I think I have often remarked on how much I was smitten by the sexy women of Chile when last I visited there. And it’s a good thing I didn’t see Leonor Varela in Santiago, because… well, because.
And in classic black & white sultriness:
Exquisite.
Last weekend we looked at Bunny Yeager as a model. Today we’ll look at Bunny the photographer — and most notably at her most famous model, Bettie Page.
As Richard Corliss once described, Bettie had been the nadir of sexual exploitation:
In New York City, Page “starred” in tatty, furtive 8mm bondage loops (Dominant Betty Dances With Whip, Hobbled in Kid Leather Harness) that her Svengali, Irving Klaw, sold in plain brown wrappers at his Movie Star News shop. But in Miami, under Yeager’s congenial tutelage, Page bloomed as the girl next door with the bedroom shades up, or the beach bombshell with the seraphic grin. Between them, the Blond Bunny and brunette Bettie made nudity look both sexy and healthy.
And how:
Sensational.
There are millions of Bettie Page pics all over the Internet. But the good Bettie pics are mostly those taken by Bunny Yeager.
She started off as a model herself, and then became one of the most well-known photographers of them all: Bunny Yeager had it all.
She didn’t even have to be blonde…
But still:
Best. Selfies. Ever.
Let’s start with England’s James II:
Arabella Churchill
…and
Dorothy Sedley
…then on to France’s Napoleon Bonaparte:
Maria Walewska
…and his nephew, Napoleon III:
Harriet Howard
Rachel Félix
Virginie Castiglione
Back across the Channel, we have England’s William IV:
Dorothea Jordan
And finally, across the Atlantic, the mistress of yet another William:
Monica Lewinsky
Although she was made famous to American audiences in Dynasty, Stephanie Beacham had already had quite a career beforehand. But who cares? Today, she’s in her sizzling seventies, and looks as good as she always did. Proof? you say? In more-or-less chronological order, then:
As we all remember her in Dynasty — with the big hair:
And nowadays…
(click to embiggen — and note the freckled cleavage!!!!)
Beautiful back then, stunning now.
I know I’ve featured Anita Ekberg on these pages many times before, as well as giving her a little solo outing; but can one ever have too much Ekberg, I ask? I think not. So here are a few I haven’t posted before:
Stunning? I report, you decide.