By Charly SHELTON

It can be a rare thing to see real 1940s style anymore. While the hipster movement incorporated some ’40s aspects into their own style, it is rare to see the pure, unadulterated ’40s look – like a pin up girl on a calendar, posing on the wing of a plane with dark hair, deep red lips, dangerous curves and legs that go on and on. It’s rare – but not gone.

“Pin Up” at the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas is a newly introduced show that replaced the popular “Bite” show, a sexy vampire revue. Now it is a sexy pin up girl revue starring the hottest model to ever become a pin up, Playmate of the Year 2011 Miss Claire Sinclair.

“It brought me out to Las Vegas from L.A., which I was thrilled to do,” said Sinclair, a SoCal native who began her career as a model, then “starred” as Belle on Hollywood Boulevard to take pictures with tourists. “I’ve been back and forth in Vegas for the past, like, four years. I’ve lived in hotels doing numerous things like working on a reality show for ‘Holly’s World’ and doing another show at MGM so I’ve been back and forth from L.A. and Vegas.”

Sinclair modeled her style after her personal hero, Betty Page, and it has delivered her to international acclaim.

“She was flirty without being dirty,” joked Sinclair during the show at the Stratosphere. And while there are definitely scantily clad women and risqué poses in some dances, nothing is dirty. There is no nudity, in stark contrast to the topless show “Bite” that preceded it. Despite that, it is still a 21 and over show with alcohol flowing freely to the audience (for a charge).

That is one of the problems with the show – it’s in Las Vegas, one of the rowdiest and drunkest towns in America. To sit in a room and not talk for upwards of an hour proved to be nearly impossible for some people in a recent audience. One particularly annoying woman near the front of the stage just squealed the whole time. It may have been a scream of encouragement, but she sounded like a frightened pig. And it was through every single number. Every single number. Even though she was asked to settle down, she threw out some expletives and got even louder. With waitresses going from table to table delivering cocktails, she got drunker and louder as the end of the show approached.

Dismissing disruptive people, the show itself was pretty good. The setting is like an old club you’d see in a gangster film, with many tables and booths arranged to watch the stage. It looked like Jessica Rabbit could step out of the velvet curtain at any moment.

And then Claire Sinclair comes out in a Jessica Rabbit dress – purple and shiny, with long gloves and flowing hair. She is amazing. Beautiful and funny, she makes a good presence on stage, and is the highlight of the show. She is also the only one of the women in the show who actually looks like a pin up. The other performers, though amazing dancers and singers, are more like Britney Spears, which seems out of place when set to ’40s music.

But that is also a misconception. The show is marketed as a ’40s pin up-style burlesque show but is more of a hybrid. Some of Katy Perry’s songs are in the set and one number involves a stripper pole for the song, “This Girl is On Fire.” It’s more of a suggestion of a pin up girl to set up other numbers, with the occasional appearance by Sinclair outfitted in a ’40s theme.

Male dancer Ryan Kelsey is incredible as well and he performs mostly era appropriate dances. He was just as entertaining as the women who were wearing bikinis.

“Right now, it’s scheduled for six months but I have a strong feeling that’s its going to be a lot longer than that,” Sinclair told CV Weekly. “Hopefully we go for years and years.”

The show runs every night but Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. at the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas.

For those in town to see the show or just to have some fun, Sinclair suggests some cool local haunts and things to do in Las Vegas.

“Come and see ‘Pin Up,’ of course, and after that I suggest you go downtown to The Griffin and [then] Commonwealth, and see all the cool stuff that’s sprouting at the Beauty Bar and go dancing – just to get off the strip. There’s more fun stuff downtown and there’s a lot of good vintage shopping downtown, too.” (The Griffin, Commonwealth and Beauty Bar are all located on Fremont Street.)

“Pin Up” is restricted to 21 and up, and I recommend it to anyone who likes the Las Vegas variety/burlesque show idea and wants to do something fun other than lose money at the tables.

I give this show 4 out of 5.

  Charly Shelton