Happy Thanksgiving from Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Whatever your plans our this Thanksgiving day, I hope you have the opportunity to pause and give thanks for the blessings in your life- even the ones that may not be readily apparent.

Happy National Pin Up Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

While some people mark April 22nd down as Earth Day on their calendars, I always thought the attention paid to a holiday whose founding father was a murderous hippie and encourages stifling economic growth in favor of some touchey-feeley platitudes about Mother Earth would be better spent on some sort of observance of National Pin-Up Day.

National Pin-Up Day would be a bit like President's Day in that the holiday doesn't honor just one person. Much like President's Day is meant to coincide with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington's respective birthdays, April 22nd would be an ideal date for National Pin-Up Day since it falls on the late Bettie Page's birthday and is also within a few days of blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield's date of birth [Just think of all the crazy blowout prices auto dealers could have in honor of Pin-Up Day weekend- NANESB!].

Astute readers of this blog will notice that this statuesque camera-wielding blonde is not quite as busty as Jayne Mansfield, yet too fair-headed to be the infamous Bettie Page. The tall, leggy blonde is actually none other than model-turned-photographer Bunny Yeager. Born Linnea Elanor Yeager in the Pittsburgh area in 1930, Yeager moved to Miami and became a sought-after model in the early 1950s.

Thinking ahead to a career after modeling, Yeager began taking photography courses. On her first attempt, some pictures Yeager shot of model friend Maria Stinger were accepted by a men's magazine.

As it turned out, Stinger was just the beginning. In 1954, Yeager first met Bettie Page- who was already known as one of the less inhibited models for Irving Klaw's New York-based Movie Star News- and the two would collaborate on what would become some iconic photo shoots despite Yeager being financially strapped and barely able to afford Page's services as a model at the time.

The sensual Tennessee brunette was photographed by Yeager posing with live [but most likely sedated- NANESB!] cheetahs in a leopard-print bikini at a Boca Raton, FL safari park. Another shoot took place at Miami's Funland amusement park with a bikini-clad Page posing in bumper cars, on the merry go round or in front of concession stands. The Funland and Safari park photos shot by Yeager show a rapport between photographer and model that is hard to duplicate. Yeager must've knew she had something special going in her work with Bettie Page since she also had the foresight to take a number of behind-the-scenes pictures of her and Page at the safari park.

Page wasn't the only famous client that Yeager worked with Swiss model and actress Ursula Andress- the original Bond Girl- for promotional photography and artwork for 1962's Dr. No, the first big screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's James Bond. Andress later remarked that she owed her career to the white bikini she wore in the movie and modeled for Yeager.

At age 84, Yeager is still alive and well and living in Miami. As recently as a year ago, Yeager expressed a passing interest in photographing child-actress-turned-train-wreck Lindsay Lohan [if anyone could pull that off, I bet it would be Yeager- NANESB!]. In 2011, the Schuster galleries of Miami and Berlin became the official representative for Yeager's photographic works and has hosted a number of exhibits featureing her work with Bettie Page and others.

Erin Go Bragh-Less! Happy St Patrick's Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

'Tis the time of year when Americans celebrate Ireland's patron saint driving out all the snakes from the Emerald Isle by coloring everything from their beers to nearby rivers green. The holiday, which is recognized by the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox Churches actually marks the arrival of Christianity in Ireland- although over time, the legend grew to Saint Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland (with 'snakes' most likely being an allegory for Pagan beliefs).

While celebrations in cities like New York, Dublin and Chicago being large and boisterous, in 1999 the tiny village of Dripsey in County Cork went to the other extreme to mark the arrival of the new millennium and began hosting the world's shortest St Patrick's Day parade- 26 yards between the village's two pubs; the Weigh Inn and the Lee Valley. The idea stuck, and while the parade has garnered more and more particpants over the last 15 years and includes antique autos and tractors, the distance remains the same.

Although I'm not sure if the scarlet-tressed beauty shown above is going to Dripsey's St Patrick's Day, she should probably get a move on and finish her sweater for whatever St Patrick's Day event she's going out to.

