Hollywood or Bust: Remembering June Wilkinson

14 Sunday Sep 2025

Posted by marina72 in Art and Photography, Film, Periodicals

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Blonde Bombshell, Eastbourne, Elvis Presley, Francis Ford Coppola, John Cassavetes, June Wilkinson, Mamie Van Doren, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, Russ Meyer, Seven Arts Productions, Sex Symbols, Sexploitation

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.
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2023: A Year in Music

28 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by marina72 in Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Updates

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A Certain Ratio, A Year in Music, A&W, Alma Mater, Avalanche of Love, Bleachers, Burt Bacharach, Candy Necklace, Celebration Tour, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Elvis Presley, God Games, Holly MacVe, Hollywood Bowl, Ireland, John Denver, Jon Batiste, LA Hex, Lana Del Rey, Life Lesson, Lost at Sea, Madonna, Mitski, My Love Mine All Mine, Nothing Really Matters, People Say, Rob Grant, Samo, Say Yes to Heaven, Shane McGowan, Sinead O’Connor, Steve Mason, Suburban House, The Kills, The Pogues, Tina Turner, W.I.T.C.H.

Lana Del Rey’s ‘diarist era’ has surely reached its apogee with Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard. Sprawling, eccentric, and soul-baring, it has more in common with her poetry than previous albums. In a female-dominated race, her five Grammy nominations include the supremely dark A&W, hailed by many as song of the year; while the jazz-inflected Candy Necklace has already nabbed two MTV awards. Continue reading →

Stella Stevens: An Adventurous Blonde

19 Sunday Feb 2023

Posted by marina72 in Film, Marilyn Monroe, Television, Theatre

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Bus Stop, Dean Martin, Eli Wallach, Elvis Presley, Golden Globes, Jean Harlow, Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Peter Bogdanovich, Playboy, Sex Symbols, Stella Stevens, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Blue Angel, The Nutty Professor, The Poseidon Adventure

Actress Stella Stevens died in Los Angeles on Friday, February 17th, 2023, aged 84. Continue reading →

Tropico

17 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by marina72 in Film, Lana Del Rey, Music

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Allen Ginsberg, Anthony Mandler, Bel Air, Body Electric, Charles F. Haanel, Elvis Presley, Gods and Monsters, Jesus Christ, John Wayne, Lana Del Rey, Los Angeles, Marilyn Monroe, New Thought, Paradise, Tropico, Walt Whitman

“I prefer to bask in the legend of people I’ve only heard about,” Lana Del Rey writes in a memo given out at the premiere of her short film, Tropico, in December 2013. “To me – they are as real as the people sitting in this theater.” Continue reading →

Rediscovering Elvis

23 Saturday Feb 2008

Posted by marina72 in Books, Music

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Elaine Dundy, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley is the grandaddy of all pop icons. His image is everywhere – no entertainer besides Marilyn Monroe has been so endlessly marketed and impersonated. Thirty years after his death, sightings of The King are still reported in tabloids across the globe. Continue reading →

Tara Hanks

~ Author of 'The Mmm Girl' and 'Wicked Baby'

Tag Archives: Elvis Presley

Hollywood or Bust: Remembering June Wilkinson

2023: A Year in Music

Stella Stevens: An Adventurous Blonde

Tropico

Rediscovering Elvis