Photos From The Groovy Era That Are Too Hot For TV
By | March 26, 2021
Take our word for it, you're going to want to look closely at these beautiful photos from the groovy era.
Each one of these rare photos from another time has more than just a pretty face, they're filled with stories and facts that you won't find in the history books.
These uncensored snapshots will take you back to a glorious time and place where life was simple and easy, where people just did their own thing and let their freak flags fly.
⚠️ Warning: This collection of groovy photos will make you nostalgic for an era that was truly the best time to be alive. . Keep in mind that not all of these photos are safe for young eyes... viewer discretion is advised ⚠️
Out of all of the cast members of Charlie's Angels Tanya Roberts is the actress who loved to go out and push boundaries. Whether she didn't like to sit still or just enjoyed being on set, Roberts was an actress who you could always count on to give a unique performance.
Roberts also happened to be a total babe. Something that she says made for a lot of interesting experiences. While speaking with Fangoria after the release of The Beastmaster she noted that her brief nude scene caused quite a stir with the crew:
I was so embarrassed. The crew was supposed to take a hike while we shot it, but I know there were 50 guys hiding in the bushes. You know what crews are like. 'Let's check out Tanya.'
Heather Thomas, 1983
Yowza. That's the only word that can describe Heather Thomas in the 1970s. Heck, even in the 1980s. Double heck, even today. Most audiences know Thomas as one of the stars of The Fall Guy, but she got her start at UCLA Film School where she was studying to be a writer and director. She didn't even want to act.
Her life changed in a big way when she was cast as Jody Banks in The Fall Guy, a series that ran for five years and made her an international star. Almost overnight she went from being behind the camera talent to someone whose image was posted all over the world.
Thomas had to retire from acting because she was dealing with stalkers, but today she's still writing and working as an activist.
When it comes to female action heroes, Daisy Duke is easily one of the coolest gals on television whether we're talking about the groovy era or not. Sure, them Duke Boys had more screen time but who's counting? Everyone who tuned into The Dukes Of Hazzard week after week was doing so to sneak a peek at Catherine Bach.
Not just a babe in a pair of short denim shorts, Daisy Duke was an integral part of the series. She got into the action and mixed it up with the guys, showing young girls in the audience that anything is possible. When discussing why Daisy Duke remains an icon, Bach explained:
Whatever she did, she could shoot better, drive better, do everything better than a guy. Whenever the guys were in trouble, she stepped in. She wasn’t acting tough, she just was.
In the 1980s, the queen of Halloween, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, lorded over Los Angeles. The character played by Cassandra Peterson was brought in to host a late night horror show and she quickly became one of the most beloved horror hosts of all time.
When Peterson was first getting started with the role she didn't believe that it would ever take off, specifically because of her goth valley girl outfit. However, she was quickly surprised. She told Time:
I got a part to host horror films on local TV in L.A., and I was told to come up with a look and a costume. An artist friend drew a picture. And I said, ‘Are you kidding me? There’s no way in hell they’re going to let me on TV in that.’ And they did! The general manager’s only comment was, ‘Can you make the slit on the leg a little higher?’
Long before she was one of the most high paid actresses on television with her role in Modern Family, Sophia Vergara was the star of the telenovela Acapulco, Cuerpo, y Alma, and way before that she was a model turned television presenter. She's lived many lives and she's been absolutely stunning in all of them.
It's amazing to see how little Vergara has changed in the years since this photo was taken. Even though our brains, Wikipedia, and the concept of time and space tell us that she's aged, our eyes say that it's just not so. Hopefully we'll get to see more of Vergara soon, but for now these photos will just have to do.
While Blondie was burning up the club scene of New York City in the 1970s, Harry was using everything she learned about performance from her previous life as a folk singer and back up vocalist in Greenwich Village.
For Harry, everything she did was moving towards the next thing. She was never satisfied with just a good show or one hit single, she wanted to keep improving and getting better. She told Dazed:
I always want to do better. ’ve always been very critical of everything. I hear things or look at them and say, ‘Oh God, it should have been that (instead)... I honestly don’t like resting on my laurels. I like working and I like creating. I always beat myself up about not being more creative or more prolific.
This shot from Battle of the Network Stars shows just how rocking Lynda Carter was whether she was in the guise of Wonder Woman or not. A fitness junkie from before she was on television, Carter has always made sure she's camera ready no matter the decade.
However, Carter isn't like a lot of stars who take part in crash diets and intense work out regimes to maintain her look. According to Carter all she really does is maintain portion control:
I eat whatever I want, I just cut down on the portion size. It's all about portion control, portion control, portion control. I have a better relationship with food now, but I struggle with my weight.
It turns out that's all it takes to be a wonder woman.
Dolly Parton back in 1978.
Dolly Parton really is one of America's finest exports. Aside from gifting the world with songs like "I Will Always Love You" and "9 to 5" she's also an amazing fiddle player and a legitimately funny performer. She always has been and always will be.
When Barbara Walters told Parton that many people think she's a joke because of the way she dresses in 1978, the singer-songwriter refused to be contrite and said that she's just fine with people laughing at her because she's comfortable with herself. She explained:
Oh I know they make fun of me, but all these years the people have thought the joke was on me, but it’s actually on them. I am sure of myself as a person. I am sure of my talent. I’m sure of my love for life and that sort of thing. I am very content, I like the kind of person that I am. So, I can afford to piddle around and do-diddle around with makeup and clothes and stuff because I am secure with myself.
Phoebe Cates was only in the spotlight for a few years but in that time she managed to ascend to the kind of cult status that you don't just earn through merely being a babe. That being said, Cates showed a significant amount of skin in her early work, something that she says was happy to do in a kind of if you've got it flaunt it way. She said:
I was only 17 when I did my nude scenes in Paradise. They were serious and more difficult because they were not easily justified. But the topless scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was funny, which made it easy. In this business, if a girl wants a career, she has to be willing to strip. If you’ve got a good bod, then why not show it?
