Origins of tube girl meme?

I’ve done a lot of posts here at Erotic Mad Science about what I call the “tube girl meme,” the visual depiction of a pretty woman, often nude or scantily clad, sealed in some sort of transparent tube (often suspended in fluid) for the purpose of preservation, experiment, or some perverted purpose — let your imagination run free there. It’s clearly a pretty prominent visual motif in the mad science genre and really takes off with pulp covers after the Second World War. But where did it come from?

I’ll offer a conjecture, and kindly keep in mind that it’s only a conjecture so if any of you who read this blog know of an earlier or better one by all means please comment. It goes back to a locus classicus of cinematic mad science, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

In this film, Dr. Septimus Pretorius, one of Frankenstein’s former teachers, demonstrates to Frankenstein a set of experiments in creating life, in this case Pretorius’s creation of a set of homunculi that live in cylindrical glass jars. It’s a pretty good effect, given that it’s 1935.

Among these are a dancer, (who, Pretorius laments, will only dance to Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song”)…

..and, perhaps more on visual point, a mermaid.

Origin of the concept? Maybe. I’m willing to bet that all those pulp artists and the public that patronized their work both watched Bride of Frankenstein a lot.

Bonus erotic trivia: The mermaid in the jar is played by Josephine McKim, a swimmer who won a gold medal in 1932 Olympics and who was the body double for Maureen O’Sullivan during her famous pre-code “nude swim” sequence in Tarzan and His Mate (1934).

Is there video? You betcha!

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Of course we have also visited the contributions of Olympic swimmers to erotica on this blog before.

Mermaids unlimited

So it began with a little bit of searching. I was trying to find out a little bit about the provenance of this image, which really ought to have been featured in the teuthology series of about a week back, but didn’t make it in somehow:

Originally found at Janitor of Lunacy, but without too much other information. Time to invoke TinEye, which certainly did it for provenance.

Cover art for the Marvel Comics magazine Epic Illustrated, June 1982, done by Frank Brunner. I owe the information to a German-language site, which shows this re-purposing of the image:

“The eight-armed death!” Now that’s alarming. Still it’s quite satisfying to know more about the image.

But more satisfying still was following through to find the image also used on a Russian-language site called Русалочья Лагуна (rusaloch’ya laguna — “Mermaid Lagoon”). Believe me, if you get a kick out of rather frank depictions of mermaids and other related watery folk, you’ll get a huge kick out of this site even if you can’t read a word of Russian.

Of course, if you do have good Russian literacy skills, you can also enjoy exquisite poetry by Anna Akhmatova. Who would have thought…

Teuthology XIII

Script for today:

Page 38

View of Edith/Octopus, outside the tank which was dropped in the estuary. The tank is now deeper in the silt and partly covered with barnacles.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I don’t have much strength left…just enough to make a final entry of data of my impressions.

View of Edith/Octopus drifting in the sea. Her tentacles are trailing behind her.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): No octopus lives very long, especially mated females. I knew that going in.

Another view of Edith/Octopus drifting. In some part of the panel, a small speck of something approaching should be visible.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I read Charlotte’s Web when I was a little girl. I cried and cried when Charlotte had baby spiders and then died.

Another view of the Edith/Octopus, still drifting. The “speck” in the previous now looks vaguely like a human being with long hair swimming through the water.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): But right now I don’t feel sad at all. Instead, I feel blessed…

Page 39

Still another view of Edith/Octopus drifting. A pair of human-looking hands are reaching into the panel.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I am becoming one with my beloved ocean and…

LI ANWEI, naked, rather mermaid-like, has gathered Edith/Octopus in her arms and is holding her.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): How can this be…you can’t be…human.

Close up of the Edith/Octopus being held up against Anwei’s breast.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Even if you insist on nourishing me using a human modality.

View of Anwei seen from above. She is swimming along the bottom of the estuary out further (indicated by darkening of the panel in the direction she is swimming).

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Perhaps I’m not about to die after all, but where is this creature taking me.

Page 40

View of Anwei, holding the Edith/Octopus forward, while kicking with her legs (indicate with silt being kicked up). She has reached a point where some sort of deep trench occurs in the seafloor. It is dark beneath.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Into the depths, I see.

Same panel as before, except that all we see of Anwei are her bare feet sticking up out of the trench.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Wherever it is, I’m sure it will be adventure.

CAPTION: End of “Chapter 1: Teuthology.”

And so, thanks Anwei and whoever she’s now working for, Edith’s story is not quite as sad as Charlotte’s Web after all.

That would surely seem to call for an erotic merfolk image in celebration.

Provenance unknown, beyond the fact that it (like so many things here) appeared at Janitor of Lunacy.

Teuthology VI

Script for today:

Page 16

View of Edith, the upper half of her. She has now risen out of her chair, having put the dossier open on the table, pinned under Edith’s splayed fingers.

EDITH: Is that what you call having “ethics standards,” Admiral?

View of Shackleford, still standing at this end of the table, but beginning to fall back. His mouth is hanging open.

SHACKLEFORD (broken-line balloon): …

View of Shackleford again, this time having sunk back into his chair. He is covering his eyes with one hand.

SHACKLEFORD: What do you think, Chen.

View of Chen, sitting in his chair. He is in the act of scratching his chin thoughtfully.

CHEN: Well, the technical side of Professor Sterling’s proposal checks out…and from an ethical side I think she makes a serious point about doing something for the girls…

Another view of Chen, his face drawn into an insincere, tight-lipped smile. He is pointing into the air.

CHEN: You could always point out to the brass that the biochemical pathway data would be most useful for our BioEnhanced Soldier project.

View of Shackleford again, leaning forward on the table, his hands steepled, his brow knit in concentration.

SHACKLEFORD: Hmm…

Page 17

Night in Edith’s hotel room. She is wearing only an oversize GNOSIS COLLEGE sweatshirt. She has drawn the curtain to her window. She is holding a half-full wineglass and is standing, staring out the window, apparently lost in thought.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Always agreeable to get official approval for your own suicide run.

A view out the window. We see a cityscape by night.

CAPTION (Upper left, Edith thinking): I guess eyes lit up back at headquarters when they heard about the possibility of a new technology they could weaponize.

CAPTION (lower right, Edith thinking): I did of course emphasize there are families out there missing their daughters…

CAPTION (still lower right, Edith thinking): Guess I’d better try to get some sleep. There’s a lot of work ahead.

Page 18

Long view across the factory floor. There are a lot of white-coated technicians scattered around, and a lot more medical looking machinery. A small figure of Edith, in a white labcoat, stands in the middle of the panel and is pointing at something, as if giving directions.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): The promise of getting guns brings out a lot of money, a lot of equipment, and a lot of personnel.

Edith standing at a lab bench, wearing dark goggles and heavy gloves. She is holding a flask with long tongs which contains a glowing liquid.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Figuring out Dr. Sin’s protocols good enough to recreate isn’t that hard.

Edith looking down at a computer screen, her face illuminated.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): After all, he did make videos of his crimes.

Two technicians are working on something that looks like a large satellite dish.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Capturing the data is trickier, but I have plenty of help for that.

Okay, sort of a bit of dull, bureaucratic script today. I guess even mad scientists sometimes have to fill out paperwork and go to boring meetings (maybe that’s one reason why they’re so mad). I’ll try to liven things up a bit with a thematically appropriate sirene, which I believe is the work of Max Klinger (1857-1920).