 Don't change a thing for anybody. 
You know we're Stella Stevens fans here. Though we prefer the thirty-plus version of her, she first turned heads as a model in her early twenties, posing for a Playboy centerfold published in 1960, sessions from which the above shot originates. Stevens had begun acting before then, appearing in three films released in 1959. The next year she won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year, and eventually appeared in dozens of films and television shows. She was always a good actress, but never scored prestige roles. She did, however, grace some low budget classics, foremost among them the blaxploitation flicks Slaughter and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. Mixed in were cheeseball hits like The Poseidon Adventure and The Silencers, and an occasional good movie, such as The Ballad of Cable Hogue. All in all she's had an amazing career, on pause since 2010. But she'll never be on pause on this website. More Stella here and here.
Edit: We recieved an e-mail from Herman, a man who knows a thing or two about mid-century celebs and has helped us with corrections, and he wanted to remind us:
I certainly appreciate that image of Stella. Although I have been a fan of PB since the mid 50s as a boy, I don't believe I have seen this particular photo. Of course, I have to say I believe you left some important points out of your commentary about her. I believe you said once you are not a particular fan of Elvis Presley (that may have been someone else) but without the 1962 Girls, Girl, Girls appearance I don't think she would have caught on so quick. Don't forget that the reason PB recognized her in the first place was because of her appearance in Li'l Abner in 1959. I know you didn't set out to do a biography on her, but these were points I think are important in her chronology. Agreed, H, Stevens has a long and interesting story. We didn't set out to write a biography, as you said, but we may need to spend a little more time on her to give her proper due. She's not a subject we'll tire of easily.
 Unknown photo retoucher increases the value of Sterling. 
We've seen this photo of U.S. actress Jan Sterling numerous times, but never in color, which leads us to believe it's a colorization. If so, it's a nice, subtle job, as well as a clever choice of model, since Sterling was the subject of one of the iconic black and white photos of the mid-century period. Know the one we mean? Look here. Despite the fame of that particular shot, Sterling was never what you'd call a top tier star. But she appeared in many films, earned a Golden Globe Award as a supporting actress, and was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar. We'll be getting back to her film work a bit later.
 Her time in the sun lasted for decades. 
Loretta Young had a tremendous film career. Between 1917 and 1963 she appeared in more than one hundred movies, hosted her long-running television show The Loretta Young Show, won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Farmer's Daughter, garnered another nomination for Come to the Stable, won two Golden Globes, and took home three Emmys. Considering her extensive credits it's amazing she could spare the time to go to the beach at all. Several sources say this photo was shot in 1931. That looks about right. She would have been eighteen then, yet amazingly already had nearly thirty screen appearances behind her. She was in a class of her own.
 She had every reason to smile. 
This photo shows U.S. star Kim Novak and it appeared in the men's magazine Escapade in April 1957 in a feature titled “Love Goddess: 1957.” The idea was simply that Novak was the biggest new sex symbol of the year, and the spread featured a half dozen shots. The one above is the best of the bunch, in our opinion. Since Novak had become spectacularly famous in 1956, had won a Golden Globe in 1955, and had begun scoring important co-starring roles in 1954, and because we can assume her studio Columbia Pictures wouldn't have wanted her to be associated with a cheesecake magazine, we can safely guess the Escapade photos predate her 1954 Columbia contract. They probably came from some obscure photographer who suddenly realized he had valuable commodities in his archives. Escapade doesn't give a date, but we'd say Novak looks about twenty. In Hollywood, stardom means old photos will always come out unless preemptively purchased by the star themself. The same thing happened to Marilyn Monroe when she got famous, except her photos were early nudes. Novak's were early smiles.
 Best ever reason to brave crosstown traffic. 
Sultry Puerto Rico born actress Rita Moreno, who many remember from her role as Anita in the 1961 Hollywood adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story, is one of the few performers to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards—i.e. the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy, and the Tony. She's also won a Golden Globe, been awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a National Medal of the Arts, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and been bestowed the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. There are even more awards, too numerous to list, and on top of all of them, she was also awarded some awesome genes, because not only is she very beautiful in the top photo from around 1960, but she still looks good today at age eighty-five.
 What happened? How did I get here? Just seconds ago I was in the year 1958. 
This image shows Finnish-born Taina Elg, dancer, actress, and multiple Golden Globe winner, who has been a significant presence on telelvsion for many years and whose most noted movie role probably was in the thriller The 39 Steps. This shot was made in 1958.
 The boob that refused to die. 
The FCC today appealed its loss in the indecency suit against singer Janet Jackson by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. During halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl, singer Justin Timberlake deliberately removed part of Jackson’s costume and exposed a pastie-covered breast for approximately one second before a worldwide television audience—including millions of children who we are to believe now suffer from recurring chocolate boob nightmares.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the case against Jackson in July (strangely, Timberlake was never sued), but the politically conservative FCC considers the matter of a female breast so weighty that two previous losses leave it undeterred in its desire to impose a six-figure fine on the singer and CBS Television. No word yet on whether the Supreme Court, also politically conservative, will hear the case.
The FCC has appeals pending as well in indecency cases against Cher for uttering “fuck” during the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, and against Nicole Richie, who doubled down the following year at the same awards show by blurting “fuck” and “shit”. U2 lead singer Bono also said “fuck” on American television in 2003, during a Golden Globes Awards broadcast (strangely, he was never sued). As for Pulp Intl., we’re safe for the moment—we think.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1955—Rosa Parks Sparks Bus Boycott
In the U.S., in Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott resulted in a crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system, because the city's African-American population were the bulk of the system's ridership. 1936—Crystal Palace Gutted by Fire
In London, the landmark structure Crystal Palace, a 900,000 square foot glass and steel exhibition hall erected in 1851, is destroyed by fire. The Palace had been moved once and fallen into disrepair, and at the time of the fire was not in use. Two water towers survived the blaze, but these were later demolished, leaving no remnants of the original structure. 1963—Warren Commission Formed
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However the long report that is finally issued does little to settle questions about the assassination, and today surveys show that only a small minority of Americans agree with the Commission's conclusions. |
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