{"id":3813,"date":"2015-03-09T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/digitalservices\/?p=3182"},"modified":"2015-03-09T10:05:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:05:25","slug":"campus-pinups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2015\/03\/09\/campus-pinups\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Pinups?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rammer Jammer<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>UA’s campus magazine from the 1920s to the 1950s, often featured cover art that was surprisingly risqu\u00e9 for the time. Or was it?<\/p>\n

I think we\u00a0tend to see 1920s-1940s\u00a0through the lens of the 1950s, with its\u00a0heavily censored films (see “The Hays Code”<\/a> at TV Tropes) and horribly wholesome\u00a0television\u00a0shows like Leave\u00a0It to Beaver<\/em>\u00a0and Father Knows Best<\/i>. We forget how much the early days of movies and television could be\u00a0a bit like the wild west.<\/p>\n

For example, a lot of\u00a0people could tell you that, during the 1951-1957 run of I Love Lucy<\/em>, Ricky and Lucy couldn’t sleep\u00a0in the same bed or use the word “pregnant.” The fact that she was actually shown to be “expecting” was pretty daring. But I bet you didn’t know that the first show to depict a pregnancy, not to mention a couple that shared a bed, was before that — on\u00a0Mary Kay and Johnny<\/a><\/em>, in the late 1940s, a show now lost to history.<\/p>\n

The 1940s are a confusing period to talk about.\u00a0Sure, Hollywood movies weren’t allowed to\u00a0show too much skin or bad guys getting away with their crimes, but it was also the period of bombshells like Mae West, Jean Harlow, and Veronica Lake. Perhaps it had to do with the uncertainty of WWII (1939-1945) or the end of\u00a0the Great Depression. Or perhaps there was nothing odd about it at all; it just looks that way in hindsight, after the 1950s. Of course, it’s also possible we’re stereotyping the 1950s, too.<\/p>\n

What’s certain:\u00a0Rammer Jammer<\/em> cover art usually echoes\u00a0the trends of the era, especially in the depiction of the female form.<\/p>\n

1920s<\/h2>\n

Before WWI, there was the Gibson Girl, created by Charles Dana Gibson.<\/p>\n

\"Gibson<\/p>\n

She was a species of the New Woman, and she was a bit controversial (see “The Gibson Girls: The Kardashians of the Early 1900s”<\/a>\u00a0at mental_floss), but pop culture hadn’t seen anything yet.<\/p>\n

The 1920s flapper <\/a>was a new breed. Jazz Age illustrators like Russell Patterson and John Held Jr.\u00a0immortalized these more daring women of the Roaring Twenties, often in an Art Deco kind of style. Their kin can be found on the 1920s covers of\u00a0Rammer Jammer,\u00a0<\/em>beginning at its inception in 1925. Click on any image below to see a larger version.<\/p>\n