She was as sophisticated as a Cole Porter lyric, as refreshing as chilled champagne. When she was introduced to the public in the autumn of 1933, she captured the imagination of men across the country. She was the work of George Petty, a Louisiana-born commercial artist who learned to wield an airbrush while working in his father's photo studio in Chicago. His leggy creation made her debut in Esquire's first issue, and she was fated to outshine all the illustrated ladies of the day. The Petty Girl initially (text concluded on page 147) The Petty Girl(continued from page 79) appeared in a conventional cartoon format, complete with a fat-man foil and art deco backgrounds. As her popularity grew, her creator dispensed with the secondary characters. She was most often drawn talking on the telephone with an unseen admirer. Her identification with the phone was so strong people joked that she had invented it. She soon appeared in ads for cigarettes, bathing suits and silk stockings, and graduated to full pinup status in magazines. Starting in 1939 Esquire's readers were treated to a monthly two-page gatefold of the Petty Girl. In a tribute published that year, Life magazine called her "the feminine ideal of American men."
It was around this time that a young Hugh Hefner visited a girl he had a crush on, and discovered Petty's art in a stack of old Esquires in her basement rec room. This was the stuff that dreams were made of. As an early act of adolescent rebellion in a puritan home, Hefner hung Petty Girls on his bedroom wall. The rabbit-eared image on the opening page of this portfolio hung above his bed and may have been the unconscious inspiration for the world-famous Playboy Bunny.
As the Petty Girl increased in popularity, the artist and Esquire's publisher had a falling out over money. Petty was replaced by Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas for a fraction of what Petty had been receiving. Esquire called Vargas' creation the Varga Girl so the magazine could copyright and own the name. After Vargas left Esquire, he was not allowed to use his own signature, made famous in the pages of the magazine.
The Petty Girl's popularity continued to thrive throughout the Forties. She appeared in her own calendar and, after World War Two, in True when that publication became the most popular men's magazine.
In 1950 she was featured in a film titled The Petty Girl, with Bob Cummings portraying the artist and Joan Caulfield his inspiration. But by the Fifties the airbrushed perfection of Petty's art would seem dated, and male fantasies would soon be fueled by a real-life girl next door with a staple in her navel.
