Golden Age Pin-ups

Claudia Cardinale: Italian Beauty Queen

2009-08-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy interpretations of Sicilian women got her noticed by Italian producers, and the combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. After Senilità (1962) she rose to the front ranks of Italian cinema, and became an international star in Federico Fellini's classic 8½ (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni. American audiences may best remember her from her starring role in Sergio Leone's C'era una volta il West (1968).

Claudia Cardinale was married to Italian film producer Franco Cristaldi from 1966 until their divorce in 1975, and now lives with Pasquale Squitieri, an Italian film director who has been her companion since 1975.

She has two children: Patrizio, who was born out of wedlock to a Frenchman when she was 17 and later adopted by her longtime companion Pasquale Squitieri, and Claudia, whose biological father is Squitieri.

Claudia Cardinale lives in Paris. She is also reported to have had an affair with former French President Jacques Chirac.

Claudia Cardinale is a liberal with strong political convictions. She is involved many humanitarian causes, like in pro-women and pro-gay issues, and has frequently stated her pride in her Tunisian and Arab roots - as evidenced by her book 'Ma Tunisie' and her appearance as herself in the Tunisian film Un été à La Goulette ("A Summer in La Goulette").

Cardinale wrote an autobiography, Moi Claudia, Toi Claudia. In 2005, she also published a French-language book, Mes Etoiles, about her personal and professional relationships with many of her directors and co-stars through her nearly 50 years in show-business.

Cardinale has been a regular attender at the Academy Awards. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary Golden Bear award of the Berlin Film Festival, and previously in 1993 she was awarded even an honorary Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Cardinale has been UNESCO good will ambassador for the Defense of Women's Rights since 1999. In 2006 (World Water Year) she symbolically extended such a role for the Defense of the Rights of the Absolute Woman : Mother Earth while declaring her support for Powerstock, a sustainable electronic music festival that proposes a "water-consciousness" for youth culture and seeks to make sustainability an integral part of mainstream culture.

*Warning at the end our a couple of pictures that are NSFW.

RS Link: Claudia Cardinale - 115 Pictures

Here's a video of Brigitte Bardot and Claudia facing off in Les Pétroleuses:

Senta Berger - Austrian Beauty

2009-08-07T11:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a bio courtesy of wiki:

"Berger was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Therese Jany, a teacher, and Josef Berger, a musician.[1] Her parents were not rich, but they tried everything to meet the desires of their daughter. Senta first appeared on stage at the age of four, when her father accompanied her singing on the piano. At the age of five she started ballet lessons, but her dream of a career as a dancer was destroyed when her teacher did not like the physical changes in Senta during puberty. Now she lives in Munich.

Berger then took private acting lessons. In 1957, she won her first small role in a film. She applied for the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a famous acting school in Vienna, and was accepted. However, shortly afterwards she was forced to leave, because she had accepted a film role without permission. In 1958, she became the youngest member of the Josefstadt Theatre in Vienna. Her ambition endured to be a film actress.

More and more directors and producers wanted to work with her, for example Bernhard Wicki and Arthur Brauner, who produced the film The Good Soldier Schweijk with Berger and the German actor Heinz Rühmann. Brauner used Senta Berger in several films, but she soon tired of musicals. In 1962, she went to Hollywood and worked with stars such as Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Richard Widmark, John Wayne, and Yul Brynner. She returned to Germany to accept an offer for a series role, which would have brought an obligation of several years.

In 1963, Berger met Michael Verhoeven, son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not the Dutch Paul Verhoeven). They started their own film production company in 1965. In 1966, Senta and Michael married. In 1970, she starred for the first time in a film produced by her own company and directed by her husband. Other internationally successful films made by the duo included, amongst others, Die weiße Rose, The Terrible Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen) and Mutters Courage. Berger continued to develop her European career in France and Italy.

In 1966, Berger co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the movie Cast a Giant Shadow. Berger played the role of Magda, a soldier in the army of Israel during the Israeli War of Independence (1948).

The birth of her two sons caused Senta to turn back to theatre work. She successfully played at the Burgtheater in Vienna, at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg and at the Schillertheater in Berlin. Between 1974 and 1982, she played the “Buhlschaft” in the play Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival with Curd Jürgens and Maximilian Schell. One of her greatest movie roles of the period was co-starring with Schell and James Coburn and in the acclaimed war movie Cross of Iron (1977). In 1985−86, Berger started a comeback in front of German-speaking audiences in the very popular TV serial Kir Royal. Afterwards further serial hits followed, like The Fast Gerti, where she plays a taxi driver.

