From Collector’s Weekly, an appreciation for the “peek-a-boo” beer glass with a decal of a clothed woman on the outside, and a matching “nude” (but draped) decal on the inside. My grandfather’s rec-room bar had these along with many wondrous novelty decanters, serried ranks of bowling trophies, a mirrored back, glass shelves, and a gigantic, inflatable Canadian Club bottle.
Some of these glasses were called “peek-a-boos” and featured a clothed pin-up image on the front, usually a decal, although some were hand-painted. On the back side of the decal, the idealized woman would be depicted in sexy lingerie or plain naked. Her state of undress would increase as you drank. Other “nudie glasses” were known as “mystics” because the white chemical used for the lady’s clothing would seem to disappear when touched by condensation; when a beverage was poured into a glass, the naked woman underneath would be revealed.
As Stan tells it, such glasses were produced and sold as early as the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the ’40s that they really took off. “During World War II, they literally exploded because men were going out to war. The home folks thought that they needed a morale boost, so they sent them girlie glasses,” he says. “They became huge during that time. You can tell because, in the Johnson Smith catalog from ’37, there was only a little tiny ad for girlie glasses, probably an eighth of the page. By ’41, when we got into the war, it was a full-page ad.”
Girlie Glasses: A Peep Show With Your Beer
(via Neatorama)