Research by Clarence Simonsen
Searching for the “Secret” Third Petty Model 1945-49
Click on the link above for the PDF file.
Excerpt
The American pin-up girl evolved as a concept from many different sources, posters, post cards, calendars, cigarette cards and mostly magazines. They were all tied to themes, stories, and commercial products, using female anatomy and sex in advertising and selling its social content. The Golden age of the American pin-up era has been defined by art dealer and American illustration pin-up collector Charles G. Martignette as the years 1920 to 1970. This American process of shedding and painting the female anatomy was very gradual, beginning with the Gibson Girl whose body showed High Class Fashion, Integrity, refinement, and Love. From 1925 to 1933, the American emergence of naked breasts and female buttocks in paintings began the slow process of undressing the All-American pin-up girl. Today we can read and study online the pin-up magazines of the past American Golden Age and just the American titles alone record the promotion of the sex life in Paris, France. The American male seemed to regard French women as much more sexually exotic and more sophisticated than their own American gals. Some of this attraction came from American troops in WWI who had experienced the night-life in Paris, and the affection shown by French ladies. American publications were now given French names such as French Frills, French Follies, Les Dames, Paris by Night, Paris Life, Paris Nights, and Gay Parisienne. These magazines contained many drawings of nude ladies in sub-title headings, replacing the Gibson girl era which ended in 1910.
Text version with all images
Searching for the “Secret” Third Petty Model 1945-49
The American pin-up girl evolved as a concept from many different sources, posters, post cards, calendars, cigarette cards and mostly magazines. They were all tied to themes, stories, and commercial products, using female anatomy and sex in advertising and selling its social content. The Golden age of the American pin-up era has been defined by art dealer and American illustration pin-up collector Charles G. Martignette as the years 1920 to 1970. This American process of shedding and painting the female anatomy was very gradual, beginning with the Gibson Girl whose body showed High Class Fashion, Integrity, refinement, and Love. From 1925 to 1933, the American emergence of naked breasts and female buttocks in paintings began the slow process of undressing the All-American pin-up girl. Today we can read and study online the pin-up magazines of the past American Golden Age and just the American titles alone record the promotion of the sex life in Paris, France. The American male seemed to regard French women as much more sexually exotic and more sophisticated than their own American gals. Some of this attraction came from American troops in WWI who had experienced the night-life in Paris, and the affection shown by French ladies. American publications were now given French names such as French Frills, French Follies, Les Dames, Paris by Night, Paris Life, Paris Nights, and Gay Parisienne. These magazines contained many drawings of nude ladies in sub-title headings, replacing the Gibson girl era which ended in 1910.
In 1910, French nude postcards sold 123 million pictures, ten years later, American publishers made more money on French style pin-ups than French publishers did in France.
American published French Follies 1931 [Free domain]
1920-1933 America is taking the lead in publishing girlie magazines with France the closest competitor. Hundreds of unknown American artists [illustrators] painted the girls and used themes as nudism, sports up-skirt, physical fitness, the wind, and party games to expose stockings, girdles, black hose, legs, panties and full frontal nudity. [free domain]
Thousands of American illustrators took an assignment, put his or her work on paper, were paid, and then forgotten, their name was even omitted in the published magazine and many were lost forever. [free domain]
Another unknown American artist 1933. The artist illustrator and his girl art became the single most exploited guise for painting female full nudes provided the vulva was never showing. [free domain]
Sometimes an unknown artist submitted art work and his name was published like this December 1933 issue of Follies [Vol. 10, #1] magazine. The signature reads – ALBERT VARGAS 1927, who went on to become world famous girl illustration fame in Esquire, True, and Playboy magazines. The King of aircraft nose art paintings in three wars, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. [free domain]
Until the invention of the camera in early 1900s, world artists illustrated still life, portraits, and yes even full nudes, preserving the earliest form of human life. Like it or not, the most popular subject for artists were the topless or fully nude female form. The introduction of the camera and photographs were slowly taking over from the artist in illustrating nudes by 1910, but this did not create much concern. In reality, the photos of their nude models became the new normal and freed the artist from hours of posing and live model painting in his studio. When you study the portrait style of famous girl illustrators such as Earl Moran, or Gil Elvgren, [who photographed his own girls] you will find most used models and sets, combined with 8” x 10” photos which captured the natural face expressions they sought in their work. This created a huge new industry for the photographers of pin-up images, both for magazines and the artist illustrator. The female nude photo was now appearing more and more in pin-up magazines.
