{"id":710,"date":"2010-05-02T23:40:45","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T06:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepulp.net\/PulpBlogs\/YellowedPerils_test\/?p=710"},"modified":"2015-08-06T10:56:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T14:56:19","slug":"what%e2%80%99s-with-those-skimpy-spacesuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/2010\/05\/02\/what%e2%80%99s-with-those-skimpy-spacesuits\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s with those skimpy spacesuits?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Startling<\/a>
Startling Stories, September 1948<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brian Earl Brown<\/strong> used to have on his Web site<\/a> a page<\/a> devoted to \u201cEarle Bergey<\/strong> and the Wonderful Brass Bra,\u201d with several examples of science-fiction pulp covers by Bergey.<\/p>\n

Bergey specialized in painting gorgeous space girls (barely) clad in boots, briefs and, as Brian described them, brass brassieres \u2014 apparently the standard outfit for spacefaring females in the \u201940s and \u201950s.<\/p>\n

The first pulp cover in his Bergey gallery was the September 1948 number of Startling Stories<\/em>, which featured \u201cWhat Mad Universe\u201d by Fredric Brown<\/strong>. (Click the image at left to see a larger version of Bergey\u2019s cover.)<\/p>\n

Well into that story, Fredric Brown addresses the issue of the \u201cbrass bra\u201d outfit:<\/p>\n

Betty said, \u201cCome in, K-Keith Winton.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t even notice at first that she\u2019d called him by his right name. She still wore the costume she\u2019d worn at her desk that morning at the Borden offices. Yes, there were green trunks to go with the green bra. They were very brief trunks, very well shaped. Green leather boots came halfway up shapely calves. Between the boots and the trunks, the bare golden flesh of dimpled knees and rounded thighs.<\/p>\n

She stepped back and, scarcely daring to breathe, Keith went into the room. He closed the door behind him and stood leaning against it, staring at Betty, not quite believing.<\/p>\n

The room was dim, the shades already pulled down. The light came from a pair of candles in a candelabrum on the table behind Betty. Her face was shadowed, but the soft light behind her made a golden aura of her blond hair and silhouetted her slim, beautiful body. An artist could not have posed her better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then about a page later, Fredric Brown picks up the topic again with Keith speaking to Betty:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t seem to believe in anything here, really, except \u2013 No, I don\u2019t even believe in you \u2013 in that costume. What is it? Do you wear it all the time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? I mean, other women here \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked at him in bewilderment. \u201cNot all of them, of course. Only a very few in fact. Only the space girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpace girls?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course. Girls who work, or have worked, on spaceships. Or ones who are fiancees of space men. Being Dopelle\u2019s fiancee would entitle me to wear it, even if I hadn\u2019t done exploring in space, on leaves of absence from Borden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut why?\u2019<\/em> He floundered. \u201dI mean, is it so hot in a spaceship that such an \u2013 an abbreviated costume is necessary? Or what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what you mean. Of course it isn\u2019t hot in spaceships. Mostly we wear heated plastic coveralls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparent plastic?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaturally. Mr. Winton, what are you getting at?\u201d<\/p>\n

He ran a hand through his hair. \u201cI wish I knew. The costumes. Transparent plastic \u2013 Like the covers on Surprising Stories<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, of course. Why would cover pictures like that be put<\/em> on Surprising Stories<\/em> unless we really wore such costumes?\u201d<\/p>\n

He tried to think of an answer to that; there wasn\u2019t any.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I just finished reading \u201cWhat Mad Universe\u201d and highly recommend it for pulp fans. Not only is it a fun \u2014 and sometimes funny \u2014 read, the main character is an editor at a pulp magazine company, so you get a bit of an inside look at the pulp business in the 1940s.<\/p>\n

\u2013 William<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Earl Brown used to have on his Web site a page devoted to \u201cEarle Bergey and the Wonderful Brass Bra,\u201d with several examples of science-fiction pulp covers by Bergey. Bergey specialized in painting gorgeous space girls (barely) clad in boots, briefs and, as Brian described them, brass brassieres \u2014 apparently the standard outfit for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pulps"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2qgXO-bs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4472,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions\/4472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}