"Pin-Up Bunnies" Goes International!

Recently, Art of the Pin-Up Girl has partnered with an emerging talent named Anne Cha.  Originally from France, this graphic artist has embraced the genre of pin-up art and is doing amazing work in Paraguay!  Watch this terrific video of the artist at work - set to the music from our show - the finale number, "Pin-Up Bunnies" performed by PokoLoko and featuring Popeye & the Pin-Ups and Heather Storm.

The producer of Anne's video, is also an artist and is taking it to the streets of Paraguay! Watch Bboy Diestro work his magic for an event - also set to our song! Good stuff & we are all very honored to be included in their work!

Listen to "Pin-Up Bunnies"!

Announcing South Florida Casting for Art of the Pin-Up Girl

For Immediate Release
Media Contact for interviews and further information:

Bill Underwood, Liberty Media Group (561) 267-2632

FOLLOWING SUCCESS IN THE BIG APPLE,

SOUTH FLORIDA PLAYWRIGHT NOW CASTING LOCALLY

FOR STAGED READING OF “ART OF THE PIN-UP GIRL”

West Palm Beach, FL (August 20, 2012) -   For South Florida playwright Heather Storm, the prospect of turning a dream into reality are now closer than ever.

Storm, writer and creator of “Art of the Pin-Up Girl,” a musical romp through the history of the American pin-up, first envisioned the project more than ten years ago.  Following a staged reading in NYC that “went very well,” according to Storm, a second reading is planned locally.  The New York reading was staged at Shetler Studios' Theatre 54. “We had an excellent turn-out,” said Storm, “with about 80% of the house full of audience members who were delighted - and the feedback was tremendous!  We can’t wait to do it again here in South Florida.”

 

CASTING CALL: ARE YOU “PIN-UP MATERIAL?”

Casting will soon begin for a staging and future live performances of “Art of the Pin-Up,” with filming for multi-media presentation also in the plans. Dates, times and venues will soon be announced.

“We are looking for six to eight female performers who can sing, dance and act for stage and for filming, and who also can style themselves in a vintage/retro/”pin-up” look,” said Storm, who offered a look at the characters currently being cast:

Ruth Etting: 1920s radio and Ziegfeld star, alto, slim, beautiful;  Anna Mae Clift: Greenwich Follies showgirl of the 1920s, alto, blonde, Southern belle; Lena Horne: African-American movie star of the 40s and 50s, beautiful, soprano;Bettie Page:  Queen of the pin-ups, black hair with bangs, beautiful, alto, bluesy voice; Alberto Vargas:  Tall, slim, Hispanic male, handsome, gentile, can be a non-singing role;  Baron von Lind: Narrator, male, suave, conversational, dynamic, baritone.

ADDITIONAL CASTING FOR VARIOUS MALE AND FEMALE ROLES

“We are also casting additional roles, both male and female, for speaking roles and chorus,” added Storm, “and we also need excellent dancers (jazz/swing/ballroom) for full company numbers and musicians, including horns, guitar, piano, and other instruments.”

Submissions should be made via email to:  palmbeachbystorm@gmail.com. Please include links to all digital profiles, including pictures and sound and video files (if available). The roles being cast for the reading are unpaid at this time. Copy, credit and meals will be provided for the filmed portions. Non-Union.

ABOUT ‘ART OF THE PIN-UP GIRL’ 

This original musical takes a fond look at the history of Pin-up girls − those iconic, perfectly proportioned beauties who have adorned magazine pages, posters, calendars and bedroom walls for more than a century,

Originally inspired by a coffee table book, The Great American Pin-Up, Storm set out to create a story that weaves tales of actual people and events into the tapestry of a glorious musical trip through the time and space of Pin-Up Art in America.  “Those women were real women, live models for the artists.  They lived fascinating and often scandalous lives,” Storm says.  “Their stories are firmly rooted in the lore of our American theatrical and entertainment culture - from the richness of the burlesque to the Greenwich and Ziegfeld Follies, to the Golden Age of Hollywood and yes, even Playboy.”

The 15 original songs in the musical were composed by Gregory “Popeye” Alexander, Storm’s husband and a well-known South Florida composer, producer, singer and radio personality.  Alexander is lead singer for the International Players and Memory Lane and also plays bass and keyboards for PoKoLoko based in West Palm Beach. The music was co-produced by Alex J. Weir of PokoLoko at Dreamhouse Studios in West Palm Beach.

Familiar characters who leap off the pages in Art of the Pin-Up Girl include pin-up legends Bettie Page, Anna Mae Clift, Lena Horne and Rosie the Riveter, as well as acclaimed artists Alberto Vargas and Baron von Lind – who has created an original pin-up girl poster to promote the new musical. “Lind’s lifelong obsession with pin-up inspired the narrative for the play,” Storm notes.

To listen to musical excerpts from Art of the Pin-Up Girl and learn more about its origins and the pin-up icons who inspired it, visitwww.artofthepin-upgirl.

com/.

