Marilyn Ward and Nicola Taylor

How Do I Look

Pretty girls are naturally camera-conscious and don't like to be caught when they've just come up from a coalmine. "No, not yet," said MARILYN WARD as NICOLA TAYLOR got her into focus, “the breeze is making me look all windswept,”

“Well, hurry up," said Nicola as Marilyn reversed the process, "I'm getting sand in my shoes, "Say cheese." said Marilyn.

"Oh, blow that," said Nicola, "every time I say cheese, I get sand in my mouth too.

"How do I look now?" asked Marilyn, sitting pretty, "As I gaze intently into the viewfinder," said Nicola, “I can now see what's in it for the photographers. No wonder they like their job."

'Yes, I see what you mean," said Marilyn a minute later, "you look ever so mini-skirted. I say, aren't they lucky, they get paid as well." “I tell you what” said Nicola, "let's go and see if there's any beefcake on the beach - we might get paid for photographing them."

Beautiful Britons No 153 - August 1968

Susan McKay

Sandy Sue

Down among the sand dunes SUSAN McKAY found time to lie in the sun. It was a pity she'd left her bikini on the coach, for although you can brown some of yourself in a light dress, you can't cover the same amount of area as you can in a bikini. Especially the itsy-bitsy kind.

Nonetheless (as they say in those slightly archaic novels) Susan looks very attractive in a light dress and those frilly garters are just as likely to turn a head as a bikini.

"Hey, you're looking"

Yes, well - well, as a matter of fact - well, we wondered if you'd seen our dog.

"Did it have shaggy hair, just like you? And floppy ears, also like you?"

Well, no.

"Then go away or I'll call my bloodhound to bite you."

You can't mean that. Couldn't we take just one picture of you while we're here? You look divine. Smashing in fact. "Oh, you and your big blue eyes. Just half-a-dozen, then." Could we make it one over the eight?

"You've already had that I can tell from the empty bottles."

Beautiful Britons No 80 - June 1962

Eliza Brandet

Good Luck!

Beautiful young American actress ELIZA BRANDET has departed from Hollywood to further her career in Europe, and in addition to various roles she has on in Italian films she also accepted an offer from Denmark to play the part of Mandy Rice Davies in the British movie "The Christine Keeler Story." Good luck to a girl who looks as lovely as Eliza and has come so far from her Texas home to make a name for herself.

Beautiful Britons No 110 - December 1964

Marie Fitzgerald

Sunny Side Up

Well, it was that kind of a day, with the sun shining and all, So MARIE FITZGERALD wasn't letting it go to waste. She jumped into a car and drove into the country, where using walls and fences to perch on she arranged herself sunny side up. Marie is a Bournemouth girl and likes to get herself toasted, and if you prefer fried eggs, you must love food to the point where you're neurotic. Or perhaps some girl in your distant past broke your leg in a game of mixed hockey and you decided fried eggs were safer.

Spick No 185 - April 1969

Maria Assin

It Wasn't For Want Of Trying

There was this rubber canoe, see.

It was a new acquisition for MARIA ASSIN. Maria works all week in an office and spends all weekends out-of-doors. That way a girl manages to keep pretty and vital.

Maria had the darnedest trouble launching the canoe and even more trying to get into it. It couldn't have been more difficult trying to get on the neck of an elephant with a rope ladder.

There's a classical method of launching and paddling a canoe, of course One, you swoosh it into the water. Two, you sling your left leg over the starboard side. Three, you sling your right leg in. Four - as Maria found out - you fall flat on your face over the port side. No one can say Maria didn't try. She did. Both classical and unclassical methods. The canoe remained obdurately determined, Maria likewise. It became a fight to the finish.

"Pardon me," called a wag from dry land, "but watch out for the torpedoes.
'Blow the torpedoes,' said Maria, "I'm in at last and now it's full steam ahead.
It's one thing to be an obdurately determined young lady, and quite another to be over-confident.
It wasn't the torpedoes.
It was the canoe.
It gave a wet cough and Maria went overboard. Not for the first time, either. "You're all wet, " called the wag from the bank.
"So are you," said Maria.

Beautiful Britons No 153 - August 1968

Lynn Joyce

Dial "H" For Help

This wasn't a case for 999 - LYNN JOYCE had merely forgotten to order the pork chipolatas from her local store for her big party.

She'd got the sticks and the mustard and the pickles, but not the chipolatas. I’ll bring them up on my bicycle, said the manager.

"That's really very sweet of you,” said Lynn, “and you're a great help. Without my chipolatas it would be panic stations up here.”

Now What?

"It really. is panic stations,” said Lynn,

" Because my dress hasn't come back from the cleaners and I can't receive my guests like this, can I?" Honestly, we wouldn't make any fuss.

Beautiful Britons No 80 - June 1962

Sadie Lydon

Shapely Sadie

All the way from Wiltshire comes shapely SAIDE LYDON to sweetly illustrate that the reason why young men still go West is not so much for gold-which is somewhat over-staked, anyway-as for curves. If Sadie stayed on the beach in a bikini all day, be honest, fellers, wouldn't you miss lunch just to keep her continuously in focus? Anyone who wouldn't is a miserable gourmand who marches through life on his stomach.

London may be bursting with beautiful girls, but it's still all eyes on one like Sadie as she trips jauntily down Shaftesbury Avenue to see her agent.

