A busy bee called Bertie buzzed furiously around all day—so much so that the other bees thought about reporting him to their union. "He’s flogging his wings to whiskers." they said. But Bertie cared not, neither did he cease, for he was inspired by the girl who came to the hive to see him at work. The girl was honey-blonde ANITA DALE of Earl’s Court, Kensington, and honey bees naturally buzz for honey blondes.
We sent one of our staff photographers out into Croydon and told him to bring back photographs of maxi-clad girls.
We don't think these dollies realise exactly how they look from behind in their ankle-length drapes, so we hope these shots will be a lesson to them.
Just by way of contrast our photographer also took photographs of mini-clad SUSAN DOUGLAS in the park. What the eye can see it can grieve about or delight in, and if anyone’s optics can't take in the object lesson of the contrast they must be all blurred and bloodshot.
Reaction of one maxi-clad office girl —
"Oh, that can’t be me—it makes me look like grandma, you rotter."
You remember that old gag—fellers never make passes at girls who wear glasses?
They swept that one under the carpet years ago.
You can’t wonder at it when you look at JANE MERCER. Jane, in or out of horn-rimmed specs, is ravishingly eye catching.
Some feller who saw her passing by in a mini was so dazzled he didn’t even notice her glasses. “I was looking the other way,” he said. Then there was the nice chap who helped her off the bus and got into such a tizzy over her blonde allure that he forgot to get off himself and went all the way up the Strand when he really wanted Waterloo Road.
Jane is a secretary, as you’ve no doubt guessed. You can see from her glasses just how efficient she is. Aside from that she has lovely legs and a bewitching figure measuring 37"-23"-36".
Croydon secretary’ with all the appeal every secretary should have is JUDY COE, swinging girl in a swinging scene.
That coal bucket is just a gag, of course. Judy doesn't think in terms of coal buckets and she thought this one was a converted Roman helmet and wanted to know which museum we'd nicked it from.
But she looks a dish in a sweater, don’t you think?
“It’s all wool,’’ she said, “and saves me having to light the fire. Do you remember where I put my hat?”
It was a good question but we had no idea how to answer it.
There comes a time in the life of the happy bachelor when he's willing to relinquish the wheel to a girl.
When Monty took off for a country inn with PATSY FRENCH, he realised he could only enjoy the view of the road. What he had in mind originally was a lunch of bread and cheese and pickles with Patsy, but halfway there he decided bread and cheese and pickles may be the staff of life but they don't represent absolute bliss.
Bliss absolute can be the Beatles or Tom Jones or Elvis Presley, or even a Chopin melody on a grand piano. To Monty it was a view of Patsy in the driving seat. So he stopped the car and gave her the wheel.
What a vision. What a driver.
It mattered not that she drove up hills in top gear, took corners on one wheel and parked the car so that he couldn't get out on his side. Patsy in the driving seat was absolute bliss and so were the pickles.
We’ll take two lumps. NICOLA TAYLOR makes a lovely cup of hot char, and that's not all. She also has lovely legs and in her mini-dress makes just about the prettiest picture around the house you would wish for.
Of course, if you’re about eighty you probably still conjure up pictures of Mistinguette when you think about legs. You're very welcome, but we'll stand by Nicola.
After spending quite a while seeing as much as she could see in America, blonde RUTH BENNET made tracks for home, and home is Britain. We don’t know exactly how Ruth looked before she went to the States, but she certainly looks a gorgeous doll now she’s back.
For those who want to know how she’s shaped up to the American way of life, Ruth’s current statistics are 37-23-36.
That's a nice occupation for a nice girl.
MARGARITA NOLAN works in a gown shop in a Worcestershire town, and if any customer wants to see just how attractively any of the wares can be worn, Margarita doesn't mind modelling them herself.
Lovely and trim she is for this. She's 35-23-36.
Looks delicious even when answering the phone.
There are a lot of nuts about who think nobody can be happy unless they're writing on walls or sleeping under railway arches. They're the ones who tell you that housewives are cabbages.
Well, we've featured scores of housewives and none of them look like that.
They're all so glamorous.
Here's our latest find, JENNY PIPER.
