A FOLIES JOLLY CHRISTMAS

Now dancers, now prancers, now vixens...


Folies de Paris et de Hollywood is one of our favorite vintage magazines, and though we have a tall stack of them, we don’t share them nearly as often as we should. Today you’re seeing the front and rear cover plus assorted interior bits from issue #506, which appeared in 1972. You get the usual burlesque dancers, prancers, and vixens, along with a centerfold featuring Margaret Nolan not looking quite her normal self (but it’s her). See more from Folies de Paris et de Hollywood by clicking its keywords just below. 

Whatever the occasion is she's perfectly suited for it.


We actually know exactly what the occasion is. This amazing photo of British actress and model Margaret Nolan, aka Vicky Kennedy, shows her at the 1968 British Film Awards wearing what has to be one of the coolest outfits of all time. Nolan came to mainstream attention in the opening credits for the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, and made a quick appearance as Bond’s masseuse, but she’s also much beloved as a prolific nude model and star of occasional nudie loops. We’ve featured her photos in two issues of Folies de Paris et de Hollywood, which you can see here and here. Those represent a tiny fraction of her output, but we’ll circle back to that later. As an actress she appeared in A Hard Day’s Night and more than a dozen other films, but worked mainly on television, including on such shows as Mystery and Imagination, The Newcomers, and Take a Pair of Private Eyes. This shot was originally black and white, but has been colorized by an unknown. It’s very nice work. 

Folies de Paris et de Hollywood kept readers guessing with their models but this one we know.


This issue of Folies de Paris et de Hollywood is from 1963 and its theme is “les peches capiteaux,” or the seven deadly sins. You see them listed at bottom left on the cover, if you ever wanted to learn them in French. While the theme is interesting, we’re sharing this cover for one reason—Sophia Loren. Well, we think it’s her. Folies never credited its cover models, so we can’t be sure. The editors used her image on at least three other covers, and those instances are identifiably Loren because the shots are standard portraits, leaving no doubt. But this one has an oblique angle, which is enough by itself to make positive ID more difficult. And the model is wearing a see-through blouse. For casual fans of Loren that may seem out of character, but it isn’t. Her early nude scene in Era lui… sì! sì! is well known today. We’ve discussed it a couple of times. And of course who can forget her wet-shirt appearance in Boy on a Dolphin. The point is Loren was not shy, so the see-through lingerie here is not a sign the cover model isn’t her. We’re going to say this is indeed Loren until someone convinces us otherwise. Inside the magazine identities are a bit clearer. You get various Parisian showgirls, as well Vicki Kennedy, aka Margaret Nolan, who we’re beginning to think may have been the most photographed glamour model of the 1960s, centerfold Terry Higgins (in a crib, disturbingly), and June Palmer as “la paresse,” or sloth—though not so slothful she wasn’t able to pose for three pages of photos, then don a blonde wig and appear on the rear cover too. That’s more than we did all last week. Scans below.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.

1968—Massacre in Mexico

Ten days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, a peaceful student demonstration ends in the Tlatelolco Massacre. 200 to 300 students are gunned down, and to this day there is no consensus about how or why the shooting began.

Classic science fiction from James Grazier with uncredited cover art.
Hammond Innes volcano tale features Italian intrigue and Mitchell Hooks cover art.

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