As a rule I wouldn’t give you two cracking interviews in the space of one week…. but this is an extra special one. Today I spoke with the author of the new Australian book about to be launched tomorrow - Our Girls. Our Girls looks at the unique and poignant stories of Australian Pin Up girls from the 1940’s – 1950’s. These women and their stories are unique to our country, our history and sense of who we are.
Meet Madeleine Hamilton Phd. – The Dr.of Dames!
Tell us a little about yourself. When did you first become interested in Pin Up culture and the stories behind it?
I guess I first caught the pin-up bug when I got short bangs cut 10 or so years ago. A work colleague said I looked like Bettie Page. I didn’t know who she was, so looked her up. From that point I was hooked on 50s pin-up queens. At the same time I was doing my Masters thesis on the Melbourne Truth newspaper in the 50s and it was chock-full of Australian swimsuit models. I thought, ‘Who were these women; what happened to them after they appeared in a major tabloid in their bathers; what did their families and friends think?’ When casting around for a PhD thesis topic, I decided to track down some of Australia’s forgotten pin-up babes and tell their stories.
Is it a purely academic interest or the more personal passion of a vintage-o-phile?
A combination, I’d say. I’ve long had such an intense yearning to just be able to step back into the 1950s. For a period I wanted to open my own vintage homewares store and started acquiring stock, but then I did a business plan and rapidly lost interest (hehehe). I am a devotee of vintage fashion, but a bit too lazy to search for it, care for it, do the grooming, etc. To have the discipline to complete a PhD thesis you have to have a strong emotional attachment to the topic, so I’m definitely passionate in terms of the looks, characters, style and ideas of mid-century Australia. Taking an academic approach also enabled me to investigate some of the complexities of pin-up culture – such as the idealisation of whiteness in Australian popular culture, Australian-American relations, and how men have historically used sexualised images of women to bond with one another.
Adelie Hurley (sitting with legs displayed gorgeously), early 1940s
What prompted you to focus on Australia’s early pin up culture as opposed to the better publicised American version?
For my PhD – on which ‘Our Girls’ is extracted – I needed an original research topic. American pin-ups have already been covered thoroughly and, as you say, very well publicised. Much to my surprise, no historian had researched or written about Australian 40s and 50s pin-up girls. I originally wanted to do a comparative study of American and Australian pin-ups, but quickly gathered enough fascinating material to be able to focus on the Australian side alone.
When you first began advertising for anyone with contacts or stories about Australia’s pin up girls, what was the initial reaction?
I got a very good response from the Australian media and did lots of radio and newspaper interviews. So it was obvious very early on that there was widespread interest in the topic.
About 30 people responded to my requests for interview participants, including former models, relatives of pin-up girls, and former servicemen. To my disappointment, I didn’t get any responses from men who photographed pin-ups.
Of course, as probably anyone doing a PhD thesis will find, there are always people who are bamboozled as to why you are spending 4 years researching such a narrow topic. Then there were people who didn’t like the approach I was taking, particularly some feminist historians who thought I should be more critical of mid-century pin-up culture. But generally I got lots of support and interest.
You mention in your book that upon meeting your contacts you became aware that the journey in writing this book was to be more emotional than you first anticipated. How have these encounters moved or changed you?
The main thing, which I wasn’t expecting, was that my affection and respect for Australian men increased greatly. The wonderfully warm and polite tone of Australian diggers’ letters to pin-ups was just delightful. I was expecting them to be suggestive and explicit, but they showed great vulnerability. It was just heartbreaking – as I checked their service records in the National Archives – that so many subsequently died. It really was a great honour to Australian pin-up girls that their pictures were so treasured by men enduring such dangerous circumstances.
Linda Browne (standing in lovely white swimsuit with matching high heels) photograph by Reg Johnson, c. 1943-4
What were some of the common qualities and traits you encountered when meeting the various “girls”?