In the same year, she also started a career as a singer of Chansons. 2005 saw her in a beautiful and sad film, Einmal so wie ich will, as a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage who finds but turns her back on love when on holiday.

Since February 2003, Berger has been president of the German Film Academy, which seeks to advance the new generation of actors and actresses in Germany and Europe. The Academy will decide the assignment of the German Film Awards in the future."

*Warning some photos are NSFW.

Here's a clip and screen shot of Senta in "When Women had Tails."

Download: Senta Berger in When Women had Tails

Here's everything rolled into one file: Senta Berger Pictures and Video Clip

Betty Brosmer: Fifities Pin-up Legend

2009-08-03T14:35:00.001-07:00

Betty Brosmer will go down in pin-up history for many reasons, the most notable of them being her very pronounced hourglass figure. During her heyday in the 1950's, her measurements were somewhere around 38-18-35. Brosmer was the epitome of the Californian girl, with that girl-next-door look not unlike Marilyn Monroe. But whereas Monroe's and other glamour model's careers focused on the movies, Brosmer stayed with modeling, both commercial and pin-up. At one point in the 50's she was the highest paid pin-up model around. During this time, she turned down Playboy because of her rule of never doing anything more than just chaste cheesecake shots. In the 1960's, she stopped her pin-up career when she married publisher of fitness magazines Joe Weider. Since then, she has been a regular model and writer for his publications and a role model for good health and fitness in later age.

RS link: Betty Brosmer 49 Pictures

Here's a YouTube Video of Betty:

Ursula Andress: The Ultimate Bond Girl

2009-07-27T19:42:00.001-07:00

*Warning there are artistic nudes below, NSFW.

Here's her bio courtesy of IMDB:

It's probably unsurprising that one of the most famous sequences in movie history features a woman who spent most of her time faking being an actress. When Swiss bombshell Ursula Andress emerges from the sea in Dr. No (1962) in the famed white bikini, she's living proof that what's truly unique about the movies is their unsurpassed visual power.

The quintessential jet-set Euro starlet, Ursula was born in the Swiss canton of Berne on March 19, 1936, one of seven children in a German Protestant family. Although often seeming icily aloof, a restless streak early demonstrated itself in her personality, and she had a desire from an early age to explore the world outside Switzerland. For instance, she ran away with an Italian actor at the tender age of 17, then returned home after her parents intervened. The stunning young woman started her movie career with small roles in Italian farces which invariably focused on her impressive physical attributes. Eventually, due in part to the patronage of paramour Marlon Brando, she signed a contract with Columbia Pictures and came to the US. She met rising star John Derek and married him in 1957, dropping out of movie-making for several years thereafter.

The year 1962 saw the relatively unknown Swiss beauty back on the set, co-starring with Sean Connery in the first movie version of Ian Fleming's fanciful "James Bond" espionage novels, "Dr. No. Andress' smoldering-yet-aloof screen presence immediately established her as one of the most desired women in the world, helped to start the James Bond franchise that continues to this day and set the "Bond Girl" standard beside which all future Bond actresses would be judged (notwithstanding the fact that her Swiss/German accent was so strong that her voice had to dubbed in the movie).

The success of "Dr. No" established her as a spectacular ornament to put on-screen alongside the most bankable talent of the 1960s, and she was cast in vehicles for such icons as Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.. In 1965 she was one of several European starlets to co-star in What's New Pussycat (1965) -- a film that perhaps sums up mid-'60s pop culture better than any other -- written by Woody Allen, starring Allen and Peter Sellers, with music by Burt Bacharach, a title song performed by Tom Jones and much on-screen sexual romping.

Andress made many more movies in the US and Europe from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, including La decima vittima (1965), in which she wears a famously ballistic bra; The Blue Max (1966), in which she is aptly cast as the sultry, sexually insatiable wife of an aristocratic World War I German general; and Casino Royale (1967), another foray into the world of James Bond. Her charms seemingly undiminished by age, at 40 she could still easily play a bombshell nurse hired to titillate a doddering millionaire to death in the slight Italian sex comedy L'infermiera (1975).

