PinUp Icons #1: 'George Petty'

As one critic so aptly put it : "When you touch the wrist of a Petty Girl, you almost expect to feel a pulse."

George Brown Petty IV (April 27, 1894 – July 21, 1975) was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in Esquire and Fawcett Publications's True but was also in calendars marketed by Esquire, True and Ridgid Tool Company. Petty's Esquire gatefolds originated and popularized the magazine device of centerfold spreads. Reproductions of his work were widely rendered by military artists as nose art decorating warplanes during the Second World War, including the Memphis Belle, known as “Petty Girls”.


Artistic influences

George Petty never discussed in detail those artists who influenced him, other than J. C. Leyendecker (an artist for The Saturday Evening Post during George's high school days) for his interpretation of men, Coles Phillips for his technique, and Maxfield Parrish for his use of light. However, it can be inferred from his later work that other influences included artists who were extremely popular in Paris at the time, such as Alfons Mucha, George Barbier and, in particular, the watercolor technique of England's William Russell Flint.


“The Petty Girl”

Petty is especially known for “the Petty Girl”, a series of pin-up paintings of women done for Esquire from the autumn of 1933 until 1956. Petty frequently depicted these women with the relative lengths of their legs being longer—and the relative sizes of their heads being smaller—than those of his actual models.

Petty's creation made her debut in the autumn of 1933, in a full-page cartoon accompanied by a snappy caption in Esquire magazine's inaugural issue. For the rest of the decade, she was featured in such popular venues as monthly advertisements for Jantzen Knitting Mills and Old Gold cigarettes, a print, postcard, and full-page national advertisement for Trans World Airlines (1936), Esquire's deluxe hardcover Petty Folio (1937), and Life magazine's article, "Petty Girl ... Is Feminine Ideal American Men" (June 26, 1939).



By 1940, Petty had become a national celebrity. His relationship with Esquire had worn thin, however, and when they secured the services of Alberto Vargas a year later, he left the magazine - but not before he had contributed a rich legacy to the history of pinup and pinup art.

During the next ten years, the Petty Girl seemed to be everywhere. Along with the Vargas Girl, she helped build morale during wartime. A 1940 advertisement for Jantzen, featuring a Petty Girl m swimsuit the artist had designed himself, ran for months in every major magazine. This image, Petty's most popular to date, led to a great number of commissions for the artist, including pinup ads for Pepsi Cola and, on November 10, 1941, a Time magazine front cover of Rita Hayworth.


Use in popular culture

* Crew of the Memphis Belle with the Petty Girl nose art.
An image of a Petty Girl talking on a phone was used as the 'nose art' on the famous WWII B-17 Flying Fortress, Memphis Belle: Link

* An image of a Petty Girl was used in The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

* Robert Cummings portrayed George Petty in the imaginary musical comedy The Petty Girl (Columbia, 1950), directed by Henry Levin and featuring the film debut of Tippi Hedren as one of the Petty Girls. Nat Perrin's screenplay was based on a story by Mary McCarthy. The film is also notable for several lilting, lighthearted songs composed by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics), including “Fancy Free” and “I Loves Ya”. The large production number at the finale is “The Petty Girl” by Arlen and Mercer, performed by Joan Caulfield (dubbed by Carole Richards), the Petty Girls and a male quartet.


Sources to create this article:

Wikipedia

thepinupfiles.com