The image is actually from a 1952 piece by Gil Elvgren called 'A Spicy Yarn'. Both the red hair and the green yarn were part of the 60+ year old original and haven't been photoshopped or modified for the St Patrick's Day Holiday.

Happy Valentine's Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Believe it or not, I actually have plans this Valentine's Day. Although I could fudge and claim that it involves a weekend romantic getaway of some sort with a Brooklyn Decker look-alike, instead I'll just say that I'm picking up some seasonal work.

But what would Valentine's Day be without an homage to pin-ups....particularly the artistry of the incomparable Gil Elvgren?

If we're to take the title of this 1959 portrait at face value, then this golden tressed beauty goes by the moniker of Mona. Actually, this particular Elvgren piece has the dual title of Mona/Heartwarming.

While this portrait is from Elvgren's tenure with Brown & Bigelow, it doesn't appear to be an ad for any specific sponsor, which leads me to believe that Mona/Heartwarming might've been done for a promotional calendar or deck of cards.

Happy New Year's From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Well, here we are bidding farewell to 2013- some of us went from having a hard time believing that baseball or football season was already here to counting down as that ginormous crystal ball gets set to drop from Times Square.

As far as sports go, 2013 was a pretty good year. Obviously, the Red Sox won the World Series and the Bruins advanced to the Stanley Cup during a strike-shortened NHL season, only to collapse to the Blackhawks in a matter of seconds.

As far as domestic and international politics go, the year 2013 was one to forget. A landmark sporting event in the capital of my home state was targeted by Islamic terrorists, killing three people and injuring hundreds. In their haste to assign blame for the Boston Marathon bombings, a number of pundits almost gleefully accused the Tea Party or setting up IEDs at the Boston Marathon finish line before two Chechen brothers killed an MIT Campus Policeman in an ambush, carjacked a motorist and shot it out with Eastern Massachusetts law enforcement in the predawn hours in Watertown, MA. One brother was killed and the other was arrested after he was discovered hiding on a boat in somebody's backyard nearly a full day later.

Just the west on I-90, New York governor Mario Cuomo and his cohorts in the New York State Assembly crammed through the SAFE Act, a sort of Holy Grail for the gun control crowd that was written and passed so hastily that lawmakers forgot to exempt NY State law enforcement from its provisions. No doubt gun control groups like Mayors Against Illegal Guns will continue to tout the NY SAFE Act as 'common sense gun safety laws' [such as the theoretical prohibition of owning a 10-round magazine, later amended to allow ownership, but only loading no more than 7 rounds at a time- NANESB!]. States such as Connecticut, Maryland and Colorado also passed similar gun control measures, but lawmakers supportive of the new gun laws in Colorado have already paid a political price, with two state Senators being recalled in a first-of-its-kind campaign and a third resigning from office rather than face recall herself.

In October, President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forced a government shutdown when the Democrats refused to entertain even the most tepid and watered down requests from the Republicans to delay the implementation of 0bamacare. Within weeks of the shutdown, there was the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.gov website and millions of Americans who previously had health insurance would have their policies cancelled because they no longer complied with 0bamacare regulations. Although the White House claims that the website is fixed, enrollment numbers are still well below even the most modest projections from HHS. Ironically, only a few weeks after the government shutdown, President Obama began a series of unilateral changes to his signature law- similar to what some GOP officials had asked for during the shutdown- that some experts pointed out were well beyond the constitutional authority granted a sitting President.

On the rails, the Bakken Oil boom appeared to be renewing the fortunes of New England-based railways until a runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train wiped out the heart of the village of Lac Megantic, Quebec in July. At least 47 people were killed that night and the MM&A had to file for bankruptcy. The line is looking for a buyer and has yet to re-open.

2013 was also the end of shortline holding company Rail America after being purchased outright by Genesee & Wyoming, putting all of Rail America's considerable holdings under the GWI umbrella.