Having been divorced by Derek is 1966 so he could pursue younger lookalike Linda Evans, Andress played the field for years, reportedly involved at various times with Jean-Paul Belmondo, 'Ryan O'Neal' and Warren Beatty. In 1979 she began what would be a long-term romance with Harry Hamlin, her handsome young co-star from Clash of the Titans (1981) (in which she was cast, predictably, as Aphrodite). While subsequently traveling in India, Andress' belly began to swell out of her clothing, and she felt very nauseous. What at first seemed a severe case of "Delhi Belly" turned out to be pregnancy, her first and only, at the age of 43. She and Hamlin named the child, who was born in 1980, Dimitri Hamlin.

After the her son's birth, Andress scaled back her career, which now focused mostly on European TV and films, as she was raising Dimitri in Rome. She last worked on film in 1997. Her relationship with Hamlin having ended in 1982, she has lived with Lorenzo Rispoli since 1983.

Below are 1024x768 wallpapers and nudes, view at your own discretion.

RS link: Ursula Andress 77 pictures (including nudes)

Diana Dors - Blond Bombshell

2009-07-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England. She was considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood. She also had significant acting ability, which was destined never to be fully utilised (most of her later work is made up of sex-themed comedies that featured scenes near to soft-core pornography). Her success was such that, aged 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce in the UK.

According to film buffs, her best work as an actress may have been when she played a murderess in the 1956 film Yield to the Night. She was also willing to play repulsive characters in such films as The Amazing Mr. Blunden and Timon of Athens.

Dors never had quite the same following in the U.S., but recently has made a comeback due to her films having been shown on classic movie channels such as Turner Classic Movies. She also worked under the name of Diana d'Ors.

Diana Dors appeared in many Rank Organisation Films. It appears that from a certain period, her appearance changed markedly similarly if not identical to Marilyn Monroe, as her career progressed. Often she has been acting in roles of characters often having unrequited love, perhaps an unfortunate parallel to her private life.Playing Dora in Diamond City (1949). Finding Stafford Parker's (David Farrar) true feelings for her is not love as she had hoped.

In a 1977 episode of the British TV show Parkinson with the actor Kenneth Williams and the anthropologist Desmond Morris (whom Dors said she had dated when they were teenagers in Swindon), Dors commented on what seemed to be the common tragic deaths of young blonde sex symbols, such as Jean Harlow and Jayne Mansfield. Dors said she would base herself on Mae West in living a long life. Unfortunately, however, she died seven years later on 4 May 1984 from a recurrence of ovarian cancer, first diagnosed two years earlier. She was 52 years old.

RS Link: Diana Dors 20 Photos

Mamie Van Boren - Blond Bombshell

2009-07-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a brief wiki bio:

several years. Hughes launched her career by placing her in several RKO films.

On January 20, 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal Studios. The studio had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the same kind of success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe, the reigning sex symbol of the era. Van Doren, whose signing day coincided with the inauguration of President Eisenhower, was given the first name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower. A prominent and noted family of American intellectuals, the Van Dorens included two Pulitzer Prize winning brothers, Carl (biographer) and Mark (poet), and Mark's wife Dorothy, an academic and historian. Ironically, in 1957 Mark and Dorothy's son Charles Van Doren made front page news both by winning $129,000 on a television game show, then admitting the program was rigged. The publicity around this scandal kept the name 'Van Doren' in the newspapers and tabloids.

Van Doren's first movie for Universal was Forbidden (1953), playing a singer. She then made All-American (1953), playing Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (1954) starring Jeff Chandler and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith. In 1956 she played opposite a pre-fame Clint Eastwood in Star in the Dust.

Van Doren starred in several bad girl movies that later became cult films. She also appeared in some of the first movies to feature Rock & Roll music and became identified with this rebellious style, and made some rock records. In the film Untamed Youth in 1957, she was the first woman to sing rock and roll in a Hollywood musical (Eddie Cochran did the music for the film). [2] This film was later featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000's 'Untamed Youth' (1990).

Some of Van Doren's more noteworthy movies include Teacher's Pet (1958) at Paramount, Born Reckless (1958) at Warner Bros., High School Confidential (1958), and The Beat Generation (1959), the latter two at MGM. But Van Doren was just as well known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girls Town (1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (1959), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) and Vice Raid (1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles.

Many of Van Doren's film roles showcased her ample curves, and her on screen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring (for the era) swimsuits. While she and other blonde bombshell contemporaries as Cleo Moore, Sheree North, Jayne Mansfield, and Diana Dors did not attain the same level of superstar status as Marilyn Monroe, Van Doren did become a very famous star and notable Hollywood sex symbol. Marilyn, Mamie and Jayne Mansfield were known as the "Three M's."[1] But by comparison, where Monroe succeeded in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Mansfield had a big success with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, (a part that was originally written for Van Doren, who turned it down), Universal stuck Van Doren with Francis the Talking Mule in Francis Joins the WACS.

