A good write up about this genre of pin-up girl art can be found at the Institute of Official Cheer.
It is unfair to judge Art Frahm by these illustrations. He did many that were much, much worse. (And better, too.) But the falling-panty theme is a staple of his work. These pictures aren’t taken from a calendar he did when hungry and desperate, chafing against the dictates of some gnomish pervert who wanted a year’s worth of falling-panty pictures. These date from throughout the 50s. It’s a theme to which he returned again and again – and you have to wonder why.
Look at enough of these pictures, and something deeply creepy emerges. For starters, their entire premise is untenable: underwear simply does not fall down like this, unless the wearer has no hips and the panties no elastic. This is some curious glimpse into someone’s fantasy – a world where men regularly happen across women whose undergarments have fluttered to their ankles. A world where underwear failure in the middle of an everday chore is a signal, a cue, an invitation. Her pants are down and she can’t run. Have at it, boys!
You can find a gallery of his pictures at the Pin-Up Store. And if you’re tired of one hand surfing, you can buy the calendar on eBay.
Several of his pictures have the celery in them. Falling pantys and celery??
Well – I remember the 50’s, and we were poor, and cheap elastic in cheap clothes was nothing like the quality you get today – and I remember underwear falling/failing because the elastic died of old age and being boiled in coppers – so its not as unlikely in his time frame as it is now. All that being said its still bit voyeuristic and perverse!
Leave it to Dvorak to find something creepy about a hot babe simply trying to make it to her car with the groceries. More please!
When happening upon the scene of a young woman who is the unfortunate victim of sudden elastic failure (S.E.F.), it is the gentleman’s responsibility to assist her in the most obvious manner, simply to restore her dignity at a time when her arms are full of packages.
“Allow me to help you with your knickers, Miss.”
“Luke, there are advantages to the Dark Side of the force… take panties for instance…”
Great article at the Institute of Official Cheer!
Actually, the main theme seems to be : Helpless female with her arms full of groceries has an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction while trying to get home and cook dinner. The men in the illustration all seem way too eager to help.
Look at the eyes of both the Women and the Men. She is looking at “you” and he is looking at the place the panties used to hide.
My question is why the dog? That’s just perverse….
These painting then led to using small cameras (mirrors, whatever) to create ‘upskirt’ photos.
J/P=?
Puh-lease.
The early Wonder Woman comic books had her in bondage positions on every cover.
What could Janet Jackson do with this?
Those are not panties that have fallen down. They were sold as “Frahmsocks” in the 1950s and claimed to warm the lower legs. Because of the visual entendre they were most popular with unmarried girls who liked seeing men wear baffled, thoughtful expressions.
#11
You are a bigger pervert than I am 😉
13. “You are a bigger pervert than I am “
Hey, you brought it up. I just posted some pics!
Britney isn’t nuts afterall… she just old school.
#8, J/P=?, the shoe-camâ„¢ has been around for years. Filming up women’s skirts ruled legal:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/87863_voyeur20.shtml
You know, if you love Art Frahm–you need to go to lileks.com. Lileks was ‘discovering’ Frahm fifteen years ago, on his “institute of official cheer” His other web galleries (“regrettable food” “matchbooks”) are also a delight. What I just can’t figure out is how can such a witty guy actually be a republican? The mind reels!
You can also find a whole series of these at:
http://www.lileks.com/institute/frahm/indexmain.html