So all in all, 2013 was a pretty eventful year. but I'm not too sad to see it in the rearview. Here's hoping that I'll have far less to complain about in 2014.

Merry Christmas From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

The stockings have been hung by the chimney with care and right now I'm admiring this Christmas tree with gifts stacked under. Like so many others, I'm gonna be busy over the the next few days, but I just a quick wanted to write a quick note wishing readers a Merry Christmas and a happy New Years.

In case you're wondering, the partially bundled up beauty above is courtesy of none other than the late Gil Elvgren. This particular image is called Out in the Cold and dates back to 1954.

Turn the Paige- New Documentary Reportedly Looks at Iconic Pin-Up's Years Out of the Spotlight

A documentary set to be released in November will reportedly chronicle the later years of famous pin-up model Bettie Page, with parts of the movie to be narrated by Page herself.

Director Mark Mori, who interviewed Page in the late 1990s, enjoyed nearly unprecedented access to the late Bettie Page, who seemed genuinely perplexed over the popularity of some of her photographs some 50 years later. Her time out of the spotlight included being institutionalized for acute schizophrenia and Page passed away in December 2008 at her southern California home at the age of 85.

Set to be released in select theaters on November 22 in New York and on November 29 in Los Angeles, the documentary finally gives voice to the sultry siren of the Southland as she unveils her previously unknown personal life after 40 years of enigmatic seclusion.

Mr Mori's rapport with the publicity shy star (they often shared Christmas cards and the director visited her in hospital one week before she died) gives way to dozens of rare and intimate audio comments as she recounts her troubled childhood (she spent a brief amount of time in an orphanage) and movie star dreams.

But Page's rise to fame, which coincided with the conservative McCarthy era, was short lived. 'The whole Bettie Page phenomenon developed while she was simply off the scene, Mr Hefner explains in the trailer.

Too racy for the times, her images were confiscated suring a police drug raid, and despite cooperating with an FBI investigation, the trailer alludes to a court case in which Page was embroiled over her sexy pinup images.

Fearing legal reprisals at the time, photographer Irving Klaw destroyed most of the photographs and negatives of his shoots with Page after being summoned to appear before the US Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1957- apparently unaware that his sister Paula had hidden away some of the images. Some surviving images of Page from the Klaw archive were auctioned off earlier this year- along with candid pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, Fay Wray and James Dean- at New York's Gurnsey's auctioneers.

¡Muy Caliente! Por Teacher- Dallas Area Spanish Teacher Reportedly Fired For Appearence in Playboy As Coed

And just like that, there's one less hot Spanish teacher in the Lone Star State.

First year Spanish teacher Cristy Nicole DeWeese was fired by the Dallas Independent School District earlier this month due to her 2011 appearance as 'Coed of the Month' in Playboy magazine- a publication I'm told attempts to trick buyers into reading pretentious Gore Vidal articles by surrounding them with pictures of naked or near-naked women.

Deweese had apparently just turned 18 when she posed nude for the illustrious men’s magazine. She was not employed by the Dallas Independent School District at the time.

In Playboy’s online videos and photos, Deweese goes by the much sexier name, Cristy Nicole.

In a YouTube clip entitled “Coed Cristy Nicole is One Sexy Hunter,” Deweese can be seen modeling in striped pajamas and lingerie for Playboy. She spends much of the clip chatting with people behind the scenes.

She says hunting is one of her hobbies. She talks about her career goals—even then, at just 18, she knew she wanted to be a Spanish teacher.

Deweese spends much of the clip discussing a bag of beef jerky she brought to snack on during her Playboy modeling shoot.

At least one parent had suggested that Deweese’s presence in front of a classroom was a distraction for students. The parent also charged that students were checking out Deweese’s video and photos on campus.

Students seemed less concerned—at least the ones chirping on the web. Many of them posted comments under Deweese’s Playboy video on YouTube.

“That’s my Spanish teacher!!!” reads a representative YouTube comment.

Other students took to Twitter to defend Deweese and tell critics to stop bothering her. At least one student started a petition in an effort to save the embattled first-year teacher’s job.