From when they were little girls they were performers and exhibitionists. They loved the attention their performing talents and looks brought them. They danced and sang, and loved showing off their figures in swimsuits at the beach. As older women, they were still immaculately groomed. For many of them, having to give up performing, modelling and travelling to start their families at usually very young ages was a source of some regret. Motherhood and marriage, while they had their pleasures, were hard work and lacked the glamour and excitement of their earlier years.
Pin up culture has become much more wide spread and acceptable these days, however it seems that things considered controversial in the modelling industry now, were less so then. For example, your book talks about two young pin ups, the youngest of whom was eleven years old and gracing the cover of PIX, yet these days models as young as 15 are being turned away from catwalk work at Fashion Week. How and why do you believe these standards have changed?
I think once advertising became overtly sexy after WWII, both fashion and pin-up models were read as representing sex and thus as promiscuous. Now there is the idea of protecting teenage models from what is understood as an adult industry revolving around sexual fantasy and desires. During WWII, these concerns don’t seem to have existed, so PIX could un-self-consciously present a pin-up pictorial featuring an 11 year old who looked older, and a respectable mother could encourage her 15 year old daughter to be a mascot for a group of older men.
Today’s pinup culture has moved past simply sexualising the culture (as we saw happen in the 1950’s) and into a darker territory with the invention of websites like Suicide Girls. With the benefit of having studied society’s values / zeitgeist reflected at the time through pin up culture, what do you believe this trend says about us in the now?
I do find some borderline imagery, such as the Suicide Girls, somewhat disturbing because these models – often no older than 18 – don’t seem to have a good understanding of how their images will be received. They also don’t seem to comprehend that once their frankly soft-porn photograph is published and disseminated on the internet, they have no control how it will be read/received by the audience. Some then express horror/surprise when their image is altered or used for an unintended purpose. I’m thinking of Lara Bingle’s attempt to sue Zoo Weekly for adding a speech bubble reading ‘I’ll make you come’ to one of her early sexy photos which she didn’t given permission for them to use. So I’d say that while we all think we know all about sexuality and fantasy, there is really a great amount of ignorance.
Joy Power - promotional pin-up for Perth Tivoli c. 1946-7
The pin ups of the past evoked a more romantic and glamorous notion of womanhood. Do you believe that these qualities have been lost in the modern version of the pin up – and what lessons can we learn from “Our Girls” to help every woman rediscover her inner pin up?
Yes – modern pin-ups are so hard! Really – they look like adolescent boys with huge artificial pumped up tits. It really worries me that boys and men’s definition of sexy femininity is the Ralph centrefold – who is definitely not the ‘girl-next-door’ of the 40s and 50s. Women and girls (and men!) would greatly benefit look back to this earlier era for a more realistic and achievable version of Australian femininity. The emphasis then was on healthy, wholesome womanhood. Beaches rather than stripper poles; bare feet rather than hooker heels; flattering two- or one-piece swimsuits rather micro-bikinis, and natural hair colour, not bleached extensions.
Congratulations on creating an enlightening, entertaining and engaging read. This is one I’ll be keeping for my daughters to help keep the spirit alive. Oh, lovely! They were – and are – amazing Australian women.
*****
Our Girls is an extraordinary work, both for the heritage and for the amazing pictures of our very own, original pin up girls. You’ll love their stories and if you are anything like me, will greatly appreciate the gorgeous, un-retouched women they are! Buy it, read it, share it with your friends and show your daughters – Our Girl’s brings home what it is to be beautiful, glamorous and real!
I’m also very excited to tell you that I have a special interest in this publication as I have the opportunity to attend the launch tonight… as a pin up girl myself! I’ll be walking the catwalk in swimwear from the 1950’s and actually getting to meet some of these amazing people. Yes I’ll be taking loads of photos and will have a choice selection of shots of all the fun and frivolity of the evening!
So once again… stay tuned for more adventures!
*Please Note: All images used in this story have been used with the permission of the models and the author of the book. Please do not use, or reproduce in any part, these photographs or interview, without express written permission from the appropriate parties.*
