I’m not sure what route I took while clicking along the information superhighway (are all the kids still calling it that these days?) but I ended up in a little town of George Petty pin up girl artwork, liked what I saw, asked around, and then stumbled upon a calendar he’d produced for a company called Ridgid. You know how it is then; you have a few drinks and before you know it you’re staring at another calendar, only this one’s from the 1970s, not the 1950s, and you’re quite impressed by just how things have changed, yet stayed the same.
All of which is a poorly prosaic way of saying I’d like to showcase some of those images from the calendars right here. It’s the sort of thing I do.
These images came from these two Flickr albums: 1975-6 Ridgid Tools Calendar and Blog Photos but there are plenty of other sources.
1953 Calendar
The 1953 calendar for Ridgid Tools is the one by artist George Petty. The 1950s was a time of innuendo.
Why look! It’s a small woman with a large tool between her legs!
This woman is touching a knob at the end of a long shaft. What can the underlying message be?
Astride a tool, ready to get it all lubricated while a knob is pressed up against her backside. Filth!
Well now, that posture can’t be good for her back. Health and safety rules were clearly different back then. And working with machinery in ballet shoes? Things really have changed.
1975-76 Calendar
The two year calendar for Ridgid Tools was photographed by Peter Gowland. Gone was the subtle innuendo of earlier years; in the 1970s the important thing was to show some skin and encourage blue collar workers to pin the calendar on the wall and get that brand name screwed into the brain. Of course, if you could get a woman to get her hands gripping the rod of some tool then that was good too.
The challenge with the 1970s photos is guessing just what the actual tool is that’s being promoted. Take this one, for example: if I didn’t know any better I’d assume it was some kind of plasma weapon as used by warrior women of some pretty awesome bikini planet.
“I need to measure something curved, something that would easily cover a person, but is there such a tool? Hang on! Didn’t I see the perfect thing on my Ridgid Tools calendar? I did!”
Another mystery tool that I’m going to assume is a high tech bit of equipment for clubbing fish to death because why else would you promote that in the sea?
You can always rely on a scantily-dressed woman with her hand firmly gripping the shaft just below the head to make an appearance. In this case she’s showcasing the Ridgid Tools 1″ heavy duty threadless leaf tickler at a guess.
These are some shots from just two of Ridgid’s calendars over the years. They’ve been producing them since 1935 and you can order the latest one online these days from their website: Ridgid Calendar.
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