delguy

[delguy]

Another picture of Annette Kellerman in the Fox Film production still photograph from the lost silent film “Queen of the Sea” (1918) featuring Annette and co-star seaside.

I wrote earlier about Kellerman, an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, and writer, Kellerman was one of the first women to wear a one-piece bathing costume, instead of the then-accepted pantaloons. It made swimming safer and more enjoyable for womern of all ages. She launched the first great swimming boom of the Twentieth Century as she inspired countless numbers of others to follow her example. She appeared in several movies, usually with aquatic themes, and as the star of the 1916 film “A Daughter of the Gods” was the first major actress to appear nude in a Hollywood production. A very good biography about Kellerman was recently published for young readers. For SOME reason, the book points out that Kellerman was a movie star but omits all relevant data about her wardrobe in those movies!

[delguy]

Annette Kellerman was a swimmer from Australia who developed the first practical swimsuit for women. Before Annette, many women drown because of the weight of the voluminous amount of clothes women were forced to wear at the beach. Other were swept out to sea and could not fight currents when their large suits acted as underwater sails in the tide. Her one piece suit opened ocen and pool swimming to millions of women around the world. That success, as well as her bubbly personality, and photogenic good looks led to her getting a contract with Hollywood. Here she is portraying Anitia in A Daughter of the Gods (1916) The film featured lots of shots of her swimming and surprisingly copious amounts of nudity! One of the first nude scenes in a mainstream film. Aside from a few frames, nearly all of them of Anette sans attire. A Daughter of the Gods is a lost film. What a shame!

[delguy]

Debra Paget in "The Ten Commandments" Cecil B. DeMille who put almost completely naked women in the Roman Coliseum in the days before the Hayes Code, sneaks as much sensuality as he can in the Hayes dominated stodgy 1950s. Debra's got nips! This is possible, of couse since the Egyptians were perverted pagans -- not God's chosen people.

[delguy]

Bettie Page hard at work as a fetish Model for Irving Klaw. bettie always claimed that she was not much of an actress, but she clearly sells herself short. She sells this image!

[delguy]

One I like to repost with some redularity. Imagine opening your Sunday comics section today and coming across this image! In this panel from Flash Gordon by Alexander Raymond, Dale Arden has been stripped down completely with only a token of modesty to appease the censors. S and M with overtones of lesbianism for the masses! Typical reading for depression era America. Seriously, try to envision this running next to Garfield! Flash Gordon, for some reason is remembered as staid or even puritanical when it was actually the hottest thing to ever appear in the funny papers. Raymond filled the strip with all sorts of sexualities and fetishes. Raymond was a highly educated in artistic symbolism. Reading his subtle and not not so subtle clues the reader realizes just how sexually active Flash and Dale were -- and not necessarily always with each other! Leaving Earth for Mongo resulted as well in a rejection of Earth morays and strictures.

[delguy]

Bettie Page -- gift wrapped just for you!

[delguy]

More of Cassandra Peterson / Elvira: Mistress of the Dark from the same photo shoot. Sunlight and redheads go together.

[delguy]

Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira / Mistress Of The Dark

[delguy]

June Palmer. In my imagination, this is a photo taken of her just after she has been zapped by a shrink ray. Tiny women are sort of a thing with me. "Tiny for your pleasure!" perhaps a slogan of the future.

June Palmer

[delguy]

Quen Desira has just met Flash and is already making a play for him. Alex Raymond clothes Dale demurely to create a contrast with the "let's see every inch" approach he takes with Desira. We see her bared torso, her legs, and her rump, giving Flash and all the readers a complete eyeful of the fetching redhead. Much of the "good girl art" of the golden age of comics was directly inspired by Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. Note that Raymond can get away with a lot, but female navels were a no-no. Desira's is carefully and strategically concealed. He could string Dale up and have her flogged with heavy lesbian and sadomasochistic overtones, but heaven forbid he show a belly button!

[delguy]

Something for the ladies and gents of a certain persuasion. Flash has his shirt off. Again! Flash and Queen Desira are on the run. This gives Alexander Raymond a reason to dole out the beefcake. Flash is well-muscled, a fact that Desira is well aware of. Check out the subtlety of the lower right-hand illustration. Torn fabric was often a sign in classic art for a torn hymen or sexual congress. Desira's arm on Flash's shoulder, flash grasping her forearm and the exposed upper arm with a dark triangle beneath it can only mean one thing. Off panel, Flash and Desira did the nasty! is it any wonder that virtually every golden age comics artist was an intense disciple of Alex Raymond? He packed more information into his panels than just about anyone at any time. Dale's torn sleeve in the final panel indicates the triangle that has just developed is in fact a physical one as well as an emotional one.

[delguy]

Bettie Page hard at work. Her job was making guys hard and she was exceptionally good at it!

[delguy]

Fetish wear for the masses! Ming, the scoundrel and perv, has forced Dale Arden to don this revealing little number. As is standard procedure for Alex Raymond, when Dale is captured, her fashions change. Usually, the subsequent attire is scantier than the previous clothing. It was a way for Raymond to embrace his love for the female form, of course, it also showed a purpose. Dale and Flash's fates are not their own. Both live in fear of and at the whim of Ming the Merciless. This little number is Ming's way of showing domination and control. He had Dale in his clutches? You can be damn sure he's going to put as much of the earth girl on display as newspaper censors are going to allow! It is heavily implied in the strip that Ming has seen Dale in the buff on a regular basis. It is implied in the first panel, for example, that Dale had to don this outfit in Ming's presence.

Alex Raymond was so skilled an artist that his rate of almost a fetish a panel went over the heads of most readers and the censors; demonstrating what a talented artist or writer can do in a SF or fantasy context.

[delguy]

This stunning artwork, Now you see her... by ellmo_draws is a wonderful portrayal of the Invisible Woman that Marvel never had the courage to give us. Who else has had this view? Reed Richards? Obviously. Namor? Quite likely. Doctor Doom? Absolutely! Sue has also conically gone skinny-dipping with T'challa, The Black Panther. Marvel maintains the fiction that despite the mutual nakedness of two of the hottest Marvel characters nobody saw anything!!? Seriously? My short story rectifies this gross oversight and bold faced lie.

What Happens In Wakanda - TinaTempest - Fantastic Four [Archive of Our Own]

[delguy]

Bettie Page as you have always envisioned her; slipping naked between the sheets smiling widely at you, eagerly awaiting you to join her!

[delguy]

Bettie Page in a behind the scenes candid.

[delguy]

Bettie Page seems a bit chilly. Let me wrap my arms around her.