The photographer was paid to produce images for the art illustrator and retained his copyright, reselling his photos to publishers. Original 1926 “Spice of Life” magazine photo. A few pin-up photo models went on to become favorite girl illustrator models, appearing in color cover art on hundreds of magazines. [free domain]
The American pin-up illustrator artist model was created. Follies magazine Fall 1924, featuring Marion Orr who became a true nude model for artists. [free domain]
The cover of Spicy magazine for September 1933. The American color pin-up girl had appeared on magazine covers since 1920, then in December 1939, the first pin-up two-page “gatefold” Petty Girl began appearing inside Esquire magazine.
Today, [2021] the free-world recognizes everyone, male, female, and gay couples, deal with erotic fantasies everyday. Erotic fantasies are derived mostly by the social experiences in
childhood, religion, family, and many other thoughts and feelings experienced during our lifetime. Today we are exposed to more erotic fantasies and sexual seduction from the internet, Facebook, and Wi-Fi, than any other past generation could ever imagine. In fact, it has gone way beyond control for all age groups, and makes billions of dollars world-wide.
I have used American drawings and photos from 1923-1933, to demonstrate the average thoughts and feelings of the main-stream American public in that time period. Just as there were millions of degrees of sexual fantasy and escape, there were just as many public responses to the developing pin-up images in American magazines. The most common American problem, [which was hidden but fully understood] became the simple fact male masturbation used the pin-up girl as their fantasy stimulation. This upset millions of below average looking females who could never come close to the male fantasy pin-up girls. The original American Gibson Girl image had universal appeal to rich and poor, young and old, educated and uneducated, male and female, but she was distinctly “high class.” The Gibson Girl was not based on a real person, she was born on the sketch pad of Charles Dana Gibson and became an American way of female life. The Gibson era ended in 1910, and there was no new American girl to replace her until after World War One came to an end. The new 1920 pin-up girl was at once attacked by feminist groups who saw pretty girls being used as sex objects and part of a men’s “dirty barroom” domain, and it worked. Sociological studies revealed a greater sex-associated male guilt feeling among the American male lower class than the middle or higher social class males. They also found in studies that this guilt feeling easily dissipates when a group of male’s [Military or University] share a wall covered with pin-ups, much like the nude nose art that later appeared on aircraft in WWII. This study also found the quality of the pin-up girl usually reflects the social taste of the reader, which might explain what took place next in the United States. The first sexy almost nude airbrushed Petty Girl cartoon appeared in the Autumn issue of Esquire magazine in 1933. This slowly set a new trend in establishing the new American pin-up girl as an “upper-class” good taste sophisticated lady, to all classes of Americans. [Just like the Gibson Girl] The pin-ups by George Petty and later [1942] by Alberto Vargas offered high-class painted nudes to a generation of Americans and Canadians alike, and it was OK to look at them or even pin [pin-ups] on their family bedroom wall.
Reid Stewart Austin fell in love with the art work of Alberta Vargas in his teens, and later as photo director of Playboy magazine, brought Alberto Vargas and Hugh Hefner together. Reid left Playboy to become the personal art director of Mr. Vargas for seventeen years. In 1978, Reid published “Vargas” the story of Arequipa, Peru, born Alberta Vargas. The book “Petty” followed in 1997, and it received top reviews. Both books describe and display the Petty and Vargas girls that changed the attitude of pin-up girls in North America forever.
Both books also contain a chapter which details the airbrush technique used by each artist. Vargas used a large number of live posed models during his long career, while the Petty Girl was a close guarded family project. In the 1997 book PETTY, [In George Petty’s Studio: A Memoir] daughter Marjorie explains the full role she played in posing and creating the new
Petty Girls. At no time did Marjorie mentioned the use of any model photographs of herself or any other models in creating the Petty Girl. That all changed on 10 February 1998, when a letter was received by Charles G. Martignette in Florida.
