Friday, August 1, 2008

Not Just a Tool, a Ridgid Tool


One summer in the '80s I worked in an aluminum siding warehouse in Elk Grove Village. Passing through the warehouse office one day, I beheld it for the first time: the Ridgid Tools calendar. Just about the funniest thing I had ever seen: models in skimpy swimsuits holding a variety of tools in provocative positions. That's right, comely young women holding Ridgid Tools.

It turns out that the Ridgid Tools calendar has a long history. The first one came out in 1935. It really hit its stride in the '50s with the pinup art of George Petty. By the '60s, though, the models and tools formula was well established and continues even now, with the cheesecake factor ramped up ever-higher.

So, enjoy this picture from around the time I first saw the calendar: "Miss Ridgid" 1983-84, Nanci Fletcher, holding the gold-plated 24" heavy-duty pipe wrench she received with the title. Seriously.

2 comments:

DonnaL said...

OMG! Some of those "Petty girls" look positively demonic. Sorry -- I'm more of a Vargas fan. :-)

mrquizzical said...

Yes, some of the Petty girls do seem to be a bit tightly wound. Still, maybe one needs a certain excess of adrenaline and cheerfulness when called upon to straddle a giant wrench...