For many people who work as body doubles they never have a chance to get in front of the camera in any real way. Sure, they're perfect for getting the right eyeline on camera but they're rarely able to break out of that line of work and get into acting.
Scilla Gabel managed to actually move up the cinematic food chain into being a legit actress after working for years as Sophia Loren's body double. It makes total sense that she would appear onscreen. Aside from having similar measurements to Loren, Gabel is genuinely great on stage and screen. It just goes to show that if you really want to do something you've really got to give it your all.
The Deep may be one of the most successful scuba diving thrillers released in the 1970s (or ever) but even though it stars Nick Nolte and Robert Shaw it's mostly remembered as the film that features Jacqueline Bisset in a very tight wet t-shirt.
While speaking about this famous film moment Bisset explained that she didn't realize that she was going to be taking part in a one woman wet t-shirt contest while the cameras were rolling. According to Bissett, the crew explained that this was just the kind of thing that deep sea divers wear:
Somebody said to me, ‘This is what they wear.’ I had no sense of what I looked like at all. [When I saw the shot] I thought I was going to die!
It's hard to forget an actress like Jill St. John. This Bond Girl isn't just a babe who got to walk around and look sultry, she starred in Diamonds Are Forever, one of our favorite films of the series. Much like her character Tiffany Case, St. John is a whip smart and wise cracking woman who doesn't suffer fools.
After taking on a number of sexy roles in the '60s and '70s, St. John said that she tired of being seen as just an onscreen hottie. While doing press for Diamonds she said that she couldn't wait to stop looking camera ready:
Glamor isn't something worth while to strive for. It's almost a 1940 word... Any kind of glamor starts with health - physical and emotional health. I do yoga and meditate... My entire goal in life is to achieve peace of mind and inner happiness... It's such a drag to exercise, to get your hair done every day, all that narcissism... I could understand why, having passed that point of being a movie queen, that said, 'Oh, the hell with it,' and let it all hang out.
Cameron Diaz popped up on the scene in the early '90s but her start goes back to the 1980s when she was attending high school in Long Beach. At the time she was doing normal teenage stuff: cheerleading, going to class, and hanging out with none other than Snoop Dogg while getting signed by the Elite Modeling Agency.
While speaking about her high school days with the Snoop D O double G she admitted that while the two weren't necessarily friends at the time, they did have one connection. She told George Lopez:
[Snoop] was a year older than me. I remember him there… He was very tall and skinny, wore lots of ponytails on his head. I’m pretty sure I bought weed from him. I had to have.
Tina Turner rollin' through the '70s
Tina Turner is one of the most resilient pop stars of the 20th century. Born to share cropper parents int he 1930s and thrust into the spotlight with her abusive husband, she made money, went broke, and made her money back again all while strutting in a miniskirt and three inch heels. To watch Turner perform is to watch an artist put every ounce of their being into what they're doing.
As powerful of a performer as Turner was, she almost missed out on her chance to perform because Ike Turner didn't think she could sing. Not for any real reason, but because he thought she was too skinny. Turner told Oprah:
After I moved with my mother to St. Louis, my older sister and I went to see Ike Turner, who was the hottest then. His music charged me. I was never attracted to him, but I wanted to sing with his band. Ike thought I couldn't sing because I was a skinny-looking girl... He liked the ladies with the hips.
"UFO" featured some of the sexiest space babes
Before V, and way before Lost, UFO was an obsession worthy science fiction series that featured a bevy of outer space babes and some of seriously twisty storytelling. Genuinely before its time, the series only had one season on ITV - even if that single season lasted for nearly three years.
To make things more confusing, the episodes of UFO were shown out of production order thanks to every local ITV broadcaster showing the episodes in a different sequence which means that audiences were unable to follow the storyline of the series. It's likely that if the show had been aired in its proper order that the series would have been a legitimate hit. Thank goodness for DVDs.
For as long as Jamie Lee Curtis has been on screen she's been a pin up in one way or another. First she was a scream queen, and then with films like Trading Places and Perfect she became legit centerfold material, but she hasn't always felt like she looked her best.
While speaking about her daily routine, Curtis revealed that even though the camera loves her she rarely looks in a mirror:
I don’t know if men wake up, look in the mirror and hate themselves. Most women do. So I have a big secret: I don’t look in the mirror... When I get out of the shower, I have a choice: I can dry myself off looking in the mirror, or I can dry myself off with my back to it. I turn my back to the mirror, and I feel great! I don’t want women to hate themselves, because I think women are extraordinary.
A young Christie Brinkley during the '80s.
Christie Brinkley is one of the most important models of all time. She may not be the first supermodel, but she created a template for young women who want to use the job to explore new avenues: from art, to philanthropy, to directing.
As one of the most on demand models of the '80s, Brinkley was hardly out of the spotlight. She was all over magazine covers and she even testified at a Senate sub committee about nuclear power. She's never really stopped working and prefers to keep the idea of retirement at an arm's length. She explained:
That’s the thing about my job, there is no such thing as routine. I still always have a suitcase open in my house. Ninety-eight percent of the time that’s one of the things I love about it. Occasionally, I’m like, it would be so nice just to know what I’m doing... Why would you retire? I can see taking longer vacations, but always keep your foot in the door.
There really is something mesmerizing about this Golden Era of Hollywood photobomb. Sure, Jayne Mansfield is giving the audience everything they want to see and then some, but there's something else in this shot that draws us to it time and time again.
The photo that's most often circulated from this set features the most famous side eye of the 20th century, but this shot shows something real and unpredictable. We live in an era where every photo opportunity of a celebrity feels like it was planned down to the second, but this moment genuinely feels impromptu.
