Lamorna Lea

Picture editor Marjorie Smith introduces her to us in Funfare 5:  “she’s not a professional model, but she sure is a popular one. She’s been cover-girl for a whole host of glossy pin-up magazines and she’s won so many beauty competitions that we’ve given up trying to keep count of her laurels”.  One of those triumphs was making the finals of Miss Las Vegas 1957. Not bad for a cheeky cherub from respectable Cheltenham.

That magazine is an example of the ToCo recruiting campaign to find the sort of model readers demanded – the amateur girl-next-door, rather than showgirls and professional knicker flashers. “Tell us about yourself,” says Marjorie Smith. “Enclose a photograph and we’ll guarantee to answer your letter and publish the photographs if it’s up to technical standards.”

Lovely Lamorna was snaffled up by a Welshman got married and settled down in Wales. And that’s about all we know about her.

But those with an interest in the big knickers girls used to wear in the ToCo era (or maybe just a good memory) will love the mouth-watering sequence of Lamorna in Span Extra 2 (Summer 1958). She has her back to you, looking over her shoulder with a “so what do you think?” grin, showing the wonderful expanse of nylon over her bum, stretching from the bottom of her cheeks (or should that be the cheeks of her bottom?) to well above her waist. Oh Sloggi devotees – you don’t know what you’re missing! There is also a pair of photos showing Lamorna engaged in the everyday activity (then) of attaching a suspender clip to a stocking top. You can keep your gynaecological porn –  innocent but erotic stuff like that does it for me every time.

Personal Details  –  36-25-37

Appearances  –  29, (3 covers, 1 back cover), debut Span 8 (April 1956)

Spick  –  21, 53, 55

Span  –  8, 12, 19, 28, X2, X5

Beautiful Britons  –  4, 13, 14, 30, 33, 39, 42, 48, X6, X8, X13

Spick and Span Extra  –  2, 4, 5, 6

Annual  –  1

Funfare  –  5, 24(bc), 25

66  –  33