Charles Martignette was an art dealer and collector of American illustrator artists. His gallery in Hallandale Beach, Florida, housed the world’s largest collection of commercial illustrated art, including original paintings by George Petty and Vargas.
This letter from photographer Robert B. Kohl opened up a new can of worms in regards to the George Petty Girls creation and paintings from 1945 to 56. [Peter Perrault collection]
George Hukar [1895-1975] Internet.
George Hukar was an illustrator and photographer from California. He attended the Taliesin Fellowship Studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, [Google and read, most interesting] and became a gifted commercial photographer of nude women. George worked for a number of major photo studios in New York and Chicago, but he had a serious drinking problem and moved around a lot. He created a number of commercial illustrations for jewellery, Nutone, Ovaltine, and Simoniz car wax. In 1936 – 37 he completed six fully nude ads for Simoniz car wax which were published in the photo news magazine LIFE. In 1945, George was elected a delegate to the General Assembly of the Photographic Society of America, Chicago Chapter and that’s where he met fellow photographer Robert B. Kohl from Chicago. In 1946, these two photographers formed a studio in the American Furniture Mart Building on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, name Photo-color Studios, Inc. This is the location where secret nude photos of an unknown Petty Girl model were taken in late 1946 and possibly until 1949. It’s believed Hukar took earlier nude photos at another location for artist George Petty, but never confirmed. Robert Kohl stated this in his 10 February 1998 letter, page one, last paragraph.
George Hukar May and June 1937 Simoniz nude ads in Life magazine. [author LIFE collection]
This same George Hukar unknown nude model also appeared in many pin-up pulp magazines 1930s. [author magazine collection]
Popular Photography magazine September 1949, photographer Robert B. Kohl and his first model [Helen Horne] who became Mrs. L. Kohl.
Robert Kohl did women’s fashions, hair styles, and commercial nudes using eighteen-year-old model Mitzi Proulx from Minneapolis.
The Robert B. Kohl 1998 letter to collector Martignette in regards to a secret long-time model used by George Petty for posed photos taken by George Hukar.
This photo is one of 45 purchased by Charles Martignette in 1998 and intended for publication by Reid Stewart Austin and Peter Perrault. With the death of Reid Austin [2006] and collector Martignette [2008] the photos were never published and now Peter Perrault [owner] has allowed the author to use a few in this Blog story. The date is likely 1946, George Hukar is on the left holding the unknown model shoe, and the lady on the right is the one and only “Petty Girl” Marjorie Petty. These secret posed photos will be used by George Petty in his TRUE magazine paintings and calendar for 1945 and 1948. The model name is still unknown, outside of the Petty Estate.
Copy of 10 February 1998 letter from Robert and Helen Kohl
Charles G. Martignette
P. O. Box 293
Hallandale, Florida 33009
Dear Sir:
I have some photographs that may be of interest to you and to collectors of George Petty memorabilia.
As the popular story goes, Petty used his daughter Marjorie [age five] then her mother, and Marjorie again [1929] when she reached her ‘teens. Popular, and often so-published, but not accurate.
I have in my possession 45 black-and-white 5×7’s and 8×10’s of the real nude model, and a number of tear sheets from ESQUIRE and TRUE magazines, showing the relationship of the artist/copy photos and finished/published artwork.
The story is this: George Hukar, a gifted commercial photographer had worked for major studios in New York and Chicago, and he had a drinking problem, later resolved by joining Al-Anon. [Al-Anon alcohol-rehab formed in 1951] He formed a partnership with me in Chicago in 1946 as Photo-color Studios, Inc. In general, I did women’s fashion, furs, and hair-style, and some very discreet nudes for commercial advertising. George did the commercial illustration, jewellery, NuTone, Simoniz, Ovaltine, etc.
Our first studio was in the American Furniture Mart building on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Later, we moved to a new studio in the Cossard Building at Rush and Ohio in Chicago. The partnership was dissolved in 1949, George moved to the role of instructor at the Art Center in California and my wife and I moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, for the next 32 years where we owned and operated a large resort.
During the studio years I had occasion to visit with Petty and on at least one occasion with his daughter Marjorie, while shooting his long-time model. I assisted in the making of some of the photographs. One of the shots shows partner Hukar holding the elevated foot of the model, with Marjorie holding the typical contorted hand of the model favored by Petty.