Jenny is a housewife from Farnborough, Hampshire, she's blonde, bewitching and bubbly.
She was a window dresser for a free-lance display group before she got married, and she worked mainly in the windows of Kensington and Oxford-street stores. It was warm work for Jenny but a treat for the passers-by. She looked a lot more vibrant than the dummies.
Now as a housewife she's a lovely cook and gorgeous to come home to.
During the war, there was an awful ding-dong going on in France, and Stanislaw Warsava was right in the thick of it, serving with a Free Polish unit. Still, there were far lovelier things to come. Off-duty behind the lines one day he met the most entrancing Polish girl who had escaped her suffering country and made her way through France.
They came to England, married and settled down in Carlisle. They had a lovely daughter later on. Here she is.
EVA WARSAVA, born of her happy Polish parents, can't help being addicted to Britain. She's eighteen now and lives in digs in Streatham in south-west London. She came to London to take up an office job but found it too monotonous. It was all biff-bang on a typewriter. The bell kept pinging.
Then she met a photographer. He said, "You'll do, you're a living doll." Eva thought he was trying to make impetuous headway, but he was only trying to tell her she was a natural as a photographic glamour girl. In the end Eva took his advice and became a model.
Wasn't it lucky her father-to-be met her mother-to-be in France? If he hadn't, Eva might never have happened. It makes one go all weak at the thought.
Pat Garland
I had a nice email from Susan Douglas’s eldest son this week, after his daughter found her grandmother’s profile page by accident. He has been kind enough to fill in a few gaps for me. Some details I will cover here, but I have updated her page to reflect others.
Susan (Pat) sadly passed away 22nd February 2010 when she was 73, I am now also able to correct her date of birth to April 1938. I am told, though, that she would have been delighted that we always thought her younger than she really was! Susan Douglas was not her real name of course, She was really Patricia Garland, which I think we all knew anyway (but she did prefer to be called Pat). She decided on the name Susan Douglas so she was harder to trace - with Susan coming from a friend’s daughter and Douglas coming from the actor Kirk Douglas, whose films she was fond of.
Susan was one of the most photographed ToCo models. She was born and lived reasonably close to the Croydon office and was obviously well in with the staff, as she and her family used to holiday in Cornwall at the editors (Staples) house. It would appear that when she wasn’t modelling she helped in the offices and advised other models on their make up and clothes, Susans oldest son used to go along to the Croydon office in the school holidays when his mum was working. It would also appear that Staples ran a sweatshirt printing business and we can see Susan modelling one of his shirts in Spick No 180, possibly leaning against his Jaguar.
One other thing that always intrigued me about Susan was that bangle that she frequently wore on her left arm above her elbow. The bangle was her Grandmother’s and was a lucky charm to her. Susan was always fond of jewellery and was always one for doing things her own way.
Luckily for us.
Model of advancing international repute is CHRISTINA HORN of West Germany, and if we haven't yet seen her modelling in London it can't be a pleasure that will be delayed much longer now.
Christina has a catchy look that goes just right with her jazzy stockings and we hope that when she does appear in London we'll have the additional pleasure of seeing her catchy look even catchier as she mounts a high bus from a low kerb.
Stylist tress chic is SUSAN McKAY, not only in her clothes but in her job. Susan works as assistant to a prominent Glasgow hair stylist, and having her put a kink in your hair if you’re a customer must be a joy.
Customers being of the fair sex only, we’re left without a kink—apart from the one the psychiatrist told us about—and we rather wish Susan would stop lying around on walls and beaches and join our barber’s shop.
Very few barber’s shops have lady assistants, and those that do don’t have any quite like Susan, with her gorgeous brown eyes and her photogenic legs.
When good old Joe turned up to take PINKY SANDS for a ride on the back of his bike, Pinky was conspicuous by her absence. Good old Joe having been very precise about the time he’d arrive. Pinky had gone fishing. She preferred that to riding on the back of his bike and listening to him talking about his bicycle pump. Pinky got into a little difficulty with her line and hook but it was all a lot more fun than good old Joe.
Looking pretty in the Berlin park is SYLVIA TERNES, and if the season is a cold one and the outfit an anti-rain affair, the style of the whole thing is just right.
