Backstage with the Real “Almost Famous” Queen of Groupies

If someone told you their earliest romantic encounters were with David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger, you’d either slap them or roll your eyes. Unless that someone was Bebe Buell, of course. In the 1970s, the American model just so happened to be in the right place, at the right time, well, countless times, solidifying…

Pinup’s Colorful, Unseen Past

The atomic age of Americana was marked by post war prosperity, white picket fence idealism, and pinup models. Lots and lots of pinup models. Rosy cheeked redheads and buxom blondes graced magazines, calendars, billboards, and even book covers. These images were as ubiquitous as they were homogenous. Often, models shared features so indistinguishable from the…

Vintage Playmates (safe for work!)

Sorry to disappoint but there shall be no boobies in this post, although I did see more than my fair share of b**bies this morning in my quest to find these vintage 50s & 60s playmate photos. If Playboy magazine still looked like this, I would probably subscribe. Look at these fabulous women … …

Mona (Marilyn) Monroe, the $10-an-Hour Pin-Up Model

In 1946, a nineteen year-old aspiring actress in Hollywood was in need of a job, and fast. Born Norma Jean Dougherty, destined to become Marilyn Monroe, but in between, for those not-so-squeaky-clean modelling jobs, she preferred to go by Mona– with a going rate of $10 an hour. It’s often thought that the first nude modelling Monroe did was…

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The Scrapbooks of a Real-Life Tarzan torn between Africa and Studio 54

Andy Warhol called him a modern Tarzan. “He jumps in and out of the snake pit he keeps at his home. He cuts himself and paints with the blood. He wears sandals and no socks in the middle of Winter. He lived in a parked car on 13th Street for six months. He moved when…

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Bedtime Reading: The 1960 Official Playboy Club Bunny Manual

This evening, let’s get stuck into the official hand-typed copy of “The Playboy Club Bunny Manual”. You probably weren’t aware that there’s an online association for ex Playboy bunnies where bunnies of the world can unite, find old bunny colleagues, reminisce and most importantly, air all of Playboy’s dirty laundry. Thankfully one such bunny decided to…

This is the World’s First Trans Supermodel that Didn’t Get Her Moment

It’s 1981, and the air on-set for the new 007 flick, For Your Eyes Only, overflows with so much sex appeal you could cut it with a knife. A coterie of bikini-clad “Bond Girls,” all bathed in sunshine and ready to snap a press photo with Roger Moore, smile into the camera to capture yet another iconic moment…

10 Things You Probably didn’t Know about Hugh Hefner

I never thought I’d say this, but I think Hugh Hefner and I might have shared a lot of common interests– yes the same Hugh Hefner that plastered naked women across its semi-gloss pages and the very one that’s often credited with laying the foundation for mainstream porn culture. When news broke of his death…

“Girl Watching” in Paris

I stumbled upon something pretty peculiar today. This is an excerpt from a 1959 issue of Girl Watcher magazine. [Illustration 1] Considered one of the ‘creepiest and most perverted’ magazines of its day, the publication promoted randomly stalking and ‘collecting’ women as a hobby. What really caught my attention was this special guide to ‘Girlwatching’ in…

Who was the Kissing Bandit, Baseball’s Forgotten Sex Symbol?

For thirty years, she was the buxom babe of baseball who famously rushed the field at major league baseball games to steal kisses from up to 50 athletes in front of thousands of spectators. The media branded her Morganna, “The Kissing Bandit,” and she quickly became a celebrity in her own right, winning endorsement deals, film, television and magazine…