Don't we all love looking at nostalgic pictures of old superstars?
Well, I most certainly do! But what do we actually know about them?
I will tell you the stories behind these faces on my blog in this article as well as in some of my future articles named "1960s Superstars".
Today's entry will be all about Twiggy!
Ah, Twiggy!
You may have recognized her in the top banner of my page. Twiggy was one of the best known models of the 1960s and her appearance has simply become iconic for this decade. Her androgynous looks, thin posture (which is the reason she was called Twiggy) and large eyes were some of her famous trade marks and her haircut is still copied by girls all over the world and although fashion has changed, she is still a fashion icon to many.
Okay, we all know that. But what about her personal life?
Twiggy, was born as Lesley Hornby on September 19, 1949. Her father, a carpenter and mother, who worked for a printing firm lived in London. Twiggy was their third daughter; her two sisters are 15 and 7 years older.
In 1966, 16 years old Leslie bunked off school for a day to be one of the models whom the popular hairdresser Leonard tried his new short haircut on and her pictures decorated the House Of Leonard soon afterwards. Once one of Daily Express' fashion journalists, Deidre McSharry entered the salon, she was impressed by Twiggy's pictures and wanted to meet her. McSharry decided to feature her in one of articles and called her The Face of 66. Twiggy's career had started.
Twiggy in 1967.
But what happened next?
Although she was only 5"6 (168 cms) tall, Twiggy was enormously popular as a model. She appeared on the covers of many leading fashion magazines (she did 13 Vogue photoshoots within the first year of her career) and even launched her own clothing line, Twiggy Dresses, in 1967.
From 1967 onwards, Twiggy become an international sensation; the New Yorker even devoted almost 100 pages to her when she arrived in New York that year.
Twiggy however, did not know why she was so hyped all of a sudden. "I hated what I looked like," she said once, "so I thought everyone had gone stark raving mad." She was not the only one whose opinion was negative. A fashion correspondent of the London Daily Mail wrote: "Twiggy came along at a time when teen-age spending power was never greater. With that underdeveloped, boyish figure, she is an idol to the 14- and 15-year-old kids. She makes virtue of all the terrible things of gawky, miserable, adolescence."
President of the Leeds women's shop, Mark Cohen, was even more negative and said: "Her legs remind me of two painted worms."
She was quite successful as model, wasn't she?
Yes, she definitely was. However, she retired as a model in 1970, claming "You can't be a clothes hanger for your entire life!"
Throughout the seventies, she concentrated on her singing and acting career in stead. Her singing career is still what occupies her and she has been an actress until the late 1990s. She's still in the spotlights and has even been a judge in America's Next Top Model for four seasons. And although she officially quit modelling in 1970, she has done some modelling in her later life too and has appeared in several modern campaigns.
I bought Panter approximately one year and half ago. It was love at first sight. I saw him in a store in a German theme park and couldn't keep my eyes off him. When I saw that he wasn't even expensive, I bought him. Yes, I'm such a cheapskate. Anyway, I carried him around in a plastic sack the whole day, but I made sure he could see everything that happened by keeping his head outside of the sack. He is rather tall, so if he stood up in the sack, there was no problem for him at all. I named him "Panter", which is the Dutch word for "Panther". I admit I'm great when it comes to thinking of names. As a child I loved the Pink Panther and after having bought Panther, this obsession returned immediately. Ever since, I've been collecting all kind of Panther parafernalia. I even have a Panther yoga set.
Panter practising his yoga together with the small bendable pink panther that came along with the yoga set.
My sister absolutely dislikes the Pink Panther cartoons, which I cannot understand. I believe they are all time classic, just like Donald Duck or Tom and Jerry. The Pink Panther is younger than Donald or Tom and Jerry, though. He first appeared in 1963, in the opening and closing credit sequences of Blake Edwards' Pink Panther movies, the ones about the clumsy Inspector Clouseau. The actual Pink Panther was in fact a diamond, but the cartoon gained popularity. I didn't even know these movies existed, until a few years ago and used to believe the Pink Panther was just the cartoon. But ever since I have seen a couple of Pink Panther movies, I love those too. My alltime favourite comedy actor, Peter Sellers is incredibly funny as inspector Clouseau and I can't keep myself from laughing when I watch one of these films. I already have the cartoon DVD box, but I still want the movie box too. (Feel free to buy me this box.)