Span No 102 - May 1962

Cleo Simmons

No Hiding Place

There was all this flowery fauna and flora around, but there still wasn't enough to conceal CLEO SIMMONS when the fox hunters came galloping by just at the moment when Cleo was going to sunbathe. She could have dived for cover into the ferns, but that would have been too ticklish, so there she was, and all the masculine riders were yelling "Tally-Ho, Cleo!" and all the feminine ones were yelling "No, this way, you fools." It was the afternoon the fox got away and the masculine huntsmen all got beaten over the bonce by the feminine ones.

Spick No 186 - May 1969

Sara Cook

Sara a la carte Cook

Can Sara Cook? think everyone who looks a moment at these pictures will agree that that's a pretty pointless question. She could serve up seaweed and snails' livers and it would taste good, if she served it wearing the outfit, you're looking at now. Who thinks of food at a time like that? But Sara is a cook in case you're interested. Rather, Sara is a Cook. Sara Cook, to be precise. You might say being a Cook runs in her family Actually she does know her Beatons and Craddocks. She's not one of your amateurs who spends ten minutes flicking through the first issue of a weekly cookery supplement before knocking up a bit of Pain Chaude a la Heinz Baked Beans.

You might think that this doesn't matter. But Sara sat like this and whispered to you in a sultry voice, "Why not come and sample my Petits Pois a la Francaise," how could you refuse ?

Relax No 17 - Gadoline Publications (1969)

Rene Haywood

Who's In Charge?

Not quite sure what's happening - because she's a stranger in the place - is curvaceous RENE HAYWOOD.

One can get into quite a flap when one is face-to-face with strange desks and strange phones and there's no familiar face around.

Rene just came along to see if anyone was interested in giving her a sitting, but not this kind, to wit.

Beautiful Britons No 72 - October 1961

Cecelia Rodriguez

Happiness Is a Good Book

Lovely Brighton dolly CECELIA RODRIGUEZ is fond of literature. To Cecelia happiness is a good book. She quite understands that for others it's pop concert or a freak-in on the beach, but neither is her scene.

She also likes travel. She has a feeling for balloons. She thinks Phineas Fogg must have known utter bliss in ballooning around the world in eighty days, and she's saving up to buy a balloon of her own. Then she hopes to be up, up and away.

She'll take some good books with her in case it rains.

Maggie McCully

Wild and Woolly

Not really all that wild - just excitingly civilised - is gay MAGGIE McCULLY, but her cosy top is very woolly, and Maggie is well wrapped up in it, don't you think?

Maggie lives in Surrey and spends five days a week as an assistant secretary with high hopes of becoming the boss's No. I in due course. The job of being No. I secretary is one which Maggie will fit as charmingly as she fits a swimsuit that measures 35"-22"-36".

One of the intriguing aspects of commerce today is the fact that secretaries seem to possess not only the necessary academic qualifications for their jobs but also the physical qualifications that are a must for pin-up girls.

Dear Sir Harry - Is your secretary photogenic and glamorous? If not, why not? Come, spare a moment from your colossal estimates to look at Maggie, and then ask yourself why you don't have someone as cute as this to keep your pencils sharpened.

Maggie is lively, lovely, and lissom. She is also gay, gallivanting, and gorgeous loves dancing and dining, bright lights, and sandy beaches. Has black hair, brown eyes, and long legs. An absolute tonic at a party. And, to cut a long story short, is a perfect eyeful.

Beautiful Britons No 80 - June 1962

Margaret Smith

Pick of the Post

We had one of those exhilarating months with the post. It came in through the window one day on account of the postman not having time to bring it through the door. He was in a hurry to get back to the sorting office to help out a new lady sorter with green eyes. Still, he did leave us with an envelope that contained some very alluring photographs of a Brighton girl called MARGARET SMITH, and we thought she was just the girl we could devote this monthly feature to.

Margaret works in a Brighton office. Haphazard men keep popping into the office to ask the way to the pier. It's not because they're haphazard about where the pier is, but because they're falling to pieces over the allure of Margaret and it's the only way, they can keep in touch with her.

Span No 182 - October 192

Jane Rennie – Cherie Scott – Ann Grainger

Friends Frolicking in the Countryside

Friends Frolicking in the Countryside. These pictures are from sets that appeared in Spick No’s 116 & 117 (July and August 1963) and which were regurgitated for our enjoyment again in Spick & Span Extra No 55, Summer 1975.

These, of course, have been colourised; the jury is out as far as I am concerned, but definitely worth a showing. Many thanks for this contribution.

Jane Rennie - Cherie Scott - Ann Grainger

Sylvia Stuart

Is That Me

No, is it really me? asks pretty SYLVIA STUART, office girl in an old town of Ayrshire. I mean what would mother say. Nothing I suppose, except does your grandmother know you've been to her chest. Smashing, aren't they? The beatniks aren't so crazy as I thought.

Well, I mean, they may not be a frightfully artistic adornment, but think of their worth up in the cold Highlands.

Pardon me - I was just getting ready to take a bath. But I'm not ready yet and my forthcoming immersion is the result of a mere slip. Of the feet. If it's too hot or too cold I shall yell my head off.

Oh, well, once you're in you're in, and once you're wet, you're all wet. Did I ever tell you about my grandfather all steamed up a Turkish bath? He didn't go off the boil for days.