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As designer and friend look on, Gil Elvgrin sketches Ruth for the next painting.<br />
America’s First Calendar Girl By: Chuck Dean / Our Neighbors<br />
Ruth walks in one direction and I the other. Almost daily we stop<br />
to say hello and have had some lively conversations about her<br />
yoga, travels, art, and her life.<br />
She’s had plenty of that for sure, because in March, she turned 90.<br />
In great condition, physically, mentally and spiritually, Ruth Lastuvka<br />
amazes me. There’s never a dull moment. I learn something new about<br />
her each time we meet.<br />
Not long ago I was blown away by another bombshell. “Chuck, did you<br />
38<br />
CLAY ARTS VEGAS<br />
Pottery Classes<br />
Workshops<br />
Kids Classes<br />
Ceramic Supplies<br />
Art Gallery<br />
December 20<strong>17</strong><br />
Let us know you saw this ad<br />
know that I was a calendar girl?”<br />
“Really?” I asked. “Yes, I was America’s first calendar girl. A long time<br />
ago, of course.”<br />
“Do you have any pictures?” “Somewhere, maybe.” She grinned<br />
thoughtfully. “But I’ll bet you could go online and find it.<br />
“The painter was Gil Elvgren. He painted the most popular one. I’m<br />
wearing a black negligee and the title is The Honeymoon’s Over.”<br />
I went straight to my computer, and there it was…The Honeymoon’s<br />
Over! A sexy young redhead posed in a black negligee wearing high heels.<br />
Ruth wasn’t joking. All I could say is wow, what a knockout! Needless<br />
to say, a signed print now hangs on my office wall.<br />
All this began in 1948 when Ruth won a national contest. She was<br />
working as a swimsuit model for the Jantzen Company in Portland,<br />
Oregon when the Brown and Bigelow Calendar Company, and Republic<br />
Pictures (who produced the 1948 movie “Calendar Girl”), discovered her.<br />
Unbeknownst to Ruth, her fashion designer at Jantzen secretly entered<br />
her in the contest. Out of 3,000 contestants, she took first place, becoming<br />
the first “Miss Calendar Girl of America.”<br />
From there Brown and Bigelow immediately arranged for Gil Elvgren<br />
to render a painting of Ruth. At that point, Ruth stepped into the pin-up<br />
limelight. Her beautiful image penetrated the hearts of men all over the<br />
world; from business executives to lonely G.I.’s in foxholes.<br />
Letters flooded in from love struck romantics. And Ruth answered each<br />
and every one.<br />
Always the adventurer, she then<br />
CONTINUED ON PAGE 40<br />
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