Back in the 1960s, pink panthers were still allowed to smoke cigarettes.
It was in 1964, the Pink Panther became a star on his own, in the cartoon The Pink Phink. He appeared to be a talented actor and his first movie was an instant hit. It even won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in the same year. This film shows how the Little Man is trying to paint the walls of his house blue, but our pink friend thinks it would be a better idea to have them painted pink. The Little Man is alwas grumpy and that makes this cartoon film only funnier. Feel free to watch:
The Pink Panther was a rising star and his cartoons appeared until the 1980s. Unfortunately, they're not often broadcast anymore, but I'm glad they were still shown on television when I was little. Throughout these years, this famous panther always stayed dexterous and his fellow cartoon characters that appeared in his series too, were practically always annoyed by his behaviour, which we, as his fans enjoyed. Malicious pleasure is one of the best pleasures around, after all. Yes, the Pink Panther certainly is a legend. - No matter what my sister says.
Last winter, I finally read Vladimir Nabokov's master piece Lolita. Ever since I've heard of this book, I had been craving to read it. However, I didn't do that until I got the book from my mother in December. I've been absolutely fascinated by Nabokov's style of writing, it's so refined. Humbert Humbert, the main character is a terrible man, but that's exactly what differentiates this book from any other story I had read so far. Here's a small summary for those who are unfamiliar with the book: The European Humbert Humbert moves to America in the 1950s. He moves in with the widow Charlotte and her 12 years old daughter Dolores "Lolita" Haze and falls immediately in love with the latter. Unable to show his love to her, he decides to marry her mother in order to be close to his Lolita. When Charlotte dies, Humbert takes his chance and starts touring the States with Dolores and is absolutely obsessed with her. However, it gets harder and harder to keep her under control.
Vladimir Nabokov
Back in 1955, when this book appeared, it was a huge scandal. The prudish society was in shock: how could a book like this be published? Paedophilia was not a topic that should be talked about and captivating it on paper was even worse. It was even banned in France, the U.K., Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa, because of it's sexual content. Nabokov was not at all impressed by all the critisism. He translated his book to Russian - his native language and also wrote the screenplay for the movie (1962). This movie isn't as controversial as the book was. It lacks the sexual tension between Humbert and Lolita. Probably because it still was a huge taboo and simply couldn't be shown on screen. This typical black and white movie, including all clichés - such as dramatical music and passionate embraces - is actually rather entertaining.
Although this movie is two hours and twenty seven minutes long, you rush through the story. I'm not certain if anyone who doesn't know the book will be able to understand everything. A lot of details and parts of the original story were left out and only the most important details are shown. This is, of course, understandable: 2 hours and a half is long and by expanding that, it would be hard to keep the viewer interested. The actors are wonderful and have all done a very well job. Peter Sellers was my favourite in this movie. His role isn't very big, but he certainly stole the show and his way of speaking was very amusing. Peter Sellers was not the only one who added some wit to the movie. There were some enjoyable parts throughout the movie too. My favourite scene was the scene in which Humbert and one of the employees of the hotel where Lolita and Humbert would spend the night tried to unfold a camp bed. This doesn't work out as well as they were hoping for and they don't want to wake up Lolita. After a lot of effort, the bed is finally steady, but when Humbert wants to sleep on it, the bed crashes and Humbert has to sleep on a crashed camp bed, which is practically the same as on a mattress on the floor.
Sue Lyon as Lolita and James Mason as Humbert
This movie isn't the only filmed version of Nabokov's book. In 1997, another film appeared starring Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert. I haven't watched this version yet, but I'll certainly do so in the future. Expect a review of that one too when I've seen it!
