Rare Vintage Pin-Ups Surface Just in Time for the Holidays

Nothing cures the holiday blues like a good eyeful of cheesecake. (And no, I’m not talking about Aunt Mable’s favorite holiday dessert.)
In fact, the classic pin-up style of the ’40s and ‘50s was born as a morale booster: photos of pin-up royalty like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth graced many a soldier’s locker in WWII, snapped with the intent of keeping weary fighters, uh, motivated.
We’re wishing you a very merry Christmas and a rollicking New Year with a selection of now-vintage lovelies doing what pin-up gals do best: flashing their pearly whites and showing strategic stretches of flesh – all while decked out in adorable themed garb.
Film historian Tony Nittoli of San Fernando Valley-based video store Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee, which granted us access to these photographic gems, says that many pin-up models and actresses posed for major film studio’s publicity shots and calendars (and is probably where most of the photos below originated).
In this photo essay, you can see noted actress/director Ida Lupino admiring a well-decked Christmas tree, as well as starlet Mari Blanchard having some Yuletide fun.