Writer / Creator: Heather Storm. Composed and produced by Gregory “Popeye” Alexander with musical contributions and production by Alex J. Weir of Dreamhouse Studios, West Palm Beach, Florida.  Multi-media by Timothy Malbacher of Creati.com. 

Questions? Contact palmbeachbystorm@gmail.com.

Some Press for The Pin-Up!

First it was my alma mater, The University of Florida College of Fine Arts, who graciously published my submission to "the loop" - the Tumblr blog for all the fabulous news that's fit to print in the world of Gator Nation Fine Arts!

New musical by UF Alum Heather Storm prepares for NYC staged reading in July

Then our publicist, the brilliant Leon Rubin, drafted our first press release and I am proud to announce that the response was pretty swift and thrilling!!  Truly within 10 minutes of the release, we had an inquiry from an important South Florida fashion and entertainment columnist - who will do an interview at the end of the month.  And before the day was over, The Miami New Times asked for an interview and the lovely Ilana Shulevitz set up a telephone inquiry for a piece which ran just a few days later:

Art of the Pin-Up Girl Brings Florida-Born Sex Appeal to the Big Apple

Then, lucky day!  Just last night, our friend, Tim Byrd, "the Byrdman", publisher of Palm Beach - Live, Work, Play, wrote a delightful article on our show and posted it to his beautiful website!  

Jupiter Girl Pens Pin-Up Play

We are completely excited by the progress of our show and by the great adventure that lies ahead!  Thank you for all your support and for "staying tuned" to all the news!  Viva la Pin-Up!!

Updates on The Kickstarter: The Stories Behind the Show

"Song for a Guitar" by Alberto Vargas

Today, I am feeling very romantic and no other story in Art of the Pin-Up Girl, makes me swoon more than the love story between Anna Mae Clift and Alberto Vargas.  You see, they were quite an unlikely pair, really.  He was an immigrant from Peru and she a good Southern belle living a showgirl's life, but the moment he passed her on the street outside the stage door of The Greenwich Follies shortly after his arrival in New York, he knew he had to paint her.  I suspect, too, that he instantly loved her.

She was beautiful - a perfect muse for a painter and Vargas clearly captured that beauty as well as her ethereal grace to share with the world.   And the world - to this day - has loved her.  I've posted a collection of just some of Anna Mae's portraits on the Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/artofpinup/anna-mae-clift-mrs-alberto-vargas-how-i-love-you-s/  You can see that gorgeous face and figure in so many of his paintings.  In fact, he said that there was a little bit of her in every Vargas girl.  (I know ... "swoon")

In Art of the Pin-Up Girl, we visit the artist's studio one particular night - at an ungodly hour of the morning - when Anna Mae arrives, quite tipsy and unannounced.  She makes a few unladylike passes at the shy artist - who had still never even called her by her first name, but since he already loved her, resistance was futile.   Trying to be a gentleman, he asks her to allow him to paint her - a distraction from the heat between them.  As she lounges on the chaise, as the subject for a painting that will eventually become "Song for a Guitar", she picks up the instrument and serenades him with a love song.  It is a simple little song, that I imagine she makes up as she goes along, called "How I Love You So".  

Since I'm feeling so romantic, today I share this song with you on the SoundCloud.  http://soundcloud.com/heather-storm/how-i-love-you-so

To me it represents the beginning of a life-long love story.  You see, Anna Mae and Alberto were married and lived what I like to call "an artist's life", through better and worse, happily ever after.  And when Anna Mae died, Alberto Vargas, one of the greatest pin-up artists in history, ceased to paint.  He too passed away not long after she did, some say from a broken heart.  

Thank you for supporting our project and sharing with your friends, as we seek to keep love alive and find that there are so many reasons to swoon over Art of the Pin-Up Girl. XOXO

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1925960215/art-of-the-pin-up-girl-staged-reading-of-a-new-mus 

Got Pinterest?

In theatre, they always say:  Don't tell me.  Show me.

So, the new craze on the net is Pinterest - a social media pin-board website that lets you capture and "pin" images from almost anywhere on the web and organize and share them however you want.  Neat, right?  Completely awesome!

I recently discovered this gem and now I'm nearly as hooked as I have been on my Art of the Pin-Up Girl Tumblr!!  There is an endless supply of all the things in the world I like and in this case, an steady stream of images to share the very visual story of Art of the Pin-Up Girl.  You see, I have created a pin-board of images and inspiration for each and every scene of the musical.  Characters and pin-ups, real and imagined are specifically placed and "pinned" so that when the  play is mounted - somehow, someday - all the resources and real life research that has lead to the writing of this piece, are all curated, collected and accessible to anyone who has an interest!  Cool, right??

Soon the music will be shared as well, and when we shift gears - into fundraising mode - you can have a full understanding of the project in detail.  It is exciting to be able to share this (long) work in progress with all the people in the world who love pin-up and who are as hopelessly romantic as I am!  And to all you cynics out there ... there are more of us than you care to dream!

Our new Twitter logo, courtesy of Baron von Lind

Come visit our Pinterest and share in the visual delights of all things Art of the Pin-Up Girl!!  Pin-Up on Pinterest!!  Now that's catchy!! 

