We don't have to tell you why American model Betty Brosmer became famous, right? She and her wasp waist were photographed for over three-hundred magazine covers, and she had to be hospitalized and resuscitated each time. Well, not really. Brosmer wore a corset for long periods, which eventually reshaped her waist to give her the hourglass that was popular during the 1950s. It was called “waist training,” which ranks as one of the funnier rebrandings of torture ever, right after “enhanced interrogation techniques.” It was thought to be harmless back then. Not so today, though many celebrities still do it. But assuming a woman did herself no harm, once she stopped wearing corsets her waist would return to its normal size in hours or days. The two photos here showing the eighteen-inch results of Brosmer's diligent training are from around 1955. 

This Japanese poster was made to promote the run of the West German sexploitation movie Der Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern, which translates to “curse of the black sisters,” but which for its English release was titled The Devil's Plaything, as well as Plaything of the Devil and Vampire Ecstasy. Last time we saw Swedish sex symbol Marie Forså she was using a giant zucchini for something other than nutrition. Here phallic items prove useful yet again. Forså and three other women are stranded in a castle by a storm. The workers in this gothic pile are secretly priestesses intent upon engineering the rebirth of their vampire mistress who was put to death 400 years ago.

The details don't really matter. Here's what you get: naked dancing girls, continual bongo drumming, dick shaped candles, and lots of softcore lezzie action, with occasional token guys mixed in for variety. It's of course tender young Forså who seems the most susceptible to the ancient vampiress. Can she escape with her soul intact? Only a viewing will answer that question for you. We won't recommend the movie but we'll say this much—it's ludicrous, but very sexy. Der Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern opened in West Germany in October 1973 and premiered in Japan today the same year.

If you've never seen one, this is what an AP wire photo looked like back in 1966. The text at the bottom gives newspaper editors the identity of the subject and some basic facts. No identity needed here—this is Ursula Andress, and the photo is the one widely used when newspapers reported that her husband John Derek was filing for divorce in Tijuana, Mexico. This made us smile because the basic idea here was to show that Derek was out of his mind. Perhaps, however he had already established a pattern of moving on to younger, equally beautiful women. He was first married to Pati Behrs, but divorced her when he met nineteen-year-old Andress. She was thirty when they divorced and he moved on to twenty-three-year-old Linda Evans. And Evans was thirty-two when Derek tossed her over for sixteen-year-old Mary Collins, who you know better as Bo Derek. Andress, Evans, and Collins could have been sisters, and in fact they looked quite a bit like John Derek too (see below). But in Bo he had found not just another doppleganger, but an ingénue willing to star in the poorly made sexually oriented films he liked to direct. These included Fantasies (when Bo was sixteen), the almost competent Bolero, Ghosts Can't Do It, and Tarzan, the Ape Man. Bo and John John Derek stayed together until John died, a span of twenty-two years, so it seems wife number four cured him of his habit of trading for younger models. Just an interesting Hollywood factoid to enliven your Monday.

The UPI photo above was shot today in 1959 and shows Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida hula hooping between takes on the set of United Artists' biblical epic Solomon and Sheba. La Lollo was apparently a big fan of the hula hoop—according to the info on the back of the photo she owned this one and brought it from her home in Rome. Interestingly, she was costumed almost exactly like this—in a glittery bra and skirt while showing a bare midriff—in 1950's Vita di cani, 1952's Les belles de nuit, and wore a circus performer's outfit of very similar style in 1956's Trapeze. Her most famous physical trait was her hair (lollo rosso lettuce is so named because it resembles the curly 'do she wore for much of her career), but it seems producers preferred her navel. Can't say we blame them.

This provocative shot features German adult actress Brigitte Maier from the Dutch magazine Chick, sometimes referred to as Chick Amsterdam. Back in October we featured a poster, which you can have a look at here, from Maier’s famous 1975 X-rated hit Sensations. This image was made the previous year.

We’re back on schedule with Goodtime Weekly and a page for today in 1963 featuring none other than Jayne Mansfield, who's making her third appearance for the calendar. After being lensed twice by Bernard Wagner, here and here, British photographer David Hurn gets a shot. We love the pose because it looks like she’s signaling a touchdown or a field goal—appropriate this first weekend of playoff football in the U.S. (which is something we can watch live thanks to the wonders of the internet). We doubt Hurn was thinking of sports when he suggested the pose. More likely he simply said, “Um, Jayne, I can’t see your breasts with the fabric bunched up like that. Can you raise your arms? Higher? Perfect.” The result was an image that’s quite famous, which is to say, it’s one of only three from the calendar that we’ve seen before. That doesn’t surprise us. Hurn is a significant photographer who shot everything from political events to the Beatles, and is still kicking around today. He also shot this amazing image of Jane Fonda for the film Barbarella. Okay, we're off. Enjoy the games, everyone.