Three years ago I celebrated Halloween 2020 with three posts under the “Season of the Witch” banner. Each one was a brief love letter to a beloved witch—Michelle Pfeiffer as Sukie Ridgemont in The Witches of Eastwick, Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha from Bewitched, and Morgan Fairchild’s memorable photo shoot.
Witches are by far one of my favorite spooky season characters, and pop culture is littered with good ones, so here’s my first attempt to conjure up (see what I did there?) a few more “Season of the Witch” posts for Halloween 2023.
Ruth “Dusty” Anderson (1916 or 1917 – 2007) was an American actress and model, born in Ohio, known primarily for her work in the 1940s. She was a World War II pinup model, famously appearing in Yank, the Army Weekly magazine. Among other articles and features, Yank also included a steady supply of pinup models each issue. These women, often celebrities and actresses, were doing their patriotic duty, reminding the boys overseas who they were fighting for back home in the good old U. S. of A.
I know, from 2023’s perspective Yank sounds pretty regressive, and even sexist. But the Yank pinups also stand as an important historical signpost in the evolution of what we now consider classic, twentieth-century pinup modeling, a genre that has continued to be popular worldwide ever since. Speaking of popular, Dusty Anderson’s 1944 photos for Yank had to be extremely popular with homesick GIs. It’s a fun and flirty photo set, with the lovely and leggy Ohioan wearing a sexy witch’s outfit, mounting a broomstick, and soaring off into the night, while a smirking, leering moon enjoys the view.
Dusty’s Halloween pinup reminds me of preeminent pinup artist Gil Elvgren’s famous and oft-reproduced 1958 witch piece.
Elvgren’s witch appears to have been modeled off another pinup model, but to my eyes it still owes a little debt to Dusty’s wily and winsome witch from 1944.
The Starfire Lounge 
Thanks for the share!
LikeLike