Helen Baxter
Helen was often photographed by arguably one of the most prolific photographers in ToCo history until well into the 1960s - J.B. Fullarton. He had a veritable stable of pedigree bonny lasses in his home base area of the Ayrshire coast. He had a different approach from his colleagues and competitors – and we get a taste of it in Helen’s 16 appearances. None of them were in a studio with lights or props – they were all in the Scottish countryside or in Fullarton’s home, perhaps to calm any studio nerves or maybe to give that ToCo trademark flavour of the girl next door rather than the hardened professional glamour model. And very often in ridiculous or mysterious situations - playing football in stilettos, stockings and suspenders, for example (please see the Photographers section of ToCo history for further details), and in two of Helen’s shoots, sitting outside with her suspender belt in her hand, straps dangling intriguingly, having taken off her stockings and hoicked the suspender belt out of her knickers. What did we miss in the commercial break?
Those 16 appearances, however, were probably all the result of just three shoots and clothing changes, five of them with a tennis racket in her hand, without a net, court or white line for miles – classic Fullarton. One set shows her in a tartan skirt, in or around the same Vauxhall Velox that was in many a shoot with Annette French and the other Ayrshire fillies; the second is in a white outfit next to a drystone wall, and the last all indoors at Fullarton’s place.
ToCo informs us that Helen lived in a seaside resort in Ayrshire, so not very far from Fullarton’s place, that she was a doctor’s or dentist’s receptionist and that she loved Latin-American music. And that is about it.
Personal Details - Born 1941 - 39-23-38
Appearances - 16, debut Beautiful Britons 91 (May 1963)
Spick - SK116, 118, 139, 142(bc), 154, 274
Span - SN106, 116,133(bc)
Beautiful Britons - BB91, 118, 249, 251
Spick & Span - SSX8, 48, 60