Actually, Hukar had photographed the same model for years for Petty. Petty would call George and the model, who originally lived in Chicago, and arrived for studio time at off-hours to avoid any uninvited interruption or publicity. It became more difficult for Petty to make arrangements when the model moved to Indianapolis.
I also believe that the model became less enchanted with the anonymous glamor of being a Petty model, with the train trips to Chicago, and the minimum fee and expense paid by Petty. Further, the model married in Indianapolis and may have run into some marital objections.
On a number of occasions, we made test shots of other nude models but none had the anatomical features of his favorite model.
A sitting would usually last for up to four hours with dozens of slight variations of one or two primary poses directed by Petty. We would make 8 x 10 proofs from each sitting and these would be numbered and sent to Petty’s north Chicago home.
Within a few days Petty would telephone and request several poses by number to be enlarged to exactly so many inches from top of model’s head to tip of toe: 18 5/8 inches, for example.
Two facts should be noted: First, to the best of my knowledge, Marjorie Petty never posed for any artist copy pix by George Hukar [or me], nor had her mother ever been photographed by Hukar for that purpose.
Second, Petty did not paint from life, and this was his most jealously guarded secret. Petty airbrushed apparently did his artwork on a trace [transparent] overlay, also working with gouache [body water color] and some brush.
A comparison of artists copy photos in my possession with the finished artwork for an Ice Capades poster reveals an exactness of detail of muscular structure, highlights and shadows, pose and props. The only embellishment was facial—the finished art work was not the face of the model, and the costume which was usually transparent and followed the model’s anatomical detail exactly.
Reid Austin was overwhelmed by the collection but they were too late for publication in his 1997 PETTY book. I was pleased to receive an autographed copy of the beautiful book from Reid.
In telephone conversations with Reid he recalled seeing some photo paste-ups on Petty’s work table, using legs, from one shot, torso from another, and so on, but he did not make any connection at the time with the nude model source.
Signed – Sincerely, Robert B. Kohl.
A small selection of the secret Petty model 5” x 7” test photos showing different hand poses, two wearing shoes, taken in studio by Robert B. Kohl and George Hukar 1946-49. Petty picked out what he wanted and scale measured enlarged body part photos were ordered by number. [Peter Perrault collection]
[Peter Perrault collection] George Petty created his 1947 True Girls like a mad surgeon using different posed body part photos of his secret model.
This rare Petty photograph was owned by Ted Kimer, St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1990. Ted painted a series of pin-up girls called “Teddy’s Girls” which can be found and purchased online. Peter Perrault captured this Petty image that was hanging in the art studio of Ted Kimer, which had little meaning at that date. The body of this Petty girl came from his secret model photos, and now George Petty is replacing her face with the face of Marjorie Petty. These images have been photographed to correct size as directed by Petty, in the studio of Robert B. Kohl and George Huker. They are then sent to the north Chicago home of George Petty where they are arranged as his next Petty girl painting. As stated in the Robert Kohl letter [10 February 1998] Petty did not paint the 1945-47 TRUE girls with Marjorie posing live, as the general public were led to believe. He painted from hundreds of photos posed by his “secret” unknown model, and these were arranged in different forms of arms, legs, and shoes. The Marjorie face was then cut out and placed on the body of the unknown model, and a new Petty Girl was painted, appearing in True December 1948. I believe the left face was in fact the unknown model first painting. For obvious reasons, this was a jealously guarded secret between artist and photographer, until exposed in the letter from Robert Kohl, along with his 45 original nude images. I’m positive the Petty Estate continue to hide the name of this secret model who was in fact the “true” body of perhaps all thirty-five TRUE Petty girls, plus the 1955-56 Esquire calendars.
This TRUE magazine December 1945 gatefold enlarged face became the finished Petty girl with her new Marjorie face and secret model body. [author collection]
This TRUE magazine gatefold also appeared in the December 1948 Petty TRUE calendar, and tens of thousands of Petty match covers.
