--- title: Pinup Girls: 'Cheesecake' Photos of Young Movie Actresses in 1950 description: Pinup publicity photos of a half-dozen young movie actresses on the rise, including Piper Laurie and Yvonne De Carlo, in 1950. canonical: https://time.com/3877116/pinup-girls-cheesecake-photos-of-young-movie-actresses-in-1950/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-05-20T21:05:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:35.393Z og:title: Pinup Girls: 'Cheesecake' Photos of Young Movie Actresses in 1950 og:description: Pinup publicity photos of a half-dozen young movie actresses on the rise, including Piper Laurie and Yvonne De Carlo, in 1950. og:url: https://time.com/3877116/pinup-girls-cheesecake-photos-of-young-movie-actresses-in-1950/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5490fe075853fb5d/69884a135f570fbac3b1ade7/05_111139833.jpg?branch=production&width=1047&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1047 og:image:height: 589 og:image:alt: Peggy Castle, 1950 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pinup Girls: 'Cheesecake' Photos of Young Movie Actresses in 1950 twitter:description: Pinup publicity photos of a half-dozen young movie actresses on the rise, including Piper Laurie and Yvonne De Carlo, in 1950. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5490fe075853fb5d/69884a135f570fbac3b1ade7/05_111139833.jpg?branch=production&width=1047&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bikinis, Bunny Ears and Cowboy Boots: LIFE With Hollywood Pinups > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 20, 2013 9:05 PM UTC  Peggy Castle in bunny ears, 1950. Peggy Castle in bunny ears, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 20, 2013 9:05 PM UTC Hollywood has never been shy about using sex to sell its movies, or its movie stars. In fact, in all its guises — from the kiss that inevitably ends a hokey romantic comedy to the sweaty, graphic (and often clumsy) carnality of today’s R-rated and NC-17 films — sex has always been the film industry’s most trustworthy, enduring commodity. Sure, violence is a perennial favorite, and people will almost always pay to see a good sci-fi or fantasy flick. But in the end, very few movies in any genre manage to hold viewers’ attention without at least one unapologetic, unmistakable nod to humanity’s mysterious and forever fascinating mating rituals. In the middle part of the last decade, meanwhile, many Hollywood studios put their faith in photographs of their comeliest stars striking what, in retrospect, were perfectly absurd poses, wearing perfectly absurd outfits. The creation of these “pinup” shots — often referred to by the catchall term “cheesecake” (see below) — was a miniature industry all its own, with stylists, makeup artists, electricians, grips and other behind-the-scenes experts working with photographers and, of course, the actresses themselves to produce publicity stills. The origin of the term “cheesecake” to characterize these pinup shots is a matter of some contention, although one of the most widely accepted explanations is that men who first saw these sorts of photos in the early pinup days would exclaim that looking at them was “better than \[eating\] cheesecake.” For our purposes, what’s striking about the pictures in this gallery is not just that there are a couple of future stars here among the half-dozen young starlets — including three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie and the famous Yvonne De Carlo — but that LIFE’s Ed Clark made all these pictures in order to demonstrate the variety of ways that one studio, Universal, tried to sell its own stars to the public. One of LIFE’s west coast correspondents, Virgina Hobbs, wrote at the time that the photos in question feature “cheesecake-wise Universal starlets . . . demonstrating the most prevalent ways and means of girl presentation.” In other words, the studio allowed Clark to photograph a number of its most promising young stars, and even lent stagehands and makeup artists, so that LIFE could show its readers how “cheesecake” was made. The actresses featured in this gallery are: Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs); Canadian native Yvonne De Carlo (born Margaret Yvonne Middleton); Leslye Banning (born Mary Lousie Welch); Joyce Holden (born Jo Ann Heckert); Peggy, a.k.a., Peggie Castle (born Peggy Blair); and Susan Cabot (born Harriet Shapiro). _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Peggy Castle in bunny ears, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Piper Laurie, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Piper Laurie, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Leslye Banning, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Leslye Banning, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Joyce Holden as an artist, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Joyce Holden, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Joyce Holden, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Lucille Barkely as a witch, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Peggy Castle in bikini, boots and six-gun holster, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Peggy Castle as Cupid, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Lucille Barkely, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Susan Cabot, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A technical crew creates a seaside atmosphere in Universal's portrait gallery, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Susan Cabot, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Peggy Castle, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Susan Cabot, holding a salad bowl aloft, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Piper Laurie, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Piper Laurie in the hay, 1950. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Yvonne De Carlo, 1950. 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