While Deweese's photos are much racier than that of fired Florida educator Olivia Sprauer, the end result is the same. Deweese is reportedly looking to resume her modeling career if she's unable to continue teaching [on that note, if the Dallas Independent School District would like to retain my services in performing due diligence to make certain recently hired employees aren't former adult film stars or centerfolds, contact me via this blog; there is the matter of my sizeable fee for services rendered- NANESB!]. Still, credit should be given to Deweese for not sleeping with any of her students, which is more than some school districts can say.

Deweese's firing occurred just a month into the school year, leaving the district scrambling to find a substitute Spanish teacher on short notice. They were able to find a replacement from nearby Arlen, TX. However, her hiring is considered a stopgap measure....



....at best.

Sad to say, I never had the sultry Selma Hayek or Sofia Vergara-lookalike latina Spanish teacher that's the subject of pretty much every schoolboy fantasy to the point of being cliche. I did take a semester of Russian, and while our teacher was a brusque, dour woman from the Old Country, she had to leave about a week into the semester due to some sort of family emergency back in Russia. Our substitute turned out to be a drop-dead gorgeous, bubbly, statuesque blonde from Poland who showed up for the first day in high heels and a tight little floral print sundress. Очень хорошо!

It's Just Another Day Cinco De Mayo

Or as some have started calling it, "Drink-o de Mayo".

As stated here before, Cinco de Mayo marks the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862 during the Napoleonic annexation of France. Some 4500 poorly trained and outnumbered Mexican troops managed to halt the advance of one of the world's most powerful armies while taking light casualties themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexico's independence Day- that date is actually in September. But the importers of Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate and Pacifico saw an opportunity to market their product, and to paraphrase the late Paul Harvey....now you know the rest of the story.

I'm not sure of the title or date of this piece, but the sweet senorita accompanied by the jumping beans and poncho-clad Chihuahua comes from none other than Vaughan Bass. There is relatively few vintage pin-up artwork depicting latina models (or Caucasian models in traditional garb) but similar pulp art from Mexican artists continues to adorn pulp novels sold at newsstands or bus stations throughout Mexico to this day.

It's National Pin Up Day!

You must be this hot for entry onto the rides

Never mind this fake "Earth Day" holiday started up by homicidal hippie Ira Einhorn- April 22nd shall always be the birthday of the incomprable Bettie Page in my mind's eye.

Born in Nashville, TN in 1923, the scorching, raven-tressed southern belle achieved notoriety in the 1950s and was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in January 1955. Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, vintage and iconic images of Paige enjoyed a resurgence in the goth and rockabilly subcultures. Often imitated but never duplicated, Page was living in obscurity and unaware of her newfound popularity until relatively late in life. Page's heyday was dramatized in the 2006 biopic The Notorious Bettie Page where Gretchen Mol played the titular pin-up [Page reportedly said the film took way too many liberties about her early life- NANESB!]. Paige passed away at age 85 in December 2008.

Perhaps the most iconic of Bettie's images are of her posing with leopards (in a leopard-print swimsuit) at a south Florida safari-themed park. The photographer of those images was a pin-up herself, but was on the other side of a camera lens a number of times with Paige.

The Miami-based Yeager did work for numerous men's magazines at the time and sometimes included herself among the models. Yeager still resides in Florida and released a biography in 2012 called Bunny Yeager's Darkroom that includes recounting some of the shoots with Paige. As you can see above, Yeager herself is no slouch in the looks department.

There's another birthday of note in the vintage pin-up world that's worth some attention- April 19th marks the birthday of blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield.

Interestingly, she was named Playboy's Playmate of the month from 1955- one month after Page. The buxom platinum blonde was about 10 years younger than Page and tended to be more exhibitionist than Paige.

