American actress Christa Lang is known for her many collaborations with director and husband Samuel Fuller, including The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, Underworld U.S.A., and his underrated racial drama White Dog. She also appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up Doc? and  has already wrapped The Queen of Hollywood Blvd., to be released later this year. The above shot, showing her in front of a backdrop depicting Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s famous sculpture "La danse," which is located on the façade of the Opera Garnier in Paris, appeared in the Spanish magazine Triunfo in 1965

Folies de Paris et de Hollywood rarely identifies its cover models, which is a shame, as the front of this issue spécial published today in 1966 treats readers to a vision of a sleek and slick motorcycle rider wearing a red—what is it?—faux snakeskin made from vinyl, we’re guessing. While it probably isn’t great for safety, it does make her look a bit like a superhero. The image fits, because she has a superpower—the ability to inspire us to take to the road, for a day, anyway. Which means we’re headed out to enjoy the sun and warmth and, somewhere along the way we’re sure, a nice bottle of cold white wine. We suggest you do something similar.

Here are a few scans from the cover and interior of Folies de Paris et de Hollywood #174, which appeared in 1960. It’s a “numéro exceptionnel,” or special issue of the magazine, and is devoted secrets and spies. All that means is that the photo features are entitled things like “Paola Mystere,” and “Le Rendez-vous Secret.” You get the usual assortment of glamour models, including Sally Douglas, who we've featured before, and lots of showgirls. We bought twenty of these a while back but have been lazy about sharing them because, well, it’s really time intensive. We have to scan each page in two halves, which already amounts to twice the normal work, then Photoshop the pieces together, which is a whole new realm of effort. But we’ll get more issues up soon. In the meantime you can our previous shares by clicking here. 

In Hollywood Boulevard Candice Rialson arrives in Tinseltown with dreams of stardom and is immediately conned into being the getaway driver for a robbery. As she screeches away from the bank with alarms wailing, she asks her partners in crime, “But where are the cameras?” That pretty much sets the tone of the film. She later becomes a stuntwoman and bumbles her way from one bizarre scenario to the next. There are some laughs here, but the same way you would laugh at a vaudeville routine, or a favorite uncle’s oft-repeated fishing story—i.e., you understand it’s supposed to be funny, and that alone is a bit amusing, but mostly it’s just tiring. Surprisingly, Rialson went on to appear in Moonshine County Express, Chatterbox (yes, it’s about a talking vagina), and other exercises in ’70s schlock. That’s a testament to Rialson's talent, or sheer luck, or both, because Hollywood Boulevard would have killed most actress’s careers. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1976.

During the last few months we shared three Technicolor lithographs with glassine overlays of clothing that could be peeled back to reveal a nude model, and mentioned we thought the technique originated in France with Paris-Hollywood, a cover of which you see above. The magazine began publishing déshabillable—i.e. undressable—pin-ups in 1950, whereas the American undressables we’ve found date from no earlier than 1953. Though Statesiders may have been latecomers to the party, once they got the technique down they churned overlay pin-ups out by the hundreds. You can see three here, here, and here, and we’ll share more later.

The artist responsible for painting the centerfold in this issue of Paris-Hollywood was Roger Brard, and he was the brush for most of those the magazine featured, but at least one other artist was involved too. Elsewhere in the issue you get showgirls, showgirls, and more showgirls, including a three page spread on la vagabonde Cirque Z dancer and world traveler Katrina, a Venice carnival-inspired set involving a model wearing a lace mask (she also gets the back cover), and a weird photo essay with knives and six-shooters. All of this is from 1952. We have twenty scans below, and you can see many more issues of Paris-Hollywood by clicking its keywords at the bottom of this post.

Elke Sommer speeds through Hollywood during the late hours in this promotional photo from a 1963 issue of the French magazine Stop. She was famous at this point, having appeared in films in Europe, but she wasn’t yet the global icon she would become. In less than a year the hit comedy A Shot in the Dark would make her one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Los Angeles has always been a place where gaudy signage and programmatic architecture reigns, so when a real estate company decided in 1923 to erect a giant Hollywoodland sign on Mount Lee to publicize a chic housing development in Beachwood Canyon people hardly blinked an eye. In 1944, the development’s owners deeded the sign to the city, which by then had begun to symbolize the motion picture industry. In 1949 a storm blew down the H, and with the sign now reading “ollywoodland” debate took place about whether to demolish the rest. But the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ponied up $5,000, contracted the Department of Parks and Recreation to repair the H and, while they were at it, take down the L-A-N-D, thus matching the landmark to the name of the city it promoted, resulting in the sign’s current, world famous form. Above and below you see a collection of photos made from the time of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s makeover and before. The sign is very small in some of the shots, but it’s there.

Above and below, scans from the French show-biz and showgirl magazine Paris-Hollywood, issue 26, from 1948. The front cover features Marguerite Chapman, the rear Arlene Dahl, and in between you get Cyd Charisse, Patricia Roc, Martha Vickers, Alexis Smith, Anne Jeffreys, Luce Feyrer, Edwige Feuillère, Marlene Dietrich, and other luminaries. That's quite a collection of celebs. In upcoming years the magazine would spend more time on cabaret dancers, but its early issues were all about international stars. We picked up a few of these in Paris a while back and we’ll get to some detailed scans of those soon. In the meantime, you can see more from Paris-Hollywood here, here, and here.

This Japanese poster promotes a double feature of the English language productions West End Jungle and World of Flesh. Both are fake documentaries, the first set in London’s Soho district, the second in Hollywood. They take viewers on a trip through the underworld of burlesque shows, prostitution, clip joints, orgiastic private parties, and general illegal or barely legal tomfoolery, with stentorian voiceover and an air of dire warning. But only World of Flesh has Baby Bubbles, and this is an important fact. Bubbles, aka Corky Dunbar, aka Elaine Jones, can’t possibly be done justice by a photo, but if one can come close it’s the shot below showing her in the midst of her trademark gag—spinning her tasseled breasts in opposite directions.

Bubbles danced before we were born, but World of Flesh has made us fans. Even our girlfriends loved her (although we must admit, they’d never seen the boob spinning trick before and it made them burst into hysterical laughter, which means maybe they loved the absurdity of the act more than its artistic merits). Anyway, Bubbles appears for an amazing three or four minutes early in World of Flesh, aka Hollywood’s World of Flesh, and she is a must for fans of mid-century burlesque. But if time is too precious to locate the movie, most of her segment is available on YouTube right here. And now we’ll stop, because after seeing her, you won’t care what we have to say.

This shot featuring Canadian actress Barbara Kent nicely captures the spirit of Halloween. Kent was born Barbara Cloutman, and began her rise to stardom by winning the 1925 Miss Hollywood Beauty Pageant. Her first parts were in Prowlers of the Night and Flesh and the Devil, but her later roles were usually comedic in nature and were her most popular films. In all, she appeared in thirty-six productions, which sounds impressive until you wonder how well she might have done had this black cat never crossed her path.