Here are two interesting pictures of our nameless girl from Brighton. Both pictures are oddly posed, with her messing about in the middle of the dining room table. These two were difficult to clean up due to their poor exposure, but worthy of showing. I like them; and look like a lot of fun was to be had.
Salesgirl JOAN YOUNG of Droitwich works in a gown shop and sells the most exclusive and expensive models to utterly rich customers. Joan is smart, elegant and deliciously tailored herself, but she's also old-fashioned. She simply won't be divorced from what she considers the irresistible look of stockings, even if she's thought positively dated.
She's not positively dated. She's delicious. And we agree. Stockings still have an irresistible look and an undying appeal. So there. Anyone for an anti-tights protest march? Starting from Glasgow and going all the way to Westminster? Well, get yourselves organised, then.
Beautiful Britons No 234 - May 1975
Matrons sometimes wear full slips these days. Girls either wear brief waist slips or simply wear their T-shirts extra-long. PAT GARLAND still has a full flowered slip which she likes to sport when dressed in a long evening gown and there's going to be a draught around.
Pat put it out to air in the sun the other day. As a nice gesture in the face of our camera, she put herself out with it. Wasn't that charming?
Beautiful Britons No 234 - May 1975
Here are two more nice shots of Maureen in her black stockings. I particularly like the first one, where she's re-clipping her stockings, unaware of the camera. In the 1960s and 70s, this was not such an uncommon sight on a day-to-day basis. Boys today don’t really know what they're missing. Always a treat.
Scots secretary JANE PAUL is also a model mechanic. Not that she knows very much about internal combustion as far as cars are concerned, but she does model in her spare time, and they often use her to advertise the mechanical perfection of the latest thing on four wheels.
They put her in ducky overalls next to the open bonnet.
We didn't think you'd go much on any overalls, however ducky, so here she is in a rather feminine skirt and a nice pair of stocking tops.
Beautiful Britons No 234 - May 1975
Nice picture of Nicola Taylor dressed in an interesting selection of mismatched clothes: white boots, white lacy stockings, a shiny metallic-looking bra, and a fur-collared anorak. It's good for me, though. Scanned from an original print.
I have recently put up for sale a small selection of prints on the Brazen site that originated from Maple Leaf Studios in Folkestone. These prints have attracted quite a bit of attention, with a few people contacting me to fill in some gaps with extra information. I like these pictures, and I am sure in there time they must have been quite popular.
What I Know or Don’t Know
I am told that Linda was the big star of Maple Leaf Studios, and I am also reliably informed that she was the photographer’s wife or partner. It must have been nice to keep it in-house that way. I do have other very similar-looking prints that could have possibly been produced and sold by Maple Leaf Studios. It would be helpful to have some clarification on this, especially if you ever bought prints from Maple Leaf Studios.
I have scanned a very poor photocopy of the information that would have been sent out if you responded to their advertisements, which I am told used to appear in the back pages of Fiesta and Escort. I have extracted the text from that sheet to make it more readable; it's hard to believe that they actually sent out such poor copies to potential customers.
Prints
I have scanned what I have and will be making some of them available as improved 5” x 7” reprints on the Brazen site if you'd like to indulge in a bit of nostalgia. I am keen to acquire more of these prints and am willing to pay well for them. Alternatively, I'd be happy to arrange exchange reimbursement if that would work better for you. Contact Me
More Information
As always, if you have any more information on Maple Leaf Studios or the models, please take the time to comment below or contact me directly so that I can keep things updated.
Many thanks again to TocoFan for his comments on the Delta Pictures post. The girl featured in the Parisiennes book is we think Maria Montez, who had a couple of ToCo appearances in Spick No. 237 and Beautiful Britons No. 217. The other girl featured with Maria in the scan that TocoFan sent in is Helena McGuire, who was seen just once in Spick and Span Extra No. 50. These sets and pictures tie in nicely with TocoFan’s comments, as all those pictures appeared in magazines published in late 1973 and early 1974.