Mansfield also was not above contrived publicity stunts, including those that highlighted her considerable bust [reportedly 40D, although that was subject to fluctution- NANESB!] including this above image where she upstaged Sophie Loren at a Hollywood dinner in the Italian actresses honor. She also was said to have pioneered the 'wardrobe malfunction' (however contrived) by allegedly intentionally wearing dresses too small to accomodate her ample bust to various Hollywood events and making sure the beseiged garment would slip or tear with photographers present.

Unfortunately, Mansfield was killed in 1967 after a collision with a tractor-trailer in Louisiana. Three of her children survived with relatively minor injuries.

One of the survivors of that car wreck was daughter Mariska Hargitay, who would go on to become an actress herself- most noably in NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

See? Isn't this much nicer than some fake holiday started by a hippie who murdered his girlfriend, stuffed the body in a trunk and fled to France?

Happy New Years and Good Riddance 2012!

I gotta be honest with you- between the Red Sox worst season in 50 years, the NHL lockout, the re-election of a petulant, thin-skinned used car salesman from the Windy City to be leader of the free world for another four years and a Mayan-predicted apocolypse that never qute materielized (yet), I was more than ready to drop-kick the year 2012 into the dumpster of shitty years gone by. In fact, if the year 2012 was an abandoned shed, I don't think I'd hesitate to cram it full of oil and kerosine soaked rags, light a match, watch it go up in a firey blaze before taking a piss on the ashes and charred wooden remains.

So it's with little fanfare that I turn the page on the 2012 calendar to 2013. Although featured above is a 1950 calendar from Esquire featuring artwork from Al Moore. Born in the pacific northwest, Moore led a fairly interesting life, playing football for the Northwestern Wildcats and Chicago Bears at running back before opening up his own commercial art studio in the late 1930s. In addition to doing work for the US government during WWII, Moore also was comissioned to do ads and artwork for Nash automobiles, Coca Cola, the Saturday Evening Post and US Rubber.

By 1948, Moore was chosen by Esquire to replace Alberto Vargas and produced two highly popular calendars for the publication starting in 1949.

This belle above would've been the first thing readers would've seen in Esquire's 1950 calendar as she raises a toast to the new year and new decade.

Merry Christmas From Not Another New England Sports Blog

Just a quick note to wish regulars and visitors a Merry Christmas. I'll be fairly busy with visiting relatives, watching football and experimenting with various nogs between now and New Year's, but I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a joyous holiday season.

This indeed a stressful time of year for so many Americans, but in the grand scheme of things we have it pretty good. While midnight mass may seem like an inconvenience for many of us, Christians in places like Nigeria, Pakistan or Egypt routinely have horiffic violence visited on them for simply practicing their faith. Some of my relatives have realized how fortunate they have it and instead of gifts, they're asking for donations to various non-profits in their name- including things like microfinance for people in developing nations or a rather unique opportunity to adopt specially trained rats used in detecting and clearing landmines in war-torn countries like Cambodia or Mozambique [don't worry- the rats are reportedly too small to actually set off the mines- NANESB!].

In case you're wondering, the decorating damsel above is from a 1955 Gil Elvgren piece called A Put Up Job. The Minneaplos-based promotional firm of Brown & Bigelow retains the rights to many of Elvgren's works, including a number of Christmas-themed pin ups from both Elvgren and other artists.

Happy Thanksgiving From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Just a quick reminder to wish you and yours a happy and relatively stress free Thanksgiving- or as I like to call it "Football and Roast Beef November Thursday".

Now you might be asking 'Why Roast Beef?' or even 'Why should I care?Jees- get over yourself'. The menu selection is a family tradition dating back to when PETA had first launched a high profile campaign calling for Thanksgiving boycott of turkey. Faced with the prospect of weeks of incermentally less appetizing turkey leftovers and clearly not listening to the rest of PETA's message, I enthusiastically backed the idea of a turkey-free Thanksgiving and came home with a pot roast one year. Sure it was more than enough for the whole family, but for the next several days we had yummy roast beef leftovers- a good problem to have!

