Hungry like Miss Wolff

Montreal mamas take back the power in Hot Broad calendar

by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

On the phone from Las Vegas, local mistress-of-jive Miss Sophia Wolff sounds more like a wholesome, chipper little kitten than a voracious swing vixen who stays up all night swilling bourbon, armed only with a pig's foot and a switchblade. "We're the official dance school of the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend," the voluptuous busy-body enthuses. "I emceed the jiving competition and basically we're down here showing the world that Montreal's rockin'!"

Aside from spreading the jive 'n' bop gospel across the globe with her jiving.com Web site and schoolin' wannabe swing kids at her Jiving School, Miss Wolff has unofficially become Montreal's answer to pin-up diva/photographer Bunny Yeager. Although she didn't take the pictures herself (they were done by Martin of Montreal), she was the self-proclaimed "very tyrannical artistic director" of the Miss Wolff's Hot Broads Rockin' Pin-ups 2001 Calendar (Montreal Mamas edition). Though calendar season usually doesn't come around until December, she wanted it out in time to bring it to Vegas, where apparently it sold very well, thank you very much.

"I had to do a lot of research into the big names in pin-up art from the '30s, '40s and '50s, like Alberto Vargas and Gil Elvgren," she explains, "and the interesting thing about the women who were pin-ups in this era is that most weren't real. They were cartoon fantasy-women that the G.I.s took with them to dream of when they were off at war."

The fact that the pin-up girl has survived as an adored pop-culture icon into the 21st century is a testament to her mythic status and staying power. But what place does such a seemingly out-dated picture of femininity have in today's post-feminist world of working women and sensitized men? Is this another example of third-wave feminism reclaiming the power inherent in female sexuality? You betcha.

Feminist foremothers?

"You have to remember that back then there wasn't much talk of feminism, and it's interesting that being a pin-up was one of the few ways that the every day woman could have some power in a male-dominated world. It was so subtle. And men would flock to buy up pin-up pictures and postcards." Some might find 1950's pin-up girls unlikely feminist foremothers; Miss Wolff simply sees it as another example of women's creative ways of getting ahead in a man's world. She does admit that their power was limited, though.

"In the '50s pin-ups were perceived as... not exactly brainless, but you could tell they were not the ones orchestrating things. It was the male artist or the male photographer who was running the show. Apart from Bunny Yeager, that is, who took those famous shots of Bettie Page."

So in Hot Broads, we have local women playing with female iconography, completely in control of their own image and having fun with it. "The girls in the calendar are all real, none of them are dressed up dollies or disguised models, they all really dress like this, they're all rockin'. All the girls were very aware of the power they had to play with this classic imagery.

"Part of the power of the pin-up was that she had a sort of double identity: she could be the girl-next-door, like any girl you'd meet. And yet she also looked liked a fantasy goddess you could only dream of meeting. She was part angelic and naive and part, almost dominant, sex appeal, in the sense that she appears able to totally control you. The game was to figure out whether you could control her or if she was a dominatrix that would control you. There's always that play on power."

In the name of equal opportunity, one can't help but inquire about Montreal's plethora of papas and when they'll be in the spotlight.

"A lot of people have been asking me if there's going to be a 'Montreal papas' pin-up calendar--I'd love it! With good-looking '50s-style Elvis types! I'm definitely into that and would devote my time, free of charge, to be at the photo sessions!" :

Rockin' Pin-Ups Calendar launch party at the Jive Joint, featuring DJ Lights Out Lotosky, the Crazy Rhythm Daddies and DJ Miss Wolff. Arrive early for the free dance lesson. At 4848 St-Laurent (former Graffiti Tango), Saturday, May 6, 9 pm, $10. Some pin-ups will be present to sign calendars.

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