Even though it was taken at a party for Loren, it's clear that Mansfield surprised everyone in the room and that kind of real shock is something that you don't see anymore.
No actress has ever been as down for doing whatever it takes to get a film in the can as Ann-Margret. The multihyphenate star was all over the big screen in the '60s, but in the '70s she became a character actress. While some actors may have felt like that was a demotion, Ann-Margret saw it as a chance to get out of her comfort zone.
While speaking with Roger Ebert about her work on the rock opera Tommy, she explained that during one of the messiest moments in the film where she's pelted with food there was only once chance to get it so she did what she had to do:
I knew when I read the script that that was going to be a rough scene to film, if we could do it at all... It was done exactly the way it seems to have been done. Those were real soapsuds, and real baked beans, and that was real chocolate. After we got the chocolate smeared all over, we had to take a day off from shooting - we didn't work on Sundays - and you wouldn't believe what that set was like by Monday, with the chocolate under the hot lights.
Can you imagine what it must have been like to be at the beach when the real deal Princess Leia showed up in that gold bikini. Every nerd within a hundred mile radius must have had a coronary.
As iconic as that bikini is, Fisher hated wearing it. She says that not only was it uncomfortable (obviously) but she felt that it was demeaning for such a powerful character to be dressed like that. That is until she got to cut off Jabba's head. She told NPR:
It wasn't my choice. When [director George Lucas] showed me the outfit, I thought he was kidding and it made me very nervous. I had to sit very straight because I couldn't have lines on my sides, like little creases. No creases were allowed, so I had to sit very, very rigid straight. What redeems it is I get to kill him, which was so enjoyable. ... I sawed his neck off with that chain that I killed him with. I really relished that because I hated wearing that outfit and sitting there rigid straight, and I couldn't wait to kill him.
Susan Sarandon as Hattie in the 1978 movie "Pretty Baby."
Pretty Baby is far from a glamorous film, but Susan Sarandon's turn as Hattie in the film helped make her a star. When the film premiered at Cannes in 1978, Sarandon was on hand. It was there that she shocked audiences with a bit of a wardrobe malfunction:
My first trip to Cannes was for the film. I wore a beautiful and simple vintage dress that became see-through once the paparazzi started shooting and of course I was braless.
Sarandon came out of Cannes and the controversy pretty much unscathed. Even if the media was actually upset about the incident it didn't matter, Sarandon hasn't stopped working since the film was released.
Before she played Ginger on Gilligan's Island, Tina Louise was known as one of the sexiest women on the big screen. Even though most fans focused on her body, Louise was clear about what she really wanted - to be taken seriously. After starring on Gilligan's Island she explained:
[Her characters] only seems sexy because [they] look sexy and maybe feel that way. Men just can't keep their hands off Grimed, because that's the way she affects them every time a man sees her he tries to kiss her and rough her up... Sex is a part of her, but is really not her. I understand this so well, because I don't like men to treat me as I look either... you don't understand, do you? I'm not one dimensional at all. If anybody spends any time with no, they learn that. Man, it's rough trying to convince people that I'm really a serious actress.
Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith make being an Angel look good
We think of Charlie's Angels as the pinnacle of television in the 1970s. The women on this show were massive stars, but during the first season they were just a trio of actresses trying to do the best without knowing what the audience was thinking.
While speaking about the series to Parade, Jaclyn Smith admitted that while America believed that they were just a group of hotties they were actually close friends that were helping each other get through the day.
It was always about the trio on that show. We all went to work in a motor home. We all put hair dryers on. It was all about hair. The best thing about Charlie’s Angels was the show, the bonding. We lost David Doyle and we lost John Forsythe and we lost Farrah [Fawcett]. It’s hard to go back. You miss those people. It’s hard.
Before Sophia Loren came to America and made everyone want to be Italian, she was a huge star in Europe. After placing second in the Miss Italia 1950 beauty pageant, Loren was immediately thrust into the Italian filmmaking scene. She quickly became one of the most sought after actresses in Europe before making her jump to America in 1958.
Loren was marketed as the "Italian Marilyn Monroe," and it's obvious why. She was amazing in comedies, dramas, and romances. While speaking with The Guardian in 2020, Loren says that she could have spent more time onscreen in America but she just didn't think it was worth it to go through so much to just be a romantic interest. She explained:
I mean, yes, I would have liked to learn English and know people in America. But at that time I was – how you say? – fiancee-ing with Carlo. And marriage and children: that was my dream as well.
Raquel Welch may have been one of the most attractive women in the film industry of the groovy era, but she was more than just a pretty face. She remains a sharp mind and one of the greatest interviews on the planet. During this interview with Dick Cavett she was more human than audiences had ever seen her. She spoke about her career and her love of music, something that we don't really think of when we think about Welch.
While speaking about her varied career Welch explained that while people tend to focus on her look, they ignore the fact that she tried many different things in her career:
If you think about it, there was a lot of variety in there. You can start out with Fantastic Voyage, and that wasn’t enormously sexy—I was playing a lab scientist! … I think there’s a lot of range. One Million Years B.C., yeah, O.K... Maybe my photo images in magazines—there were things that were more visually oriented. But you can never break [out of] that, no matter how you try.
Being the body double of Sophia Loren might sound like it's a great stepping stone to fame, but it actually might have been a hamper in her career. However, she had a pretty good fallback plan. Before going on to be a body double she studied law at Oxford University then she returned to Rome where she studied acting.
Gabel is nowhere near as popular as Loren which makes her story much more mysterious. It's believed that she underwent a few rounds of plastic surgery to change her features so that she looked less like the most famous woman in Italy but there's no real record of that actually happening and she's never mentioned it so we'll just have to leave that up to cinematic mythology.
The 1960s brought a new style of filmmaking and a new aesthetic to the big screen, and along with it came a new kind of star that place realism over the fluff of the Golden Era. Faye Dunaway was able to embody both ideals while feelings without betraying the other.
