Irish McCalla

There were two defining moments that lead Irish McCalla's cult following. First being the first great pin-up queen of post war magazines and one of the three or four definitive cheesecake models of the 50's. Second was her transformation into television's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Sorta the 50's version of Tarzan meets Xena.

Irish was born on Christmas day in Pawnee City, Nebraska (population:2000), the daughter of a meat inspector and one of five sisters and three brothers. She was a bit of a tomboy growing up, playing softball and basket ball, and at one point an assistant lifeguard. While in high school, she briefly studied at a local art institute.

Her first debut to the public came in August 1950 on the cover of Night and Day magazine. Two month's later she launched Night and Day's new magazine Eve using her as the central image. Over 200 pictures of her were to grace the pages of these magazines.

One of the highlights of her career when she was asked by the great pin-up artist Alberto Vargas to pose for one of his calendars. His images of Irish were used in True and Cavalier magazines, and also used on a deck of playing cards. Vargas was the only artist that she posed for nude, he even helped her with own artwork.

Irish's biggest moment came when she was asked to stand in for Anita Eckberg for the lead in Sheena queen of the Jungle It didn't take long for people to wonder "Anita who?" The first episode, "Forbidden Cargo" was broad cast on September 16th, 1956; the last "Touch of Death" was seen on March 17th, 1957. The show lasted only for 26 episodes.

After television there was the films, the most noted of them would be, the cult classic She Demons The best of her films would have to be Five Gates to Hell where she plays a nun (no leopard skins involved, damn) Sadly though Irish had already been typecast as Sheena,and she would go on to make only about 6 films.

With Hollywood behind her, Irish plunged full time into the painting se had loved when she was younger. She now has created over 1,000 paintings, and had 8 collector plates and numerous limited edition lithographs to her credit. Irish's paintings have graced the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry, and has sold originals for prices up to $12,000. Most are priced around $1,500 to $6,000 (for folks like us, grin) She also runs her own company McCalla Enterprises, Inc.

research from Va Va Voom! Bombshells, Pin-ups, Sexpots and Glamour Girls by Steve Sullivan