Other relatives warmed up to the concept- some apparently going so far as following through PETA's original message. So although Thanksgiving rotates between casa de Fenway and other relatives' places, in my eyes a Thanksgiving feast has become synonymous with roast beef, ham and even a cornish game hen with sides like scalloped potatoes and steamed asparagus- although I admit I find the concept of the turducken intruiging.

The saucy little brunette pilgrim above is from Freeman Elliot called  An Arrow Escape. The arrows in this case are not pointing the way to the Mass Turnpike as that logo was phased out by the 1990s. Although I'm unsure of the date, it was reportedly used in a 1950 calender from Brown and Bigelow.

Happy Halloween From Not Another New England Sports Blog

Well, for the second year in a row it looks as though much of the Northeast is going to have a Halloween with widespread power outages in the wake of a major storm moving through the area.

In fact, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has ordered that halloween celebrations postponed until Monday due to unsafe conditions throughout the state after the Garden State was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.

For those of you wondering, the enchanting little bruja [and voyeuristic pumpkin- NANESB!] above comes to us courtesey of pin-up artist Freeman Elliot. According to the Pin Up Files, this work from Elliot dates back to 1950 and is titled This Trick's a Treat.

Whatever your Halloween plans are, stay safe tonight- particularly if you have no electricity right now.

June 1st- Marylin Monore's Birthday

If it can't be Bettie Page's April 22nd birthday, then perhaps National Pinup Day could fall on June 1st instead.

Today marks what would've been the 86th birthday of Norma Jean Mortenson, better known to the world as Marylin Monroe. The voluptuous blonde bombshell and sex symbol was discovered by a photographer for Yank magazine working in a California armament factory during WWII.

Besides films like The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, Monroe also modeled for the debut edition of the then-nascent Playboy magazine in 1953. Monroe passed away from a drug overdose in 1962 at her Hollywood bungalow, a year and a half after she divorced playwright Arthur Miller.

Somebody who had worked extensively with Monroe during her film career was makeup artist Allan Snyder. A series of candid, never-before-seen pictures of Monroe at ease and on the set of movies like Niagara and River of No Return was discovered at Snyder's home after his death in the mid 1990s, but were never released to the public. Earlier this year, it was announced that the previously unreleased prints and slides would be going to auction at the end of April.

In addition to Snyder's collection being auctioned off, a series of previously unseen images from photographer Lawrence Schiller showing Monroe at her 36th birthday party and poolside for the unfinished film Something's Gotta Give will be on display in Miami Beach.

Happy Cinco De Mayo from Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, where an outnumbered and poorly-trained militia halted the advance of some 8000 French troops just outside the town of Puebla, southeast of Mexico City. The French troops were garrisoned in French-occupied Veracruz and were marching towards the capital at Mexico City.

Although the Mexicans won the battle on May 5th, 1862, France's Napoleon III would eventually win the war, and with the help of 30,000 reinforcements the French were eventaully able to take Mexico City the following year and install Maximilian as ruler. Althought the Monroe Doctorine of 1823 viewed European attempts to colonize the Americas to be countered with military intervention, the United States was embroiled in the Civil War at the time. Mexico itself was still reeling from the Mexican American war of 1848 as well as a prolonged civil war of their own when France invaded in 1861. Some historians theorize that Napoleon III had planned on using Mexico as a springboard for France to re-take territory ceded to the USA in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase as the US Civil War dragged on. However, after the US Civil War, America was able to provide arms and munitions to Mexico and Maximilian was deposed and executed by forces loyal to Mexican President Benito Juarez in 1867.

Despite what many believe, Cinco de Mayo IS NOT Mexico's Independence Day- Mexico's Independence Day is observed on September 15th, the day on which preist-turned-insurrectionist Miguel Hidalgo issued the 'Grito de Dolores' [Call of Dolores]- a call to arms against the Spanish colonial government from the village of Dolores in what is now the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico back in 1810.