After growing up in a poor family in Florida, Dunaway had a ruthless ambition and a face that put her directly in the spotlight. Where some actors and actresses were happy to skate by on their looks or hype, Dunaway says that she's always relished the work. She told Harper's Bazaar:
Work is a salvation. Work is how you connect with who you are, no matter how painful it might be.
Brigitte Bardot at Saint-Tropez in the early 1960s.
In the 1950s Brigitte Bardot came out of Europe and bewitched filmgoers across the world. As her star rose, Bardot says that she was more like an animal that was being hunted rather than a popular actress. Bardot says that initially she was happy to be the center of attention, but things became so bad that she couldn't walk down the street. She told The Guardian:
In the beginning, I enjoyed having people talking about me, but very quickly, it suffocated and destroyed me. Throughout my 20 years starring in movies, each time filming began, I would break out with herpes... don’t know what it means to sit quietly in a bistro, on a terrace, or in the theatre without being approached by someone.
Before she was the star of Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter wanted to be a singer. After high school this Arizona native hopped in the van with Garfin Gathering and went around the country performing anyone who would have her. But then she had an epiphany. After seeing a lounge singer in her 30s, Carter woke up and realized that if she didn't hit it big that would be her.
She returned to Arizona and tried to come up with a game plan, but then the invisible hand of fate put her in the crosshairs of the pageant world. In just a few months she won Miss Phoenix, then Miss Arizona, and finally Miss World USA, even though it really wasn't what she wanted to do. She told the New York Times:
You have to visualize the time. Women’s lib! Burn the bra! Gloria Steinem! And I had some guy telling me I needed a chaperone and had to go cut a ribbon somewhere. It wasn’t me.
Linda Ronstadt on the cover of Hasten Down the Wind in 1976
Linda Ronstadt has always felt like a pure star. Not only did she help launch the careers of the Eagles, Warren Zevon, and Jackson Browne, but her girl next door charm and outsized voice made her a huge hit with fans and critics alike, a rare thing in the '70s.
However, Ronstadt hasn't always been confident in her success. When her fifth album, Heart Like A Wheel" raced to the top of the Billboard chart she said that she was more embarrassed than she was proud of her work. She told Rolling Stone:
When Heart Like a Wheel went to Number One I just walked around apologizing every single day. I could see that my supposed friends resented me. I went around going, 'I'm not that good of a singer.' And I got so self-conscious that when I went onstage, I couldn't sing at all. It almost made me go crazy... I mean I needed a lot of help, you know.
Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland were an incredibly good looking couple throughout the '70s, and it's no surprise that Bronson stole her away from her previous husband, David McCallum. Bronson and McCallum co-starred with one another in The Great Escape, but that didn't stop Bronson from making a move on Ireland.
While speaking about Bronson and Ireland's relationship, McCallum was open about the fact that while he was hurt he didn't hold it against his ex or Bronson as he didn't think that there was any ill will in Bronson's move:
I never hated him, Charlie was always a good friend. I find that when problems come along, worrying about them and getting anxious and negative is quite unnecessary. You can solve them, usually amicably. That’s what happened... It was an extremely difficult time, not least because we had three children.
Marilyn Monroe ♥
There's no doubt about it that Marilyn Monroe was one of the most beautiful women of the 20th century. From her look to her intense personal charisma, she was able to grab audiences and hold them in the palm of her hand with out moving a muscle.
Even though her beauty was apparent, Monroe never thought all that much about her looks, or at least that's what she said. Instead, she says that she only started focusing on how she looked on camera after years in the industry. She explained:
Frankly, I've never considered my own figure so exceptional; until quite recently, I seldom gave it any thought at all. My biggest single concern used to be getting enough to eat. Now I have to worry about eating too much. I never used to bother with exercises. Now I spend at least 10 minutes each morning working out with small weights. I have evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.
It feels like Pamela Anderson has always been with us in one way or another, whether she was on Baywatch, hanging out with Hugh Hefner, or making headlines with Tommy Lee, but everyone gets their start somewhere and Anderson's is straight out of a fairytale.
While attending a BC Lions football game with some friends in 1989, Anderson popped up on the big screen wearing a Labatt's t-shirt and the crowd went nuts. The folks at Labatts realized that the audience was going wild for her and made her their "Blue Zone Girl." It wasn't long before Anderson was making her way to Los Angeles to take the west coast by storm.
The classic photo of Jane Mansfield and Sophia Loren, 1957.
This really is the definitive photo of the golden era of Hollywood. Not only does it feature some of the hottest starts of the era, but there's a juicy story involved and no one can deny that they're intrigued about exactly what happened on the night that Jayne Mansfield spilled out of her dress in front of Sophia Loren.
Taken on the night of Paramount's big "Welcome to Hollywood" bash that they threw for Sophia Loren, the shot indicates that Loren was none too happy that Mansfield popped in to steal her spotlight. At least that's what it looks like. According to Loren, she was anything but upset at Mansfield appearance. She told Entertainment Weekly:
[Mansfield] came right for my table. She knew everyone was watching. She sat down. And now, she was barely… Listen. Look at the picture. Where are my eyes? I’m staring at her nipples because I am afraid they are about to come onto my plate. In my face you can see the fear. I’m so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow—BOOM!—and spill all over the table.
Out of all the bombshells of the 1960s, Ann-Margret really is a step above the rest. Not only could she sing, dance, and act, but she could hold her own onscreen with Elvis. That couldn't have been an easy task. It turns out that one of her hidden loves was getting on a motorcycle and tearing down the highway. This wasn't something that she picked up in Hollywood, it was something she discovered during her childhood in Europe. She said:
My uncle rode bikes and when I was a young child, we lived very close to the Norwegian border so we’d travel from my village all the way over among the fjords and mountains. “I loved it, and later when I saw The Wild Ones with Marlon Brando, it just blew me away. I had to have a motorcycle. My father owned an Indian motorcycle, so he really couldn’t say anything when I wanted one of my own.
Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna grew up doing her thing. Happy to be an outcast, she did the opposite of what was expected of her from a young age. Would you expect anything else from the woman behind "Like A Virgin" and "Justify My Love?"
While discussing her high school days, Madonna admitted that she knew what kind of game the kids in high school were playing and she wanted none of it. She explained:
I saw how popular girls had to behave to get the boys. I saw how popular girls had to behave to get the boys... The boys in my school would make fun of me... I think they were scared of me because I was different.
The late great Janis Joplin in 1968, two years before her final days
Janis Joplin isn't just a member of the 27 Club. She was one of the most soulful performers of the 1960s. Draped in fur and giant sunglasses, she looked every bit the rock star, but that doesn't mean that she was just winging it.
Joplin exuded a raw sexual energy on stage. It felt like every note she hit was going to be her last, but that doesn't mean that he just on stage without thinking about what she was going to do. Joplin was every bit the professional, she just didn't want people to know that. Biographer Holly George-Warren told NPR:
She was a real scholar of music... She didn't want people to know how hard she worked. She wanted people to think she was just this vessel, or this megaphone, or something that was just up there on stage, and the music and emotions were just coming out of her.
There's no one who took to the 1980s quite like Heather Locklear. Not only was she a gorgeous model who starred in two(!) hit shows at the same time - T.J. Hooker and Dynasty - but she was also briefly married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. Is that not the most '80s thing you've ever heard?
At the time the media, fans, and pretty much everyone else shook their head at the odd couple. Lee openly referred to himself as a "rock pig," and Locklear was the pin-up that you could take home to mom. When asked about how she felt about Tommy Lee's rock star lifestyle she said:
Tommy doesn’t worship the devil, he worships me. What those guys do on the road when I’m not around is all fine and dandy. I’m not worried.
Their marriage was brief, but for just a little while it looked like Beauty tamed the Beast.
There's no doubt about it that Jamie Lee Curtis is more than just some babe who's been on our screens for decades, she's a genuine icon of cinema. She got her start as a scream queen in films like Halloween, Prom Night, and Terror Train, but she transitioned out of those roles into seriously successful roles, something that's not easy to do.
That doesn't mean that Curtis hasn't had to fight her inner demons. While speaking with the New Yorker she admitted that while filming Perfect, a film she had to get into monster shape for, she ended up getting minor plastic surgery to make sure she could look her best. She says this led to major addiction issues down the road:
I underwent an eye job when I was thirty-five years old because, one day, I was on the movie Perfect, and Gordon Willis, the great cameraman, looked at me and said, 'Yeah, I’m not shooting her today.' I was puffy that day, for whatever reason. I was mortified. Right after that movie I went and had an eye job. That’s when I found Vicodin, and the cycle of addiction began with that.
Long before she was one of the most sought after actresses of the '90s, Demi Moore was just trying to get her break like everyone else. Born Demi Gene Guynes in Roswell, New Mexico, she moved out of her family's home when she was 16 years old to pursue a career as a model.
After signing with the Elite Modeling Agency she met a musician named Freddy Moore and got married as soon as possible. During this time she co-wrote songs with her then-husband before posing with for the cover of Oui. At the time she was only 16 but claimed that she was 18 years old.
This photo stayed hidden in Europe for a few years, but once Moore became a legit star in the late '80s it was all over the place. Moore doesn't seem affected by the photo's appearance. Instead, she sees it as a necessary stepping stone to success.
It's hard to imagine the modeling world, or just the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated without Christie Brinkley. If her life went to plan then who knows what would be on the cover of the swimsuit issue every year?
In the '70s, Brinkley was studying art in Paris after escaping the west coast. After buying a puppy named Tempête she needed to call a vet so she walked to nearby office to use their phone and while inside she was approached by a photographer and her life changed forever. She said:
I walked into the telephoning office and this guy goes, ‘I was waiting for you to come back. I’m a photographer and I’ve got my first big job. I was thinking you have the look that they described. Will you do it?’ It was thanks to my puppy that I thought, ‘Let me just see what it’s like and do one little thing.’
In the 1970s Sally Field hit her stride. That's not to say that she wasn't doing anything before then, she was one of the busiest television actors of the '60s and at such a young age that must have been daunting. With roles on Gidget and The Flying Nun she was already a known quantity by the time the '70s rolled around but she hadn't become a star yet.
The thing that secured her in the public eye forever wasn't a theater performance and it wasn't an award winning film, it was Smokey and the Bandit. That beloved film about some speed junkies taking beer across state lines showed mainstream audiences that Sally Field was more than just the girl next door.
Weird Science is the ultimate nerd movie. Not only is the central story about two geeks who make the perfect women the help of a computer, but it features Kelly LeBrock as the ultimate woman - a super babe who's loyal to her two nerdy creators.
As awesome as she is in the movie, LeBrock almost didn't take the call from John Hughes to appear in the film. You see, she was in the south of France with a rock star at the time and it wasn't easy to pull herself away from that. She explained:
I was in the South of France doing a film with Sting. I was having a great time and my agent called and said, ‘Do you want to work?’ and I’m like, ‘Work or hang out with Sting?’ Well, f*ck work, I’m gonna hang out with Sting! Then three weeks into filming, they fired the lead lady because it wasn’t working out and I literally went from France to the set (in the U.S.) within a day.
Did anyone have a better time in the 1970s? Aside from being the most prominent publisher in America and maybe the world at the time, he was living the high life in California with a cadre of beautiful women.
