Chili Williams Camouflage Tips

One of the icons associated with the Swing Era, especially the period during World War II, was the pinup girl:  that "girl-next-door"/Hollywood starlet that served as a reminder of what the boys were fighting for; and ended up on barrack walls and airplane noses (e.g., our own B-17, Memphis Belle ).  Although there has been ample material available to post such images, I have never really focused on them because there are plenty of other sites featuring classic pinups.  I could not resist, however, this set of images from Film Noir Photos, featuring Chili Williams posing in training slides for a U.S. Army presentation on camouflage.  I was not familiar with Ms. Williams until this post, but it appears she was one of the most popular pinups of the war, becoming known as "The Polka Dot Girl" for a distinctive series of photos.  She went on to have small parts in several Hollywood films beginning in the mid-40's until retiring from show business in the 1950's.  An April 1944 article in Life magazine described Ms. Williams' contribution to the war effort as follows:

In need of a dramatic device to stimulate what they call their "visual aids" teaching methods, the Army Engineers, who are renowned for their inventiveness, enlised Chili's help. The camouflage section at Ft. Belvoir, Va had photographer Ewing Krainin make the pictures on these pages for their lantern-slide lectures on camouflage. By thus using Chili, says the Army official release, "vital principles are impressed in the minds of camouflage students in a most effective manner." Honor students are awarded copies of the photographs.