Most searched for: May

Melodye: Remains at number 1

Unbelievably it's June already and in looking to see what has been most popular with readers around the world we have realised that we have hardly put anyting up on the site for a month. This is partly because we were in Canada but we must get some more Venuses up this month!

For May the top 15 items were as follows (last month in brackets):


1 (1) Melodye Prentiss. Recently deceased Playmate hangs on to number one (just)

2 (5) Elizabeth Ann Roberts. Jailbait Playmate continues to climb.

3 (4) The Pubic Wars. We are currently re-wrting episode two.

5 (7) Gloria Root. Back into the top 5 for Playmate and top urban planner Gloria.

6 (3) Venus Observations. Looks like more people are bookmarking it!

7 (2) Mary-Louise O'Murphy by Boucher. Mary-Louise's plump behind continues to be the arty favourite.

8 (-) Claire Rambeau. Playboy's Miss October 1971 scores well considering we only have one picture of her on the site.

9 (8) Liv Lindeland. We recently acquired a copy of the taboo breaking Playboy from 1971. More on her soon.

11 (9) Stephanie McLean. Flashed her fur nine months before Liv.

12 (-) Syrinx by Arthur Hacker. A re-entry for the nymph who ended up chopped into bits and blown through.

13 (6) Lady Godiva by John Collier. Still a favourite.

14 (-) Giselle Bundchen on a horse. Naked girl plus horse hits all sorts of buttons, obviously!

15 (-) Ursula Andress. Makes an appearance even though we have no pictures of her. Must remedy that!


Right enough retrospective more Venuses!

James Bond Venus: The Man with the Golden Gun

Immersed as we are in researching 1970's women at the moment we feel that we have to put up a picture from a series that made a great impression on us in the late 1970s. These were the 1977 re-issues by Panther Books of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Commissioning a giant mock up of a golden 9mm automatic pistol (which they used for all the titles not just this one) they draped a collection of immensely seventies models on said prop for a really striking (if unsubtle) series photographed by Beverley Le Barrow.

Le Barrow did many other covers in the seventies and eighties from subtle, for Dick Francis, to even less subtle than these (such as this one for a Xaviera Hollander novel).

This particular cover was one of our favourites from the Bond series as we thought the young lady was rather fine and we liked her peek-a-boo dress!

The current paperbacks (which Agent DVD gave us for Christmas) have these rather 1950s style covers although I feel that this one is not as strong as some of the others in the series.

Rather more striking are the ones from before the current editions. They are all much more interesting than the original first edition however!

At the time the 1974 film came out the book was re-issued with a film tie-in cover featuring Britt Ekland and Maud Adams. More of these ladies anon.

Most searched for: April

Melodye Prentiss: April's most popular item

Time to have a look at what is getting the World's mice clicking onto this site in April.

For April the top 15 items were as follows (last month in brackets):


1 (15) Melodye Prentiss. Playboy Playmate for July 1968, who recently died.

2 (5) Mary-Louise O'Murphy by Boucher. By far the most popular painting on the site.

3 (3) Venus Observations. Still not bookmarking it, eh? (unless they are after astronomical information!)

4 (1) The Pubic Wars. Lots of interest in this and we areplanning to update our articles and add more pictures.

5 (-) Elizabeth Ann Roberts. Sixteen year old Playboy Playmate from the fifties.

6 (14) Lady Godiva by John Collier. Top Victorian painting on the site.

7 (4) Gloria Root. Another deceased Playboy Playmate from December 1969.

8 (6) Liv Lindeland. Playboy's full frontal blonde.

9 (10) Stephanie McLean. Most popular Penthouse Pet on the site.

10 (-) Lady Godiva. Lots of people looking for Coventry's finest.

11 (-) Judy Jones. New entry for an early seventies Penthouse Pet.

12 (2) Liz Stewart. 1984 Playmate drops down the list. We still like her, though!

13 (8) Hyapatia Lee. Red Hot Indian.

14 (-) Maureen O'Hara as Lady Godiva. Top Hollywood star ditches clothes at 35.

15 (-) Vida Farthing. Another seventies Penthouse model


We've decided to democratically feature, every month, the Penthouse and Playboy models who get the most votes and haven't been featured before in detail. So this month we will do a piece on Liv Lindeland for Playboy and Stephanie McLean for Penthouse. Coincidentally acknowledged as the first two models to show their pubic hair in each magazine (in fact they weren't but who are we to go against the received wisdom of Wikipedia!).