Even though he was dealing with serious pressure from the FBI and experiencing the heartbreak of the loss of his longtime secretary, there's something to be said for a guy who knows how to work hard and play hard - something that Hefner really knew how to do. While speaking to the LA Times, Hefner said that the most important part of life is facing your setbacks with a smile:
I’ve always had a tremendously optimistic attitude about life, and the setbacks are never really setbacks for me, because I see it as a part of the adventure. And if you don’t hold onto your dreams, you’re a very foolish fellow, because dreams are what life is about.
It's rare than an actor has such a varied career and manages to stay in the public eye. Some actors lose themselves in their character work while others just drift away from the spotlight until it's like they never existed.
Sally Field has managed to remain a going concern for the viewing public. People love it when she appears onscreen, and it's hard to imagine a world where she's not playing a mother, a friend, or even a nun who can fly. Even though she has an extremely varied career, Field says that she still feels like it's not enough. She told Oprah:
That's the good news about getting older: I can see that I've traveled a long way. But I'm always torn with feeling that it isn't enough. I've had such an odd career. I always wanted to be a great actor. I wanted to be Katharine Hepburn–ish—there was a bit of nobility about her. Instead I've always felt like the mutt standing on the sidelines, panting and saying, 'Me, too! How about me?' That's just part of my personality.
There's never been a star like Marilyn Monroe. The blonde bombshell that turned Hollywood on its head was seen as an interchangeable chess piece in the world of the big screen, but the truth is that Monroe had a charisma and charm that's rare in stars no matter the era.
Monroe knew what people though about her and even though she tried not to let it get to her, a sadness can be felt in her words when she speaks about herself. She told Life Magazine:
It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake. I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have... Of course, it does depend on the people, but sometimes I'm invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who'll play the piano after dinner, and I know you're not really invited for yourself. You're just an ornament.
Groovy actress Jocelyn Lane in the 1960s.
Hailing from Australia, Jocelyn Lane is one of the many women who worked with Elvis Presley through the years. Like many of Elvis' co-stars throughout '50s and '60s Lane never received the accolades that she should have - most of that went to the King. But Lane wasn't just eye candy in their film Tickle Me, she brought genuine charisma to the screen that makes it hard to look away from the screen.
Lane's career continued until 1970, but even though she's mostly remembered for the single film that she did with Elvis she's a legit cult star. With appearances in films like Hell's Belles and The Sword of Ali Baba, Lane's career is worth another look if you're a fan of B-movies from the 1960s.
In the first decade of MTV things were pretty wild and wooly. Not only were artists still getting used to making videos but they were still getting into the idea of promoting themselves through contests instead of just playing shows.
Bon Jovi was one of the first bands that really understood that they had to work every avenue in order to have a super popular record, which is why the headed down to Jamaica to host "Hedonism Weekend" on the channel while trying to keep themselves from getting too out of hand. VJ Alan Hunt explained how the deal worked:
The label was hawking Slippery When Wet, and it was such a big cross promotion for the band and MTV. Bon Jovi got constant promos... and we got easy access to the guys who had our number one video... They're kazillionaires now, but back then, they were just a bunch of mooks from New Jersey. They hammed it up but managed to keep it casual.
'Sweetums' with a set of major Muppets fans
The Muppets mean so much to so many people that it feels ridiculous to even talk about the characters. Even the puppeteers who work with the Muppets and the characters from Sesame Street are gob smacked to be able to do this extremely fascinating job.
While speaking about his life as a member of the Muppet family, Noel MacNeal elucidated on what it was like to work for Jim Henson, not just a hero to him but to everyone who worked with these very special creatures:
This man is the Walt Disney of puppetry, even better than Disney. He’s Kermit the Frog. He’s Ernie... Jim was the boss you always wanted to please. Everyone in the workshop loved it when he came by and visited. He was quiet but had tremendous presence. But always in a welcoming way. And he was very funny especially with Frank.
If you watched the Batman series from the '60s you definitely have a favorite Catwoman - whether it's Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether, or Eartha Kitt it's impossible to tear your eyes away from that feline outfit. When it came time to cast the first season of the show, Newmar says that she was thrown into the role without auditioning. One day she was offered the job and the next she was putting on the costume. She told Fox:
There was no audition at all. They were desperate. Television is a fast and furious business… It took only a weekend between whoever said, ‘Can you show up on Monday’ and my brother, who had come down from Harvard with his friends to New York where I was living, to practically push me onto a plane. By Tuesday I was fitting into costumes. It happened so fast.
A groovy American Airlines stewardess posing for a photo in 1967. ✈️
The groovy era was amazing time for air travel. Not only was flying more of an exciting endeavor but the outfits were absolutely amazing. Today, stewardess outfits are pretty basic: slacks and a button up shirt, maybe with a vest on top of it. But back in the '60s and '70s stewardesses had style.
This outfit is like something you'd see a mod wearing on the scene in the late '60s, the turtle neck feels chic and the red, white, and blue belt is just straight up cool. You don't see airline workers dressing like this anymore and it's truly a crying shame.
There's no denying that Cher is one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century. She got her start with Sonny and Cher in the '60s before forging her solo career in the '70s and then she broke into film and Broadway in the '80s. Even with her amazing staying power many people refuse to take Cher seriously.
While speaking with Andy Warhol for Interview Magazine she admitted that her personal life and her TV show made it hard for people to take her seriously, something that she felt was truly frustrating. She said:
TV is sh*t. Also, it’s been hard for me. I’ve been made a joke all my career life. I’ve been one of the most popular women in America and a joke and somehow inside of me... And then my private life got to be so much bigger than anything that I could do as a career thing that everybody just thought I was a total idiot. I am an idiot, but I’m not a total one.
There's no couple who's as emblematic of the 1970s as Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett. They were both the stars of some of the biggest shows of the decade and they both had amazing hair. The couple met on a blind date at a coffee shop of all places.