As Van Doren's career progressed, many of the productions she starred in were low-budget B-movies. They are largely unknown to later generations, though some have gained a following for their high camp value.

In 1959, Universal chose not to exercise the option in her contract. Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work. Some of her later movies were foreign and independent productions, such as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), The Candidate (1964), The Navy vs the Night Monsters (1966) as well as Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who used the pseudonym 'Derek Thomas' for the film.

Van Doren's autobiography, Playing the Field (1987), brought much new attention to the veteran sex symbol and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting.

At age 60, she underwent cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has consistently denied ever having breast implants. In 2006, Mamie posed for photographs for Vanity Fair with Pamela Anderson as part of their annual Hollywood issue.

In 2006 — at age 75 — Van Doren and her husband, Thomas, maintain her popular and controversial web site. Here she sells autographed "nipple prints" and homemade short films starring herself, such as 'A Girl and Her Banana'. Her contemporary topless and nude photos and outspoken political views have helped create a larger fan base than at any time in her career, arguably the longest career of any Hollywood sex symbol[weasel words], with the possible exception of Mae West[weasel words], Van Doren's childhood idol.

Van Doren has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard.

RS Link: Mamie Van Boren 45 Pictures

Here's a YouTube tribute:

Sophia Loren - Italian Beauty

2009-07-22T12:26:00.001-07:00

Sophia Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone on September 20, 1934 in Italy's capital city , Rome. Sophia was the illegitimate child of Riccardo Scicolone and Romilda Villiani. Riccardo was an engineer and her mother was a piano teacher and aspiring actress. Riccardo refused to marry Romilda, leaving Romilda a single mother and in abject poverty and Romilda was advised to abandon Sophia. However, Romilda and Sophia, moved to Sophia's grandmothers house in Pozzuoli, near Naples and managed to survive. Pozzuoli was targetted reguarly by Allied bombers during WWII as there was an munitions factory located there and during one of the raids at the age of six, Sophia was injured by shrapnel. The bombing forced the family to evacuate to Naples, where Sophia witnessed the horrors of war.

After the war, the fortunes of the family turned as they returned to Pozzuoli and used there living room as a bar for the stationed nearby Americaan GI's. The place became very popular and quickly became a success. Sophia had at this time started visiting the Teatro Sachino, Pozzuoli theatre, and become fasinated with Hollywood's superstars. She decided what she wanted to become. However, Sophia was always considered an gangly and awkward child (earning the nickname - Toothpick), but seemingly overnight at about 14 she changed into a beautiful young woman.Romilda, noticing this, decided to enter her into a beauty contest in Naples, called the 'Queen of the Sea'. Sophia didn't win the first prize but became one of the Princesses. Encouraged by this Romilda, enrolled her for acting classes, and they moved to Rome. They were both hired as extra's in the film Mervyn LeRoy film, Quo Vadis.

Unfortunately, Maria, Sophia's sister, who had stayed in Pozzuoli got sick and Romilda had to return home, leaving Sophia at the age of 16 to survive for herself. sophia found small role parts in Hearts Upon the Sea, The Vote, Bluebeards's Six Wives and Io Sono il Capatz. Sophia got her a break when she entered the Miss Roma contest, and was spotted by the famous film-producer Carlo Ponti. She got second in the contest, but more importantly got a screen test with Ponti. The screen tests were unsuccessful. Sophia, in spite of the failed screen tests, got a large role in the film Africa under Water, the film wasn't a success but her big breakthrough was very close. When the female lead for a production of Verdi's Aida, Sophia went for it and got it. The role was a non-singing role, and her voice was sung by Renata Tebaldi. The film won acclaim and won Sophia a one year contract with Carlo Ponti. She starred in many movies during the 12 month contract and was approached by Vittorio de Sica to play a part in his film The Gold of Naples. Carlo also cast her in the Woman of the River.

