pin-up

Cheesecake. Or, the illustrative art of drawing/painting attractive women and girls in sexually appealing poses. Not necessarily scantily clad. The genre has certainly been around for some time, but probably hit its peak during and just before World War II. Famous classic pin-up artists include Alberto Vargasand Gil Elvgren, . Current artists include Hajime Sorayama, Olivia, and Chris Achilleos.

Also, similarly-posed photographs, usually of 1940s and 1950s female movie stars.

The word pin-up or pinup was probably invented by Hartzell Spence during World War II. He edited Yank, a magazine for American troops which featured cartoons such as "Sad Sack," which Spence commissioned from an Army sergeant, as well as photographs of scantily-clad movie stars of the time, such as Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Hedy Lamarr.

'When Spence was designing the magazine, he said "We've got to have a pinup," Yank's cartoon editor, Ralph Stein, remembers. "None of us had ever heard the term. I think Hartzell might have invented it." The Oxford English Dictionary agrees. Spence died May 9 in Connecticut
at age 93.'

Source: Randy Cassingham's This Is True e-mail newsletter, thisistrue.com, 20 May 2001.