Set up by Majors' publicist, the couple was quick to find romance but their busy schedules kept them apart after their marriage in 1973. He told People Magazine:
It was very quick, and it lasted about almost 12 years. But there was a year or so when I think I saw her two weeks in one year. It’s very difficult with careers like that. This business is tough. Working 14 hours a day, both of you, and the days went by.
There really wasn't a bigger presence in rock n roll in the '70s than Stevie Nicks. Sure, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were still kicking around, and the Sex Pistols were making a lot of noise but Stevie Nicks had a charisma, a vibe you might say, that was impossible to ignore.
In the span of a few years she went from being a waitress to being one of the biggest stars on the planet all thanks to a fateful dinner with Mick Fleetwood and the McVies one New Year's Day. Nicks said:
We met [the band] on January 1st, 1975 at a really great Mexican restaurant in Hollywood. We were standing out in front waiting when they drove up in these really old white Cadillacs that had those big fins in the back, so they were kind of spectacular. They all got out and they're very English and Lindsey and I are California hippies. So we went and had dinner and we knew it from that one night of sitting around and eating fantastic Mexican food together that everything was going to be alright.
In the 1970s, every teenage boy with access to a television had a crush on Susan Dey. As one of the stars of The Partridge Family she created a world of obsession for her fans even if she was just as caught up in David Cassidy fever as the rest of the women in the country.
That's right, Dey had a mega crush on the guy who played her brother on the show. By all accounts, Cassidy didn't return her feelings and even though Dey's mom on the show, Shirley Jones, tried to talk her out of the crush it continued throughout the run of the series. The two tried to date once the series ended but sparks failed to fly.
Marilyn Monroe may have been blessed with amazing genes, but there was a lot of hard work that went into her look. Not only did she maintain a strict (albeit strange) diet of raw eggs, milk, lamb, and carrots, she was also really into working out.
Her routine was a private one, and while speaking about her body and workout regimen she explained that she liked to do things her way and not go out and make a day of sporting with the gals:
I have never cared especially for outdoor sports, and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I'll leave those things to the men. Despite its great vogue in California, I don't think sun-tanned skin is any more attractive than white skin, or any healthier, for that matter. I'm personally opposed to a deep tan because I like to feel blond all over.
Lynda Carter never wanted to be a beauty queen. She may have been naturally beautiful but that's not the life she saw for herself. She thought that she would be a singer, but after deciding that life on the road wasn't for her she went home to Arizona to figure out what to do next.
Carter says that the offer was basically dropped in her lap, and since she wans't doing anything else she figured that she might as well just go for it. Lucky for her (and fans of Wonder Woman) that she followed fate on this one. She told an interviewer:
I had stopped singing on the road and gone back to Arizona to regroup. I didn’t want be a singer in a group on the road, and I was going to go study acting. And then this Miss World contest fell in my lap. I’d never been in a beauty contest, but three weeks later, I was walking down the runway at the Hampton Coliseum.
Before Sissy Spacek burst onto the scene with her must-see role in Badlands she had never thought about being an actress. In the '60s she was trying to make a life as a folk singer in New York City. Rather than go out to auditions in the day or perform in off off Broadway plays by night she performed at any venue that would have her and her guitar.
While speaking about her early days in New York City she noted that not only did she barely make any money, but her audiences were less than enraptured:
For a while I just sang at a steakhouse. I would go from table to table, and really just survived on tips. Then when they had open-mic nights—I think at the time they called them hootenanny nights—I sang at places like the Bitter End in the Village. I think, at that time, I lived uptown, around Barnard College, but I would put on my moccasins and my bell bottoms and get my guitar and take the bus all the way down to Washington Square Park, take my guitar out and play music while all the guys played pinochle.
Farrah Fawcett was the reigning queen of the 1970s thanks to her work on Charlie's Angels and her best selling poster (you know the one), but behind all the hair and the sexy poses she was someone who liked to keep to herself.
Shy and contemplative, Fawcett was never someone who would talk about herself more than she had to, especially when it came to her looks. However, she was aware of how important those posters were to her fans even if she was bewildered by the response. In 1984, she told Barbara Walters:
I guess the fact that it was a one-piece bathing suit, and I was happy -- I wasn't in a sexy pose like Brigitte Bardot. I mean, certainly it's sexy because that's my figure, and my nipples were showing. But, that's me. I remember that a lot of women used to come up and ask me to sign the poster for their husbands, their boyfriends, and I thought, 'I don't know if I would do that.
Groovy flight attendant uniforms, 1960s. ✈
Now these are some seriously cool flight attendants. There's something so soothing and so magical about these outfits - it's like they jump right off the screen. In the '60s and '70s it was impossible to escape spectacular and out there color combos like orange and pink. That was an era when people were trying a little bit of everything, even the folks who were designing fashion for flight attendants.
Can you imagine what it was like to be on a plane when a bevy of babes in these kaleidoscopic outfits started handing out drinks and giving in flight instructions? It's such a drag that modern flight attendants don't get to wear something this cool. Regardless of gender, it would be stunning to see a flight attendant looking groovy just once.
Everything Audrey Hepburn did was cool. Whether she was working with Alfred Hitchcock or running around New York City as a flighty young woman, Hepburn knew how to make everything she did look nearly feline. She's honestly amazing to watch no matter what she's doing which is why it's so odd that she didn't enjoy her work.
Hepburn retired from acting in 1966 and moved to Switzerland to raise her family and perform humanitarian work. When a retrospective of her films was planned in the early '90s she was absolutely gobsmacked by the decision. She told an interviewer:
If they feel the body of my work is enough to be given an evening like this, well, it's absolutely marvelous, but it's also absolutely terrifying. I've never been through anything like this before.
A pre-fame Madonna, 1979
Today, Madonna is one of the most recognizable and wealthy people on the planet thanks to her decades of pop stardom. That wasn't always the case with the "Like A Prayer" singer. While growing up in Michigan, Madonna faced severe hardships and bullying from the upper class students that she shared a high school with.