The gallery shows the scanned images sent in by TocoFan, along with pictures from The Parisiennes book and the photos used in the ToCo book sets featuring Helena and Maria. Judge for yourselves.
I do find it hard to believe that nobody has any more information on these Delta books, which are quite nice. Surely, someone must have collected them and know a little more about them or the publisher. Contact me privately if you don’t want to leave a comment. It is just nice to keep all this information up to date.
Check Maria's and Helena’s tags below to see the original ToCo sets.
To me, Linda always looks like she’s up for a bit of fun, and these two pictures are no exception. She has that naughty 'come and get it' glint in her eyes. Linda was a popular model during the 1970s, appearing in all kinds of magazines in addition to her appearances for ToCo.
From an original print.
"Pardon me, duck," said the London docker who was on a day trip to Boulogne, "'but what's French for Lulu?"
The exquisite young French thing hesitated on the pavement. She wasn't sure of the question, and she wasn't sure of herself. The London docker was brown, muscular and vibratory.
"Lulu?" she said.
"That's her," said he, "I met her at a charity ball in Shoreditch. Full name of LULU BETTS. Said she was French and came from Barcelona."'
"Ah, zat Barcelona, it in Spain," said the shy French piece.
"Well, I'm blowed, I've been blinded by science," said the docker.
The fact is, Lulu Betts is very much a pure Anglo-Saxon. She has a flat in London, and she didn't say she was French and came from Barcelona, she said she found it a wrench to leave Barcelona, where she'd been on holiday. The docker happened to be a bit hard of hearing that night, but he made out all right with the French doll, you'll be pleased to know.
Span No 236 - April 1974
"Ah," said Mr. Pyper, putting his head into the ladies' gown shop in Malvern, Worcs, "who's young and beautiful, then, eh?"
"Oh, you are awful," said the lovely 18-year-old salesgirl. She was ESTELLE WARNER and she was just trying to get a small-size sweater on an outside dummy. And Mr. Pyper, whose other name was Joseph, was the young man who worked in the fishing-gear shop close by. He liked to pop in occasionally—about ten times a day— to ensure he wasn't missing anything. He was dead keen on Estelle, and so are quite a few other fellers, as you can imagine. But she's in the middle of being absolutely dedicated to her job, and all she could offer Mr. Pyper was some advice to either go away or get poked in the eye with a dress hanger.
"I'll risk a poke in the eye," said Mr. Pyper, "it's worth it to see you reaching for red ribbon on the top shelf."
"Right, cheeky-chops," said Estelle and Mr. Pyper slipped out just in time to miss being injured. Estelle can't half lash out when she needs to.
Span No 236 - April 1974
Making the Yorkshire countryside look even better than it is, SHARON GALE is quite a vista all by herself.
Sharon has recently left college to enter the world of modelling and is finding lots of opportunities in the big cities of the north. It doesn't all happen in London and New York, you know. We're glad about that. It makes the whole world lively.
Sharon is a pop fan, of course, and also likes a good book as long as the story has a modern background.
Beautiful Britons No 242 - January 1976
Sally McGregor or Angela Perkins. Sally only appeared for ToCo four times, with three of those appearances under the name of Angela Perkins. These are great pictures, of which I have a few more that I hope to show over the next few weeks. These two pictures were never published in a magazine but were sold as prints.
Two more of Valetta from the private collection of negatives, with her giving us a very teasing glimpse of her stocking tops and petticoat. The cameraman was obviously excited by what he saw, as he managed to cut her feet off in both pictures.
Dolly birds come in all colours and some wear feathers too. SANDRA SONNING lights up as a vivacious redhead, and with or without feathers comes under the category of what someone's grandfather calls a "corking eyeful of Chelsea architecture M to Z." Sandra is nineteen, works full-time as a secretary and part-time as a model.
Span No 186 - February 1970
