Wave of Elegance
American Hairdresser
February 1949

I was absolutely sure that these were some radical fingerwaves. But now that I look through my Compendium, I see that these fabulous waves are made out of pincurls!

Take a gander at the Right and Wrong Way to Make Pincurls page, and notice Step 5 - the comb out is almost identical to the waves shown here.

I'm going to guess that the rest of the 'do is also made from pincurls - you'll have to experiment with which direction each row should turn to create this look.