Page "Earle K. Bergey" Paragraph 4

During the 1940s, Bergey continued to paint covers for romance, sports, and detective pulp magazines, and he began working on a number of science fiction magazines, including Standard Publications ' Strange Stories and Captain Future, and later for Fantastic Story Magazine.

His illustrations of scantily-clad women in space helmets served as an inspiration for Princess Leia's slave-girl outfit in Return of the Jedi and Madonna's brass brassiere.

Bergey's science fiction covers, often described as " Bim, BEM, Bum ," usually featured a woman being menaced by a Bug-Eyed Monster, alien, or robot, with an heroic male astronaut coming to her assistance.

The bikini-tops worn by the girls often resembled coppery metal, giving rise to the phrase " the girl in the brass bra ," sometimes used in reference to this sort of art.