Petty Girl match covers, first five printed by Mercury Match Co. in 1946, the same time George Petty was creating his TRUE magazine series of thirty-five girls. This is possibly where Petty began to mix body part photos and resell as different Petty girls. [author collection]
In 1938, Superior Match Company was founded by Harold Meitus, headquarters on Greenwood, Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. They introduced the now famous Elvgren Girls first five match cover set in the same year, followed by fourteen other sets, totalling seventy-five girls. Several other match companies [Monarch, National Press, Mercury, and Regal] soon jumped on the money wagon and began producing pin-up girl covers. In 1945, Mercury Match Co. secured a contract with George Petty and his first set of five girls appeared as match covers, seen above. These five girls were all originally painted for Esquire magazine and appeared in 1939-41 issues, but Petty retained his copyright, and two girls [Gold Ball Curves and Yes, I’m Home] were then altered from his original art. This was done using the same unknown model and photos taken at the Kohl-Hukar studio in Chicago. Many glamour girl artists appeared on match covers, including Alberto Vargas, however it was the Petty girl which caused eyeballs to roll when lighting up a cigarette. Once again the well formed body and tiny waist sent a message to the healthy male hormones, and the Petty Girl became the high-point of match cover pin-ups. These same Petty Girls soon appeared on all other company match covers with the most appearing on Superior Match Company covers beginning in 1948, with nine sets of five girls per set. These Petty match covers were printed in the tens of thousands, mixed in sets, and continued to appear until 1956, when real women, showing real female flesh, began appearing on match covers. Today match covers are still being collected by a new generation.
[author collection]
George Petty took his original March 1941 Esquire girl and gave her a new hair style with flower, adding a key-hole background and the match cover “Yes, I’m Home’ first sold for Mercury match covers.
This is the original [under protective cover] George Petty altered hair style with flower which became the image used in tens of thousands of match covers 1946 to 56. This is property of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, copied by Peter Perrault. Somehow this original Petty [match cover] art ended up in the Esquire collection which was donated to the Spencer Museum. This demonstraes the talent of Petty to change a painting, reselling time and time again, using scale photo images as a model.
This origianl June 1941 Petty Esquire girl became a Superior match cover titled “Golf Ball Curves” appearing from 1948 to 1956. She first appeared on Mercury match cover in 1946.
This original match cover art also survives in the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, donated as part of the Esquire collection. Petty cut off the original arm, repainted a new arm with golf club and this was printed on tens of thousands of match covers. Some of his original masking tape remains on the painting, and the golf club remains unpainted over the left shoe. I believe this new arm came from photos of his secret nude model. [Peter Perrault image]
[Internet free domain]
These Petty girls were used by all companies as sales promotion which were printed ‘Made in U.S.A.’ Today these match cover sales books are collector’s items, and somehow the two original altered paintings survive in the Spencer Museum of Art. It is still a mystery how these two original girls were found in the Esquire archives, when George Petty closely guarded all his original paintings. The above page is from a National Press Match Company sales book dated 1950, the Petty girls are still selling. By 1960 the match cover paintings had been replaced by real photos of real models, and by 1970, the golden age of the American girl illustrator had come to an end. The gatefold nude models appearing in Playboy magazine had taken over the world by 1955, and Hugh M. Hefner became the father of photo posed Nudes and American Pin-up Bunnies.
Without the complete set of secret posed photos, [hundreds photographed] it is impossible to match every single TRUE magazine or calendar Petty girl to an image. At the same time, the few nude photo posed images which survive preserved a very clear record of how George Petty was using his posed nude images to create the TRUE magazine Petty girls of 1945-47. This Petty girl painted bust can be clearly seen in the posed photos of unknown model.
His new Petty girls created from secret model photos for TRUE magazine were also sold to the major match cover companies again and again. Everyone believed they were Marjorie Petty, but it was possibly only her Petty face, and that can now be questioned. [Peter Perrault collection]
The TRUE February 1947 Petty Girl, body from unknown model and face of Marjorie. [author collection]
Unknown model in 1945-46 posing for February 1947 TRUE girl. Photo by George Hukar, one of hundreds taken. [Free domain Internet]
Not the same photo, check shadow on left shoe, and space between leg and chair top, meaning many images of the same pose were taken. [Free domain internet]
[Free domain internet] Photo George Hukar 1946.
