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Dundalk

Sollers Point Road

September 22, 2012

14. Pin-Up Girls

As the Motorettes close a rocking set of Motown standards, 14 mostly young, mostly tattooed women, step in front of the stage outside the Dundalk Moose Lodge. Dressed in back-seam stockings, bullet bras, peep-toe pumps, tight skirts and vintage blouses—primped with winged eyeliner, bright red lipstick and retro-inspired “half updo” hairstyles— they’re competing for the prestigious title of Miss Mobtown Greaseball.

The pin-up contest winner is promised, among other gifts, a professional photo session with Atomic Cheesecake and a portrait in Retro Lovely magazine. She’ll also appear at several events in the next year, such as Baltimore’s annual Night of 100 Elvises at Lithuanian Hall

The concurrent car show attracts some 600 classic automobiles and hot rods on a picture-perfect early fall Saturday afternoon event. But the day was as much about putting an updated twist on post-World War II style—as rebuilding late model Fairlaines and GTOs. Naturally, a big crowd turns out for a gander at the pin-up girls. “A lot of these girls certainly would not have been comfortable living in the 1950s, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, not having the choice to work,” says Stacy Barich, owner of Atomic Cheesecake in Parkville. “But they can appreciate the aesthetic. Besides, it’s also just fun to dress up and be a girl and embrace your femininity. In those days, they wouldn’t have liked being ‘ogled’— today, their like, ‘That’s right! I got it.’ They’ve turned the tables.”

The sideshow announcer calls out Stacy “Firecracker” Bucklaw and the brunette hairstylist from Hanover, PA, saunters to the microphone to big applause. Wearing a hand-painted skirt and yellow halter top, sporting a Betty Crocker tattoo one on shoulder and a U.S. Navy tat on the other, she’s an easy pick by judges for the finals.

“It may only be the Mobtown Greaseball,” she says later, smiling, glamorous behind orange, cat-eyed sunglasses. “But I feel like Miss America.”