Product Description

"Girls, Gags & Giggles" - this was publisher Robert Harrison's recipe for dishing up the American pin-up to the U.S. male. In the 1950s, his girlie magazines sold by the millions, before becoming icons of pulp and trash culture.These skilfully illustrated girls with their curvaceous forms and inviting lingerie soon overtook America's national dessert, in terms of popularity, and even developed considerable potential as a cultural export during the 1940s. 'Never show everything,' was always the motto. Smiling prettily at the camera, the models exuded just the right amount of sex appeal without seeming too sophisticated or artful. They were the 'girls next door' whose wholesome attraction soon made one forget the magazines' deliberately trashy presentation. Their rosy complexions and innocent allures still titillate even in an age when far more graphic material is the norm. This is for everyone who enjoys pin-ups, push-ups and pulp style!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12088 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-01
• Original language: French, German, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Never show everything.
The contents of Robert Harrison's pulp girlie titles, Beauty Parade, Eyeful, Titter, Wink, Whisper and Flirt form the contents of this book They were published between 1942 and 1958 and they mostly showed black and white photos of scantily clad ladies (Harrison did not approve of nudity) in slapstick situations, with copy written to accompany the photos as puerile and clichéd ridden as you will ever read. These photos are all very tame by today's standards. The book reproduces covers and spreads (and some of the down-market ads) from these magazines.

The contents of these titles are basically trash but they do have one thing of interest, their covers, these were paintings rather than photos. Pin-up artist Peter Driben painted hundreds of covers for the six titles and dozens are shown in this book, some other pin-up artists are included as well.

Before you rush out and buy the book you need to know that all the covers and the spreads have been sized slightly bigger than the book. This does not matter too much with the reproduced spreads but all the covers have been ruined because of this enlargement, the title logos and coverlines run of the side of the page.

Two better Taschen cheesecake titles are 'The Rottenberg Collection', seven hundred pages of American pin-ups (mostly nudes) from the forties to the sixties from the collection of Mark Rottenberg. European pin-ups are covered in 'Serge Jacques' by Gilles Neret. Both these titles are far superior to `1000 Pin-Ups' BTW, the book was originally published under the title of 'The Best of American Girlie Magazines' by the same author.

better than nothing
This book is flawed but if you want the covers from Robert Harrison's magazines by famous pin-up artists this is good. One problem is the cropped covers that prevent the reader from seeing the whole effect. The images also cover the full page so there is no white margin to absorb finger marks and other edge damage from use without harming the image. Taschen should have focused on the pin-up artists rather than trying to make a book cover all of Robert Harrison's magazines. By changing focus to the artists they could have dumped the black and white photos and shrunk the book. They then could have published full covers in an oversized book.

Taschen has published the same material in two other books but they are also flawed. First, is the original volume "Girlie Magazines." With 60 fewer pages it is a significantly thicker volume because the pages are thicker. While "1000 Pin-Ups is a good value, in my opinion "Girlie Magazines" remains the better book, with better paper quality. Second, is a small selection of covers from "Girlie Magazines" titled "Pin-Ups" in the Icons Series by Giles Neret. I would just buy a good used version of "Girlie Magazines" for a little more and get 3-4X the illustrations.

Pin-up art and photography from the 40s and 50s
When I saw this book, I was expecting (and hoping) to see only pin-up art, and that is all I saw when I quickly browsed through it. However in a more thorough look through, this book is an equal mix of pin-up art and pin-up photography from the 40s and 50s.

The book starts off with a brief history of pin-up magazines in the US during the 40s and 50s. In the usual Taschen style, it is given in English, German and French.

The magazines covered in the book are Wink, Eyeful, Beauty Parade, Flirt and Titter. Each magazine is allocated a section in the book, and start of with full pages replications of some magazine covers, then some black and white pictorials with extremely corny captions. The pictorials are by todays standards tame, and there is almost no nudity.

Pin-ups was worth my while just for the pin-up art, but the pictorials, I thought were not my cup of tea, although it did give me some sort of insight into glamour of the 40s and 50s.