In 1954 she starred in Alessandro Blasetti's Too Bad She’s Bad opposite Marcello Mastroianni, and again in the 1955 The Miller’s Wife. Carlo wanted her to progress to English speaking roles and gave her an english tutor, the reward was soon coming as American director Stanley Kramer wanted her for the lead in The Pride and The Passion, starring opposite Hollywood legends Carry Grant and Frank Sinatra. Grant was dubious about Loren to start with but once on set he fell in love and actually proposed. However, Sophia had been in a relantionship with Carlo, who was married. Carlo's wife had agreed to end the marriage, but the Catholic church refused to grant a divorce. They arranged a divorce in Mexico and Carlo married Sophia. Sophia's career went from strength to strength, staring with John Wayne in Legend Of The Lost and again with Cary Grant in Houseboat.

There followed a string of further successes The Key, with William Holden and Trevor Howard; It Started In Naples, with Clark Gable and de Sica; The Millionairess, with Peter Sellers; and The Black Orchid and Heller In Pink Tights, both of which co-starred Anthony Quinn. Sophia's crowning glory was when she won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as the mother in the De Sica film Two Women. Sophia Loren had become the first actress ever to win a Best Actress Award for a foreign film. She was now at the height of her career and earned a staggering $1 million for her role in The Fall of the Roman Empire. She went on to make dozens of more successful films, however privately she had being struggling to have children, and had tragically mis-carried twice. But with the help of a Swiss fertility specialist she became a mother twice with two sons, Carlo,Jr and Edoardo.In 1991 Sophia recieved an Honorary Academy Award for her lifetime contribution to the world of cinema.

RS link: Sophia Loren Picture Collection

Brigitte Bardot - French Bombshell

2009-07-21T13:50:00.001-07:00

Here's a wiki excerpt:

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (born 28 September 1934) is a French actress, former fashion model, singer and animal welfare/rights activist^[3].

In her early life Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer. She started her acting career in 1952 and after appearing in 16 films became world-famous due to her role in the controversial film And God Created Woman. During her career in show business Bardot starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement from the entertainment industry in 1973, Bardot established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s she became outspoken in her criticism of immigration, some aspects of homosexuality and Islam in France, and has been convicted five times for "inciting racial hatred".^[4]^[5]

Although the European film industry was then in its ascendancy, Bardot was one of the few European actresses to receive mass media attention in the United States. She and Marilyn Monroe were perhaps the foremost examples of female sexuality in films of the 1950s and 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

Brigitte Bardot debuted in a 1952 comedy film Le Trou Normand (English title: Crazy for Love). In the same year she married Roger Vadim. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films; in 1953 playing a part in Jean Anouilh's stageplay "L'Invitation au château" ("The Invitation to the Castle"). She received media attention when she attended the Cannes Film Festival in April 1953.^[8] "She is every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris," wrote the film-critic Ivon Addams in 1955.^{[citation needed]}

Her films of the early and mid 1950s were generally lightweight romantic dramas, some of them historical, in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, and often with an element of undress. She played bit parts in three English-language films, the British comedy Doctor at Sea (1955), Helen of Troy (1954), in which she was understudy for the title role but only appears as Helen's handmaid, and Act of Love (1954) with Kirk Douglas. Her French-language films were dubbed for international release.

Roger Vadim was not content with this light fare. The New Wave of French and Italian art directors and their stars were riding high internationally, and he felt Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in And God Created Woman (1956) with Jean-Louis Trintignant. The film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a big international success.

In hindsight, light comedies suited Brigitte Bardot's acting skills best. A fine example is her 'Une Parisienne' from 1957, one of the few of her films of which she has said she feels proud.

There was a widely popular claim that Brigitte Bardot, as an actress, did more for the French international trade balance than the entire French car industry.^[8]

In Bardot's early career professional photographer Sam Levin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Levin's pictures show Brigitte from behind, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.

Brigitte Bardot was featured in many other films along with notable actors such as Alain Delon (Famous Love Affairs, Spirits of the Dead), Jean Gabin (In Case of Adversity), Sean Connery (Shalako), Jean Marais (Royal Affairs in Versailles, School for Love), Lino Ventura (Rum Runners), Annie Girardot (The Novices), Claudia Cardinale (The Legend of Frenchie King), Jeanne Moreau (Viva Maria!), Jane Birkin (Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman).

She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including "Harley Davidson", "Je Me Donne A Qui Me Plait", "Bubble gum", "Contact", "Je Reviendrais Toujours Vers Toi", "L'Appareil A Sous", "La Madrague", "On Demenage", "Sidonie", "Tu Veux, Ou Tu Veux Pas?", "Le Soleil De Ma Vie" (the cover of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life") and the notorious "Je t'aime... moi non plus". Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release this duet and he complied with her wishes; the following year he re-recorded a version with British-born model and actress Jane Birkin which became a massive hit all over Europe.