Final pose with face of Marjorie Petty, body from unknown nude model?
Columbia Pictures movie “The Petty Girl” premiered in New York on 17 August 1950, and Joan Caulfield posted live for the movie poster, no photographs used. [Author collection]
[Peter Perrault collection]
Picture magazine, 1 October 1950, featuring a story on artist George Petty [56 years] with his first model, wife Jule [right] and daughter Marjorie, now his favorite model. “George Petty joined his public in believing that the voluptuous, long-legged girls he draws – are like nothing human.” He did, that is, until he saw [and measured] actress Joan Caulfield, who plays the lead in the Columbia film, “The Petty Girl.” Then he had to eat his words, because Joan fulfills to a remarkable degree the ‘biologically improbable” Petty Girl measurements. [5’ 5”, weight 110 pounds, burst 35 ½, hips 35 ½, with honey-blonde hair] Joan did a number of Petty Girl photos but of course never nude.
Unknown to his public, George Petty had his own favorite model with all the anatomical features he wanted, and Marjorie had not posed nude for her father in at least the past six years. Robert B. Kohl wrote – “On a number of occasions, we made test shots of other nude models but none had the anatomical features of his favorite model.” I believe this third “unknown” model had measurements very close to those of Joan Caulfield, which Petty liked and used for his paintings. The complete set of nude photos would make for interesting research.
The three-year TRUE series begins in January 1945 and ends with the December 1947 issue. A total of thirty-five girls are painted and I believe all were created from the nude photos of the unknown model. Marjorie Petty acts as the supervisor in the taking of nude photos by Robert B. Kohl and Georeg Hukar in their Chicago studio. It is possible some used the model face.
Marjorie Petty, the real Petty Girl not only knows what is taking place, plus the name of the secret model, she even appears in a few images, believed to be taken in 1946, at first Chicago studio, Lake Shore Drive. It would appear Marjorie no longer wanted to pose nude for her father, as she was dating her future husband, who I’m sure objected to this family nudity relationship. Marjorie marries in 1948, and moves to southern California, her modeling days are over. The studio partnership of Robert Kohl and George Hukar is dissolved in late 1949, and they move to different parts of the U.S. George Petty retains his huge collection of nude photos from his unknown model and continues painting from these images.
The largest reproduction of a Petty Girl appeared in TRUE magazine December 1946. The caption read – “Don’t Tell Me That’s a Hobby Too.” Today I know my copy is not the body of Marjorie Petty, and even her face is now suspect. [author collection]
In 1952, the first of two calendars are issued by the Ridge Tool Company, a second follows in 1953. These girl images were painted with enlarged images of industrial machines and tools, exposing a strange mix of oversize clothing, large heads, and face expressions never seen before in the artist’s work. In 1954, two consecutive Petty calendars are issued by Esquire magazine, and these will be reproduced in 1955 and 1956 calendars. Hundreds of these images can be found for sale on the internet and the author believes they were all created using the collection of nude photos from the unknown model.
Three Petty Girl gatefolds will also appear in the April, August, and November 1955 issues of Esquire magazine.
Esquire April 1955 gatefold.
The author obtained his first 1955 Petty Girl in 1988, [above] and at once realized these girls were a different style than his earlier work. This remained a mystery until 2021 when Peter Perrault sent me the Robert B. Kohl letter from 10 February 1998, and some of his unknown nude model photos. I believe these paintings were all created from nude photos and even the new face was created by George Petty in his studio. George Petty retired in 1956 and his little “secret” nude model was forgotten.
Face created by George Petty from model photos.
Top Esquire August 1955, Mexican was November 1955. [Peter Perrault collection]
This secret history needs much more research to preserve the Petty past, and one large question remains – “Who was this forgotten American third nude Petty Girl?” I call her “George’s Prostitute” he used her body, paid her little, and never wanted her to be seen in public. Please, it’s time to give her a place in Petty Girl history.
Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel were partners and the real experts on the Petty history. It’s possible Louis Meisel knows the name of the unknown nude model and has more posed photos. Both are authors of many fine books on artists and photorealism, including the 2011 book titled “The Great American Pin-Up.”
Preserving the Past II 