My Date with The Baron

Fedora Moon Goddess

by Baron von Lind

A few months ago, I posted a link on my Art of the Pin-Up Girl page on Facebook declaring my love for a pin-up artist that I had recently discovered in my Tumblr travels whose signature was simply, "Baron".  I began to look for him and discovered his website, which archives his body of work and told just a few of his many great travels.  I told him in the e-mail I decided to send that I was mesmerized by his work.  One glance at this divine Moon Goddess and I'm sure you can relate to my swooning.  I explained about my Art of the Pin-Up Girl project and that I would really love to meet him.  The next day I had a telephone call from the artist himself, and he quickly invited me to visit him, since we live only an hour away from each other - as divine fate would have it!  It was one of the best days of my life.

Gerald von Lind has painted over a thousand paintings in his life, (his medium is oil on canvass) and his classic pin-ups are licensed all over the world.  He thrilled me with his stories of a life in art, especially pin-up (he was friends with Gil Elvgren at Brown & Bigelow at the height of the calendar art era), but also with his military service (18 years and he served in Vietnam), his touring as a musician (he plays bass guitar) and as a husband and father of 7 children.  I found him endlessly fascinating and a true renaissance man.  He has painted classical, pulp-fiction covers and portraits, and he is a sculptor and novelist.  He said he was afraid he would "talk both my ears off", but honestly I couldn't get enough and I still have both my ears. :)

Baron von Lind has painted movie stars like Sophie Loren and Elizabeth Taylor and even a presidential portrait of Ronald Reagan, which hung in the White House.  In his studio was a partially finished pin-up-in-progress and several other completed pieces ready for shipping to their lucky owners.  And all throughout his home, were paintings that he had done - each more beautiful than the next!  Do I have to tell you how excited I got when he showed me the wine bottles that bear his pin-ups??  (Forgive me as I swoon right now.)

Tomorrow (yes, Halloween) is Baron von Lind's birthday and although he has reached 74 years, he has the aura and attitude of a much younger man.  And at the same time, he is so full of the wisdom and brilliance that can only be earned by such a lifetime of artistic pursuits.  He has clearly lived with passion and purpose - to inspire us all.  And in his amazing generosity, he has agreed to be the official artist of Art of the Pin-Up Girl and although we shall discover many artists along our journey through the history of American pin-up, Baron's work will always be the artistic vision to grace our title and presence on the web and for all of our programming - from the stage to the screen and wherever this glorious journey takes us.  It is an announcement I am thrilled to make, especially on this day.

Happy Birthday, Baron!  You are a gift to us all!  We celebrate you!

Baron's Rosie the Riveter!

You can find more about Baron and all of his art at:  www.baronvonlind.com

And buy his books on Amazon!

Art of the Pin-Up Girl: A Musical Journey through the History of the American Pin-Up!

 

Pin-Up "Jasmine" by Baron von Lind

http://www.baronvonlind.com

So here's the story.  Several years ago I began writing original music (with Greg, my honey and my composer) and an outline for a project inspired by a coffee table book I had acquired called, The Great American Pin-Up (Taschen, Martignette & Meisel).  I was so mesmerized by that book and the decades of beautiful art that had been created by real painters who were uber-talented and every bit fine artists.  These luminous portraits were used for a variety of advertisements and other pop-culture and pulp-fiction purposes.  I'm sure I don't know why, but every time I would look at these gorgeous pieces, I would think:  What if that girl came to life?  What would her story be?

And as I ruminated on that subject, a thousand images of my mad lifelong passion for musical theatre began to resurface - after quite a few years of not performing and being merely an audience member.  And since we can trace the origins of Alberto Vargas' humble beginnings directly to his work painting the Ziegfeld Follies girls for the posters in the New Amsterdam Theater lobby, the need for this story to be a musical was carved in stone.  Then, I began to study all the pin-up books I could get my hands on - and I can assure you that I am quite the pin-up librarian these days!

As I studied, a wonderful truth came into clear view:  Those women were real women - live models for the artists - who lived fascinating and often scandalous lives.  They had the brevity not only to pose with little or no clothes but quite often they had romantic relationships with the artists who immortalized them. Their stories are firmly rooted in the lore of our American theatrical and entertainment culture - from the richness of the burlesque to the Greenwich and Ziegfeld Follies, to the Golden Age of Hollywood and yes, even Playboy.

Since I am a believer in the idea that truth is way more interesting than fiction - this is a story that weaves in the tales of actual people and events into the tapestry of a glorious musical trip through the time and space of Pin-Up Art in America.  I hope you will join me in this endeavor as we share a work very much still in progress and we return to the wisdom of the Great Ziegfeld and begin to once again, "Glorify the American Girl"!  And really, don't you think it's about time??  Viva La Pin-Up!!

For more eye candy, come to my Wonderful World of Tumblr:
http://artofthepin-upgirl.tumblr.com/archive
And get thee to my pin-up page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/artofthepinupgirl