Speaking of the Pubic Wars, as our pieces get hundreds of hits a month we have decided to revise and expand them with more pictures. This is partly due to the fact that we have acquired a large number of old Playboy magazines from a house clearance and these have revealed a different take on the pubic wars from what is apparent by looking at photos on the Playboy Website. Part 1 has already been re-done.

http://venusobservations.blogspot.com/2008/10/venus-revealed-pubic-wars-1_16.html

Part two, which has far too many words and not enough pictures, is next!

Space Venus: Zoe Saldana

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At least this Uhura's hair looks like it might move about

The new Star Trek film gives us an excuse to post a few pictures of the gorgeous Zoe Saldana who plays Lt Uhura in the "prequel" to the original series.

Perky!

She is 30 which seems quite old to play a young Uhura. Nichelle Nichols was in her early thirties when Star Trek was first shown in 1966 and William Shatner was only a year older. Yet the cast of the new film are supposed to be much younger versions of the originals.

Just an old fashioned girl

Never mind she looks quite splendid and we hope she gets to wear a Star Fleet regulation mini dress and boots!

Sporting Venus: Alexandra Worisch

This splendid photograph by Tony Duffy has been much imitated since he took it during the European Swimming Championships in Split, Yugoslavia, in 1981.

5'5" Alexandra was competing in the synchronised solo event and finished in silver medal position behind Britain's Carolyn Wilson. At this point Great Britain did well at synchronised swimming but, typically, once it became an Olympic event (like Ice Dancing) we immediately became useless at it.

Alexandra was only fifteen at the time of the photo and went on to compete for Austria in the first Olympic synchronised swimming event at the Los Angeles games where she came tenth in both the solo and duet events.

A very animated Venus rising from the waves! She now works as a physiotherapist for the Austrian Institute for medical and sports scientific advice.

Alexandra today

Venus passing: Melodye Prentiss 1944-2009

Melodye Prentiss photographed by Pompeo Posar

Agent Triple P was sad to learn of the recent tragic death of Melodye Prentiss, Playboy Playmate of the Month for July 1968. She featured in one of our Pubic Wars postings as one of the first girls to flash their fur in the magazine's centrefold.

Pompeo and Melodye review her pictures

Born Melodye Panchesin in Chicago on December 14th, 1944 she studied fine art and painting at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of fine arts. She was working as a part time researcher in the Playboy editorial library whilst at art school when she was asked to pose by photographer Pompeo Posar who ran into her in the lift of the Playboy building. A handy 5'5" tall and a trim 34-23-34 there weren't many Playmates when asked to list someone they admire who would have named Frank Lloyd Wright.

More recently she had a knee injury that required medication and latterly she was also prescribed more medication for a seperate chronic illness. The medicines reacted badly with each other and she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems. Unfortunately the idiots in the hospital connected her to an empty oxygen tank and she asphyxiated. A sad end for a lovely girl. Here she is in all her glory.

Melodye a couple of years ago

Venus with nice feet

Girl with nice feet.

Had an enjoyable dinner with Agent DVD this week (a very nice bottle of Chateau Talbot) and he maintains that he never looks at this site stating "that's your pornographic site!" Hmm. Agent Triple P thinks there is nothing wrong with pornography provided some artistic effort goes into it. We are sensitive to the fact that many women don't agree with this (although rather more don't mind than we are led to believe) given that there have always been (justifiable) concerns about exploiting women. Even we aren't entirely convinced by models, pole-dancers and adult film actresses claiming that it is empowering to strip off for male (and indeed some female) "admirers". However, billions of women around the world are exploited in far worse ways by having to work seven days a week working in the home, in unregulated factories or as sex-slaves (and, no, we don't think that is a good concept).

We would rather have this site thought of as erotica (yes, and we know that there are some who think that is just a male, elitist term for pornography) but we choose our images carefully and for their artistic merit as much as their erotic effect (the latter being a very personal thing). We are encouraged by the fact that some of the comments on this site and the most searched items show that others appreciate our selection of nineteenth century nudes, for example.

Anyway, we are not going to change the direction of our blog whatever people think and rest assured that it will continue to present the very best images of women from history that we can find. So this picture is especially for agent DVD! Pornography or art? Or, possibly both!