Above: another promo image of June Havoc from 1947’s Intrigue. This one might be even nicer than the last one we shared. What we need to do now is watch the film. We’re working on that.
She's trouble right from square one.
Above is a nice photo of Canadian actress June Havoc made for her 1947 drama Intrigue. We were intrigued by her name, an obvious pseudonym, but it turns out it wasn’t far off from her real name—Hovick. She was born Ellen Evangeline Hovick. In our opinion there’s a missed opportunity there. Her stage name should have been Helen Havoc. Or even Hellen Havoc. You can see a couple more shots of her here and here. And while you’re doing that we’ll be playing Scrabble. Don’t know why, but we’re suddenly in the mood for a game or two.
Update: We received an e-mail from Herman, who helps us with celebrity and model identifications: “Please tell me you know that June Havoc is Gypsy Rose Lee’s sister. You’ve posted information about her without mentioning so, and it made me wonder.”
Wonder no longer. We had no idea. Or if we did, we forgot. We also forgot to get back to Gypsy’s second crime novel, something we said more than a year ago we’d do. So your message has killed two birds with one stone. Thanks, as always.
Don't let her name fool you—she's trouble all year round.
Above, a very nice promo photo of Vancouver born actress June Havoc from her 1949 drama The Story of Molly X. Also among her long list of films were Gentleman’s Agreement, Once a Thief, Lady Possessed, and The Iron Curtain. Though her real name obviously wasn’t Havoc, it was close—she was originally Ellen June Hovick. Molly X looks interesting, so we’ll see if we can track that down and report back.
Attack of the 150-foot woman.
When Michael Todd’s famed musical Mexican Hayride opened in New York City he decided to have the program art, which had been painted by the famed Peruvian arist Alberto Vargas, aka Varga, reproduced at giant scale on the billboard atop the Winter Garden Theater where the show was being staged. This photo shows Varga’s 
giant pin-up almost completed.
In person the matador-like figure, which is modeled after but isn’t quite a portrait of star June Havoc, was probably garbed in bright red with gold brocade, matching the colors of the program art. The reverse of the photo says: A gargantuan Varga girl, 157 feet wide and 30 feet high, has been completed atop the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in New York. Sketches for the illustration were made by artist Varga in Chicago.
Of course, the horizontal image doesn’t look very impressive at a mere 433 pixels in width, so through the magic of Photoshop and for no other reason than we wanted to see what it looked like, we’ve reoriented the image below. There’s some egregious pixel stretching happening on the lower half of the figure, but all things considered, it looks pretty good. You can drag it to your desktop and rotate it for a better look. The photo was shot today in 1944. 
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HISTORY REWIND
The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1967—Ché Executed in Bolivia
A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed in Bolivia. In an attempt to make it appear as though he had been killed resisting Bolivian troops, the executioner shoots Guevara with a machine gun, wounding him nine times in the legs, arm, shoulder, throat, and chest.
1918—Sgt. York Becomes a Hero
During World War I, in the Argonne Forest in France, America Corporal Alvin C. York leads an attack on a German machine gun nest that kills 25 and captures 132. He is a corporal during the event, but is promoted to sergeant as a result. He also earns Medal of Honor from the U.S., the Croix de Guerre from the French Republic, and the Croce di Guerra from Italy and Montenegro. Stateside, he is celebrated as a hero, and Hollywood even makes a movie entitled Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.
1956—Larsen Pitches Perfect Game
The New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series against hated rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is the only perfect game in World Series history, as well as the only no-hitter.
1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).
1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.
LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.
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Avon was one of the first publishers to experiment with racy paperback fiction.
Classic science fiction from James Grazier with uncredited cover art.
Hammond Innes volcano tale features Italian intrigue and Mitchell Hooks cover art.
