Barbara Steele for Playmen: September 1967

The fourth issue of Playmen appeared in September 1967 and contained a pictorial on actress Barbara Steele. Born in Birkenhead she studied at the Chelsea Art School, as she planned to become a painter, and then the Sorbonne in Paris.

Although she had a few small parts in British films at the end of the fifties she made her name in Italian horror films of the sixties, principally Black Sunday (1960), although she also appeared in Hollywood's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and then a number of other cult Italian horror films,  She also had a part in Federico Fellini's 8½. (1963) and  Fellini wanted her to appear more in the film but she was contracted to another movie/

She carried on acting, sporadically, during the sixties and seventies,  becoming a cult star.  She took ten years off from acting but started to work as a producer, including working on two mini-series I remember watching, the Robert Mitchum WW2 dramas The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988); even winning an Emmy for the latter.  More production and acting roles followed, the last of which was in 2016.

Given Playmen had only just started showing nipples on its pages a month or so earlier, it was a bit of a leap to have Miss Steele flashing her fur in these shots. Presumably, the argument would have gone that she was, in fact, dressed.

In fact, many copies of this issue were seized by the police and Playmen didn’t risk any more pubic hair on its pages for nearly five years. Still, it beat both Playboy and Penthouse to the furry grail by some years.

Jill St John for Playmen: March 1968

March 1968's issue of Playmen featured a specially shot pictorial of Jill St John by 'Pierluigi' photographed in the home she shared with recent, third husband, the singer, Jack Jones.  She was still only 27 at the time and it would be another three years before her slightly annoying but visually impressive appearance in Diamonds are Forever (1971)

Born Jill Oppenheim, she started acting on radio at six and made her screen debut at nine.  She ws put under contract bu Universal at the age of sixteen.  Making her name in a string of comedies in the sixties, after a series of earlier 'pretty girl' type roles, she had been nominated for a Golden Globe for Come blow your horn (1963), appearing with Frank Sinatra,

St John's fourth marriage was to Robert Wagner and when they met he was starring in TV detective show Hart to Hart with Stefanie Powers, with whom St John had been in the same Ballet Company as a child, along with Natalie Wood, Wagner's late wife.

These are quite revealing shots for an American actress at the time but photographer Pierluigi was one of the top cinema stills photographer of the time and a friend of Frank Sinatra with whom St John had just appeared again. in Tony Rome (1967).   Pierluigi Praturlon (1924-1999), to give him his full name (which he never used professionally), after starting as a photo journalist (a shot he took of the reclusive Greta Garbo in Rome in 1947 made his name), began shooting on film sets in Rome in 1949 capturing the glory days of Italian cinema after World War 2.

By the period these pictures were taken, he was considered one of the best stills photographers in the world. It was a shot he took of Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain in 1958 that inspired Federico Fellini to recreate the scene in La Dolce Vita (1960).  He captured all the top stars from not only Italy but also Hollywood and Sofia Loren made him her personal photographer.

A year later, another Italian magazine, Kent, published some more shots from the shoot by Pierluigi and being a completist I felt compelled to include them here.

Here are a few more outtakes as well. What a very splendid young woman she was.  Pierluigi had a reputation for making his sitters feel at ease and catching them in a relaxed manner, He certainly caught St John looking very relaxed and informal in his characteristic reportage style.

Anna Gaël for Playmen, November 1967

Today's lady from Playmen is Hungarian actress Anna Gaël (born 1943). She had appeared in her first film in 1962 and made a number of, usually, low budget films in Europe until 1981. She also had several TV appearances, including an episode of The Persuaders in 1971. She appeared in one of my wargaming group at school's favourite WW2 films The Bridge at Remagen (1969), Her choice of role was not always of the highest and she appeared in the notorious, low-budget British SF spy sex 'comedy' Zeta One (1969) with Yutte (Lust for a Vampire (1971)) Stensgaarde, James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey, who must have really, really needed the money.

When Playmen first appeared in June 1967 fully uncovered bare breasts were not permissible but gradually, over the next few months, the magazine sneaked some in, despite regularly having the copies seized by the Italian authorities from newsstands (the government was closely backed by the Vatican who really disapproved).  Anna Gaël's pictorial was a real barrier breaker and she was topless in virtually every shot.  

In 1968 she became Viscountess Weymouth, having married English aristocrat Alexander Thynne and since 1992, when his father died, her proper title has been The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Bath. A case of very successful social climbing indeed!

Marika Green for Playmen, December 1967

Much to my surprise my recent Wargames Ladies from Italian magazine Playmen have been very popular so I will feature a few more over the next month or so as my particular friend Angela enjoys their retro sixties style.

So here, from Playmen's December 1967 issue, photographed by Giancarlo Botti, we have actress Marika Green, Born in Stockholm in 1943 her father was Swedish and her mother French. 

Her first film role was at the age of 16 in Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959). She worked consistently in, mainly French, films and TV from then until the early nineties but her best known role was as one of the three leads in the notorious Emmanuelle (1974).

Oh, and she is Eva Green's aunt!

Magda Konopka for Playmen: June1967

More wargames ladies cry, well, one or two people and both ladies themselves at that. So here from Italian men's magazine Playmen, is magnificent Polish actress Magda Knopoka, who is best known for being one of the trio of cavegirls in Hammer's When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), 

These pictures, photographed by Ermete Marzoni, come from three years before that, when Konopka was twenty four, from Playmen's very first issue in June 1967. 

Playmen was launched (by a woman) in Italy at a time when Playboy was banned and became Italy's first real men's magazine. It particularly featured the many actresses in Italian sex comedies and horror films at the time and today provides a wonderful archive of these ladies in their prime.

Giovanna Ralli for Playboy Italia 1978

Here is Giovannia Ralli, lead actress of the Blake Edwards film What did you do in the war, Daddy? (1966).  She appeared in Playboy Italia's February 1976 issue at the age of 41.  Italian men's magazines were not so youth fixated as ones in the UK and America and often featured ladies in their thirties and forties.

Splendida!