Hartzell Spence, the founder and editor of the popular World War II magazine Yank, has died at the age of 93.  Yank, a weekly magazine written by and for ordinary soldiers, was a wonderful experiment in democratic (if highly restricted) journalism that was read each week by an estimated 2.2 million soldiers, sailors, and airmen.  Spence championed Sgt. George Baker, who had won an army cartooning contest, and published Baker's 'Sad Sack' cartoons, with their colorful and realistic depiction of G.I. life.  Yank was remarkably free of the heavy-handed propaganda that characterized many homefront publications during the war.

 

Spence was also responsible for Yank's most popular feature--the sexy photos of Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Hedy Lamarr and other Hollywood stars and starlets, usually attired in low-cut gowns, swimsuits, or lingerie, that graced each and every issue of Yank.  One especially sexy pinup in 1945 featured the then unknown Norma Jeane Baker, long before she made her breakthrough in pictures as Marilyn Monroe.  Spence not only insisted on the inclusion of the pinup in every issue of Yank, he is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the first use of the word as a noun.