During World War II, the Varga Girl pinup, with her long legs, narrow waist, and "sumptuous" figure, was a major military morale booster. As Jamie Malanowski notes, her image "hung in billets and on bulkheads, was unfolded in foxholes, and was lovingly imitated on fuselages throughout Europe and the Pacific." Above all, the "Varga Girl" was timely. Her success derived from the confluence of a World War, the coming of age of "mass culture," and changing sexual mores. Drawn by Alberto Vargas, she was part of a new set of myths, which Leo Lowenthal of the Frankfurt School called a byproduct of twentieth century capitalism. Mass culture, according to Lowenthal, was manufactured in assembly line style by agents of mass media communication and was widely distributed.

Thousands of servicemen treasured the Varga Girl pinup. They were the pleased consumers of a product ingeniously distributed by Esquire...