Vargas Girls: From WWII Cheesecake To The Cars' 'Candy

Vargas' first published Varga Girl appeared in the December 1940 issue of Esquire. Since its first issue in 1933, Esquire always contained a pinup girl, painted by George Petty and known as the "Petty Girl." The pin-ups were perhaps the most popular regular feature in the magazine and thought to ensure circulation. In 1940, Petty pushed for more money, and refused to contribute unless he got it -- Esquire decided to hire Vargas, by then an established calendar artist, rather than cave to Petty's demand.

As explained in an account of the artist's life in Cigar Aficionado, Esquire more or less exploited Vargas. Whereas Petty had been getting upwards of $1,800 per painting, Esquire co-founder David Smart had Vargas sign a contract that paid him $75 a pop. Smart also stipulated the works be signed "Varga" (without the "s"), a name that would be owned by Esquire. In essence, Vargas signed away all rights to his own art, for peanuts. Vargas signed a new contract in 1944 that offered slightly better compensation but demanded an insane amount of work. He was among the most famous artists in the country, his images were carrying Esquire, the magazine was making an estimated $1 million off of him annually, but Vargas himself wasn't seeing the prosperity.

At one point, the U.S. Postal Service sued Esquire for shipping obscene material since the magazine contained images like the Vargas’ girls; Esquire won the case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court.