RS link: Brigitte Bardot Photos

Jayne Mansfield - Buxom Bombshell

2009-07-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a mini bio of Jayne provided by wiki:

Jayne Mansfield (April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress working both on Broadway and in Hollywood. One of the leading blonde sex symbols of the 1950s,^[1] Mansfield was a Playboy Playmate of the Month, and appeared in the magazine several more times over the years. She won the Theatre World Award, Golden Globe and Golden Laurel. Mansfield starred in several popular Hollywood films that emphasized her platinum-blonde hair, hourglass figure and cleavage-revealing costumes.

Though Mansfield's career was short-lived, she had several box office successes. As the demand for blonde bombshells declined in the 1960s, Mansfield was relegated to low-budget melodramas and comedies, but remained a popular celebrity. In her later career she continued to attract large crowds in foreign countries, and in lucrative and successful nightclub tours. Mansfield died in an automobile accident at the age of 34.

Concerning Jayne in the media:

In April 1957, her bosom was the feature of a notorious publicity stunt intended to deflect attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in the Italian star's honor. Photographs of the encounter were published around the world. The most famous image showed Loren raising an eyebrow at the American actress who, sitting between Loren and her dinner companion, Clifton Webb, had leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline and exposing one nipple.^[14] A similar incident, resulting in the full exposure of both breasts, occurred during a film festival in West Berlin, when Mansfield was wearing a low-cut dress and her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, picked her up so she could bite a bunch of grapes hanging overhead at a party; the movement caused her breasts to erupt out of the dress. The photograph of that episode was a UPI sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word "censored" hiding the actress's exposed bosom. The world media was quick to condemn Mansfield's stunts, and one editorial columnist wrote, "We are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better. But we get angry when career-seeking women, shady ladies, and certain starlets and actresses ... use every opportunity to display their anatomy unasked."^[15] Mansfield's most celebrated physical attributes would fluctuate in size due to her pregnancies and breast feeding five children. Her smallest measurement was 40D (which she was throughout the 50s), and largest at 46DD, when measured by the press in 1967. According to Playboy, her measurement was 40D-21-36 and her height was 5'6". According to her autopsy report, she was 5'8".

Warning: some of the photos include nudity

RS Link: Jayne Mansfield 50+ photos

Anita Ekberg - Vintage Pictures

2009-07-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Few women have ever achieved the overwhelming sensuality that Anita had during the 1950s and 60s.

Here's a mini bio of this goddess:

Ekberg delighted gossip columnists with her social life. She was linked to many famous men, and was given the nickname "The Iceberg" because of her mysterious demeanor.^{[citation needed]}

The combination of a colourful private life and physique gave her appeal to gossip magazines such as Confidential and to the new type of men's magazine that proliferated in the 1950s. She soon became a major 1950s pin-up. In addition, Ekberg participated in publicity stunts. Famously, she admitted that an incident where her dress burst open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was pre-arranged with a photographer.

By the mid-50s, other studios offered Ekberg work. Paramount Pictures and Frank Tashlin cast her in Hollywood or Bust (1956) and Artists and Models (1955) both starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Both films used her as a foil for many of the director's sight gags.^[1] Ekberg also played an Amazonian extraterrestrial in 1953's Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.

Bob Hope joked that her parents had received the Nobel Prize for architecture as she was touring with him and William Holden to entertain U.S. troops in 1954. The tour led her to a contract with John Wayne's Batjac Productions. Wayne cast her in Blood Alley, a small role (1955), where Ekberg's features and appearance were Orientalized to play a Chinese woman, a role that earned her a Golden Globe award.

RKO gave Ekberg the female lead in Back from Eternity.

In 1956, Ekberg went to Rome to make War and Peace, directed by distinguished Hollywood veteran King Vidor and co-starring Audrey Hepburn.

Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her greatest role in La dolce vita (1960), in which she played the unattainable "dream woman" opposite Marcello Mastroianni; then Boccaccio '70 in 1960, a movie that also featured Sophia Loren. Fellini would call her back for two other films: I clowns (1972), and Intervista (1987), where she played herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni.

La Dolce Vita was a sensational success, and Anita Ekberg's uninhibited cavorting in Rome's Trevi Fountain remains one of the most celebrated images in film history.

Warning: Some photos contain nudity

Rapidshare file for over 80 pictures: Anita Ekberg - Vintage Pictures