conversations about WWII whether any girls fought. I said no but quickly followed with the story of Rosie the Riveter and all her sisters of which she heartily approved. I also told her that now there are indeed women in our armed forces which she also approved of. This is one of those areas where me and my granddad disagreed, but you better believe if my girl wants to fight I think she should have the right (though the thought of either of my kids in the military scares the hell out of me) along with any other American ready to lay their life on the line for my freedoms. I get a kick (hi-yah!) out of this article, because you know the boys over there liked the idea that their girls could fend for themselves while they were away (and no doubt ward off unwanted advances). On a side note, and perhaps I'm blowing smoke here, but I've got the notion that the explosion of interest in the martial arts in the U.S. dates to exactly this time period. Granddad always liked to show off a lethal trick or two he'd learned from his Marine instructors, and I think Americans did not like the idea that our enemies might have a leg up in hand-to-hand combat. I'll go ahead and post the whole article which includes pictures of Florence Fitzgerald and Paul Zippel.


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A very fun issue, certainly a ray of sunshine for all those soldiers reading it in not-so-friendly climes. Once again, big thanks to scanmeister McCoy for his edit work on this issue, it's appreciated every single time I get help on an issue, bud. Back next time with wartime pulp! But before I go, here's one more page for all you leg men out there.


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