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Irish McCalla was 5 feet 9 and a half inches tall (177cm) and had a 39.5-19-37 inch (100-48-94cm) figure when she moved to California at the age of 17. Her figure matured to 39.5-24-36 inches (100-61-91cm) within a few years, and it was these dimensions that were later quoted in glamour magazines. She left Nebraska and moved west not because she felt that her arresting physique might bring her fame and fortune, but because she hated the cold weather back home. Every winter she would get pleurisy and she developed a strong desire to live somewhere warm (Prevue). She also wanted to get away from her alcoholic father (see Childhood page). Some of her siblings were already living in Los Angeles, including her older brother Bill, who had recently returned from the war. Mildred and Anna, her two older sisters, were also living there and one of them was working as a nurse. Irish sold her tenor sax for $26.00 when she graduated in order to raise enough money to be able to join them (Scarlet Street). In mid or late-1947, shortly after she had graduated, aged 17, she accompanied Bill back to LA after one of his trips home. Their mother went with them because she was eager to visit Mildred and Anna, her two eldest daughters, who she hadn't seen for some time. Visit the Childhood page to see early photos of Irish and her brothers and sisters. Irish found a nice boarding house in Santa Monica, close to where her family members were living, and managed to get a job as a waitress ("... which is good because you eat right away and the tips helped financially.") and soon became fixated with the warm, sun-drenched beaches of Malibu. Irish said that she didn't have any aspirations of becoming an actress like many pretty girls flocking to the west, but wanted to be an artist. She enrolled in the Otis Art Institute to improve her artistic skills but dropped out after only a few weeks. See the Artistic Development section on the Childhood page for more information about Irish's early involvement with art, and read the full story of why she dropped out of the Otis Art Institute on the Art page. Several years later she got a second job on the night shift making plastic moulds and wingnuts for aircraft at the McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft factory, where she stayed for a year and a half. However, soon after arrival she tried to earn some additional cash by trying to get work as a model, obviously inspired by her high-school beauty contest win, but the places she applied to turned her down because she was too busty (see the Physical Development section of the Childhood page for more about her beauty contest win). Her persistence paid off and eventually she began doing ocasional work for art studios (see photo above). A fortuitous turn of events would soon change things for her and it wasn't long before her sideline job of part-time modelling would become her principal money earner. |
| IRISH
McCALLA MAGAZINE GALLERIES To see what all of the fuss was about and the reason for her popularity, click on the image at right to explore an extensive collection of glamour and television magazines that Irish McCalla appeared in between 1950 and 2008. |
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SOURCES
• Prevue Pinup Special 2 magazine
1994
• Scarlet Street No. 23 magazine 1996
PHOTOS
• The photo of Irish posing for artist
Jefferson Machamer is from Vue magazine, Dec 51, in my private
collection
• The collage of magazine images was created from magazines in my
private collection
| IRISH BIOGRAPHY INTRO |
SHEENA
© is the property of Sony Pictures Corporation
This independent, fan-based analysis of the Sheena material is copyright
© 2005-2009 Paul Wickham
This page was updated May 2009