Category Archives: Periodicals

Hollywood or Bust: Remembering June Wilkinson

14 Sunday Sep 2025

Posted by in Art and Photography, Film, Periodicals

≈ Comments Off on Hollywood or Bust: Remembering June Wilkinson

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

June Wilkinson, who has died aged 85, was a British-born showgirl who became a popular Playboy model and B-movie starlet after crossing the Atlantic in 1958. One of the most curvaceous blonde bombshells, June fought to prove herself as more than just another pin-up – and in an echo of Marilyn Monroe’s romance with Joe DiMaggio, she also married (and divorced) a famous athlete. During a lengthy, unconventional career, she reinvented herself as a stage diva, cable TV broadcaster, and fitness guru.
Continue reading →

Gone Ladies: Marilyn and Pauline Boty

13 Tuesday Feb 2024

Posted by in Art and Photography, Marilyn Monroe, Periodicals, Poetry

≈ Comments Off on Gone Ladies: Marilyn and Pauline Boty

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

At left, Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon, 1959; and at right, Pauline Boty by John Aston, 1962

Pauline Boty was an English pop artist who created three paintings of Marilyn before her death from cancer, aged 28, in 1966. Although neglected for many years, Boty’s work is now being rediscovered – and in March, one of her Marilyn portraits will go under the hammer at Christie’s, as Joe Dziemianowicz reports for Barron’s Magazine. Continue reading →

Sixty Years Later: Scandal ’63 Revisited

13 Monday Nov 2023

Posted by in Anniversaries, Art and Photography, Books, Fashion and Beauty, Film, History, Music, Periodicals, Poetry, Politics, Profumo Affair

≈ Comments Off on Sixty Years Later: Scandal ’63 Revisited

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“In Britain at the start of the 1960s, Victorian values are still mainstream. There is a rich ruling class who are better than everybody else, women are mostly thought of as the property of the men around them and if you are Black, discrimination, IS the culture. I believe the Profumo scandal shone a light on all of that poison and was another step on the road that we are still very much on, to a more equal society. So, I think in some ways the Profumo scandal was a good thing. But for my mother, I am sure she would say, ‘What a price I had to pay!’”– Seymour Platt, ‘My Mother, Christine Keeler’ Continue reading →

Donald Zec: Marilyn’s Man at ‘The Mirror’

09 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by in Film, Marilyn Monroe, Periodicals

≈ Comments Off on Donald Zec: Marilyn’s Man at ‘The Mirror’

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Donald Zec, the British journalist who covered show-business for the Daily Mirror over four decades, has died at the grand old age of 102. Continue reading →

SOLEDAD #6: Lana’s ‘Violet,’ Nouchka Van Brakel, and More

08 Sunday Aug 2021

Posted by in Books, Lana Del Rey, Periodicals, Poetry

≈ Comments Off on SOLEDAD #6: Lana’s ‘Violet,’ Nouchka Van Brakel, and More

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Issue 6 of SOLEDAD Arts Journal – out now via Amazon for just £3.13 in the UK, or $3.78 across the pond – is also the 20th volume from Nostalgia Kinky Publications, including predecessor ART DECADES (and I’m proud to have appeared in all but five.) This issue is peppered with lyrics from French singer-songwriter Véronique Sanson.

The cover story is an exclusive interview with Dutch filmmaker Nouchka Van Brakel, in conjunction with a new triple-boxset on Blu-Ray from Cult Epics. Editor Jeremy Richey has also spoken with film historian Samm Deigan about his new book, The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema. Marcelline Block interviews author Sam Nortey Jr., who shares an extract from his novel, Thumbwars. Marcelline also contributes a scrapbook history of feminist artist and scholar, Jenny H. Batlay. There’s poetry from Marcelline and Ruth LaSure, and Emily Clare Bryant meets Sunmates, a synth-pop band from Lexington, Kentucky.

And finally, I’ve written a 24-page essay on Lana Del Rey’s debut poetry book/spoken-word album, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. I hope you’ll enjoy delving into this fascinating project as much as I did.