This lovely señorita above is actually penned by Scandinavian pin-up artist Knute O Munson. Although little was known about Munson's early life, his family emigrated to Michigan as a teenager. Muson reportedly drew his first comission to study art when a local doctor paid him to draw medical charts. He would go on to attend the Academy of Fine art in Chicago and in addition to several stand-alone pieces of artwork, would do work for clients such as the Ice Capades, Lucky Strike and Goodrich Tires. Like some of Munson's other works, the focal point is surrounded by smaller sketches

Happy Earth Day National Pin-Up Day from Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Instead of observing a holiday that was co-founded by a degenerate murdering hippie charlatan like an increasing number of Americans are doing, I'm still lobbying [in vain, apparently- NANESB!] that April 22nd instead feature some sort of official observance for the late Bettie Page.

What is it with chicks and shoes? Am I right, guys?

Actually, since Jayne Mansfield and Bettie Page's birthdays fall within a few days of each other, I wouldn't mind doing a 'National Pin-Up Day'...kinda like President's Day in that it could be used to honor more than one individual. Sunday, April 22nd 2012 marks what would've been Bettie's 89th Birthday. The secretary-turned-model found fame as one of the earliest models for Playboy magazine and went on to model for Irving Klaw and Bunny Yeager. Bettie also reportedly tried pursuing a career as a Broadway and film actress, but her southern accent was said to have hindered her from getting any choice roles.
Although summoned to appear before Congress as part of the 1957 Kefauver Hearings which linked pornography with juvenile delinquency, Paige was never called upon to testify. Paige's personal life afterwards were the subject of a number of conflicting rumors, although by the time she was 'rediscovered' in the late 1980s or early 1990s, she was living alone in the Los Angeles area and reportedly suffering from acute schizophrenia. Paige was reportedly unaware of her resurgent popularity until the 1990s.



While she agreed to licence her name and likeness to sell various items (books, lighters, t-shirts) she declined public appearances, hoping that people would remember her as she looked in the 1950s. With her health abruptly deteriorating, Bettie Paige passed away in December 2008. April 22nd, 2012 marks what would've been Ms Paige's 89th birthday. According to a 2011 Forbes article, Paige's estate remains worth an estimated $6 million, putting her on the magazine's top 20 list of deceased celebrities.

Happy St Patrick's Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

What can I say? I know what I like.

Happy Valentine's Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

For Valentine's Day, some people plan elaborate surpirses and gifts for their sweeties with months of advance planning.


For others, Valentine's Day is just another day and they choose to spend a solitary evening at home, perhaps making an exception for the company of a good book.

In case your wondering, these lovely pin-ups come to us courtesey of artist Vaughan Alden Bass.

Bass got his start in Chicago in the 1930s and eventually was comissioned by the Louis F Dow company to re-touch paintings from none other than Gil Elvgren. Although Bass would sometimes have to repaint an arm or a hand, he preferred to leave the bodies and faces unchanged whenever possible.

Like Elvgren, Bass would also logged time with the Twin Cities-based Brown & Bigelow and among other accomplishments, a portrait of President Dwight D Eisenhower painted by Bass hangs in the Smithstonian in Washington D.C.

Ringing in the New Year at Not Another New England Sports Blog!

A little late with this one, but in my defense I never said anything about being punctual as part of my New Years resolutions. Also, I figure if long-standing New Year's Day institutions like the Rose Bowl (or more recent ones like the NHL's Winter Classic) can get pushed back by a day, then where's the harm in me following suit?

I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Happy New Years. The past 10 days or so have been pretty hectic for yours truly and it was probably pretty apparent with the fairly sparse updating.

The mischievous raven-tressed beauty shown at the stroke of midnight above is from pin-up artist Bill Randall. Randall, who attended the Art Institute of Chicago and reportedly did anti-nazi propagnda posters for the French Resistance during WWII.

After the war, Randall did covers and artwork for magazines like Glamour, American Weekly and Esquire as well as print ads for Palmolive, General Motors and 3M. Starting in 1953, Randall's artwork was published in a series of datebooks and calendars bearing his name.

I'm not certain of the name of the title and exact date of this piece, but thought it would be worth sharing nonetheless.