“Periscope Up for a Pin-Up”

A round-bottomed pin-up, typical of the cheeky cheesecake that cheered the servicemen of World War II, played an important part in the submarine swashbuckler starring Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable, and a contest was sponsored by the film’s producers linked her to the most popular pin-up of the day, Playboy Playmate!

Run Silent, Run Deep was the story of the day based on the best-selling novel by Commander Edward L. Beach; the Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production was a kind of up-to-date Moby Dick in which Lancaster played Starbuck to the Ahab of Gable. A prominent, if inanimate, member of the cast is the pictorial pretty posted on the bulkhead of the submarine Nerka and affectionately patted on the stern for luck by members of her crew whenever they were moving into combat.

“Don’t go wasting it,” one of the crewmember chides another for patting the pin-up’s posterior indiscriminately. “Her luck’s reserved for battles, friend. She almost got worn out on the last patrol.”

To help publicize the movie, the producers sponsored a contest to find the real-life girl of 1958 who most resembled the Nerka’s World War II-type pin-up – most resembled figure that is, for the girl in the pin-up was masked. Any girl in the U.S. was eligible and invited to submit photographs. Photos were to be good and clear and a pose similar to that of the pin-up.

Five girls were to be chosen from their photographs and sent to Hollywood with all expenses paid. A panel of judges selected the final winner, and she would receive a screen test and a contract with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, plus the opportunity to become Playboy’s Playmate of the Month. The panel of judges were to include producer Harold Hecht, film star Rita Hayworth, columnist Earl Wilson, Fritz Willis, the nationally known artist who created the pin-up girl used in the film, and Hugh Hefner. It was called the “Girl Left Behind Contest.”

Story first published in Playboy Magazine in February 1958

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