Classy Chassy", American Aircraft 'Girl Art' 1942-1953

A W Publ, 1977. paperback. Very Good. 8x7x0. Minor shelf wear, binding tight, pages clean and unmarked. CLASSY MASSY American Aircraft 'Girl Art' 1942-1953 This is a book of reproductions of paintings the art historians have missed. American pop art, which reflected the commercial art-forms of the 1950s and 1960s, had its origins in the World War II boom in mass-production, in machinery and in magazines from which came another, unsung, school of painting: the Girl Art which appeared on U.S. military aircraft of World War II and Korea. At the same time, Hollywood's dual role in reflecting and influencing American society was particularly apparent in the legends that accompanied the Girl Art. The phrase "Classy Chassy", for example, crops up in the 1940 Raoul Walsh film They Drive By Night, in which trucker George Raft is seen leaning on the counter of a diner, remarking on the "classy chassis" of the waitress Ann Sheridan, as he proposes to "finance it". "Who do you think you're kidding?" she sparks back. "Why, you couldn't even pay for the headlights." Ann Sheridan, known as the "Oomph Girl", was one of the most popular of the Hollywood pin-ups of the period, and though pin-up photographs were used extensively as a source for Girl Art, a letter published in the October, 1943 issue of Esquire magazine made it evident that the superb airbrush paintings of Alberto Vargas were firing the creative imaginations of the artists among the ground crews: "As a member of the Armed Forces and away from home, I too am an ardent admirer of a classy `chassis', such as presented in Esquire by the talented Varga. My passion for Varga girls goes almost to the extreme .. ." In fact, the U.S. Post Office attempted to censor the Varga girls, contending they were "obscene, lewd and lascivious." Varga and verse-writer Phil Stack responded with the famous "Patriotic Gal", decently clad in a nightshirt. The verse declared: "The American gal Is a peach of a pal To the boys who are guarding our nation, She girds for the fight By the yawn's early light And her war job is done with elation! She always responds When she's asked to buy bonds No critic can label HER flighty, And because it's in style To conserve with a smile She's conserving by day and by nighty!" Subsequently the picture was copied extensively, with varying degrees of finesse (and undress) onto the sides of Flying Fortresses and Liberators in every theatre of operations — becoming one of the most popular Girl Art images of World War II. Attempts were also made, within the Army Air Force, to censor the Girl Art, but ultimately the paintings were allowed because to have banned them would have posed a serious threat to morale.