She says that while growing up in Pontiac she became used to a racially diverse town and school, but when her family moved to the suburbs everything changed. She told MLive:
When I went to high school, we moved to a suburb that was all white. And we were, a bit, living above of our means... I felt very -- because now I didn't have a uniform -- so I was aware that my clothes were not as cool as everybody elses or as nice as everybody elses... I just didn't fit in. I just felt like I was with rich people, and I wasn't and I felt out of place. And I felt like they were members of country clubs and they had manicures and they wore nice clothes and I didn't fit in. I felt like a country bumpkin. And I was resentful.
Everyone knows the exploits of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Bonham, but John Paul Jones was the strong silent type of Led Zeppelin. He had a mystery that was achieved without stories of wizardry or black magic. More of a family man than the rest of his band, Jones says that while he loved being in Zep he preferred being at home with his family even more. He told Uncut:
A lot of their friendship came out of the fact that they travelled around together during times when we were not on tour. That’s actually what happened. And whereas John Bonham and I went home to our families, [Jimmy and Robert] went off writing or whatever. I had more of a professional relationship, I suppose, with Jimmy. I saw him on the road, basically. I didn’t see him much between tours and studios.
Groovy fashion of the '70s.
There really is nothing better than '70s fashion. Sure, the '60s had that kind of dandy, frilly look going on with wild patterns, but the '70s simplified things and made fashion pop.
With tight denim that hugged hips (the kind of denim that you can't get anymore) and flares that made people on the street turn their heads, these kinds of jeans were truly a sight to behold. Couple those flares with crop tops that showed more skin than it covered up and you've got the perfect outfit for one groovy babe.
Aside from the outfits, the hair was kept as natural as possible. Grown long and kept free of hair dyes, this style was a holdover from the flower power era and it looked so so good.
From the moment The Karate Kid hit the theaters in the 1980s audiences fell in love with Elisabeth Shue. Aside from the fact that she's an All-American babe, there's just something about her that says that she's just one of the guys.
While speaking about the film years later, Shue explained that she had to hold back on her athletic abilities while filming to make Ralph Macchio look tougher than he really is:
I remember being incredibly jealous that Ralph got to learn karate and I didn’t... I had to pretend to be bad in The Karate Kid. I had to pretend that I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was better than Ralph Macchio at soccer. I’m sure I would have been much better if I had trained… I could have kicked his a**.
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta leave the New York premiere of Grease.
It's impossible to imagine Grease starring anyone but John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, but there was a point in time where the film could have starred a different actress. Would the film had been as successful if it didn't star this duo? It's hard to say, but while speaking about Newton-John's casting Travolta said that he made sure she got the role. He said:
If you were a young man in the '70s, and I'm sure many of you were, out there, if you remember that album cover of Olivia with that blue shirt on, with those big blue eyes staring right at you, every boy's, every man's dream was, 'Oh, I'd love for that girl to be my girlfriend. So when I had the privilege to have input on the casting, I said, 'There is no other person in the universe other than Olivia Newton-John to play Sandy. You must cast her.' So I held tight, didn't I, and I got my way.
Everyone knows Pamela Anderson. Even though she played CJ on Baywatch for years, she was more famous for being herself than anything else. Her personal fame paved the way for women like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian who are more or less famous for just being Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.
But Anderson almost didn't take the role of CJ because she didn't want to go to the audition. It's hard to imagine the series without her, but we were close to a world where she never put on the red bathing suit. She explained:
I was asked to audition for Baywatch numerous times since I appeared in Playboy. But I didn’t like to drive in LA - I’d never been on an audition. So I never went. Until one day I tagged along with A friend. We were both hired - on the spot. They said I was famous before I walked in the door. Famous for not showing up.
In the 1970s clothes were changing, sweaters were getting tight, and bras were burning. Even gals who weren't taking part in the women's lib movement got in on the action and gave themselves a break in the undergarment arena.
Since the advent of the bra, women have had to fit themselves into an uncomfortable garment that's been everything from pointy to pushy to padded so it makes sense that they just wanted to take a break from these strappy cells for a decade or so.
It helps that the fashion of the 1970s was geared towards a more relaxed, organic style. That kind of thing goes hand in hand with the abesnce of a bra which has to be more than kismet.
It's hard to imagine a world where Jamie Lee Curtis isn't one of the most beloved actresses on the planet. With multiple decades of stardom under her belt, it's amazing to think that there was a point in time when Curtis couldn't get cast to save her life.
Halloween changed Curtis' life in more ways than one. It didn't just put her on the big screen in one of the highest grossing horror movies of all time, but it gave her the confidence to keep chasing those starring roles. She told Mick Garris:
When you get your first movie and you're looking through the script, and you keep turning the pages and you're seeing your character's name on it. I mean, 'Laurie,' 'Laurie,' 'Laurie!' I mean, it was exciting to me! I just kept turning the pages, and there was more and more!
Sally Field in the late 1960s.
As a young woman growing up in Hollywood, Sally Fields had dreams of becoming a star but even when she received her first major role in the one season TV series Gidget she had no idea how big of a deal it really was.
At the time there was no social media and no pop culture entertainment cycle where every series was reviewed into the ground. Field says that all she really knew about the show is that it was a job. She told Oprah:
When it aired in 1965, a season had 36 shows, which is huge. At 18 I didn't see how the show was perceived. I barely had all my consciousness at that point, and I never read reviews or saw ratings. I had my own TV series, yet I'd never been on a plane or even been out of the state.
Debbie Harry's journey to stardom began on a Greyhound Bus in 1965. She traveled to Greenwich Village in 1965 where she sought to become a singer while doing temp work, waiting tables, and even taking on a short job as a waitress at the Bunny Club.
By the time she formed Blondie with four mods in downtown New York she was already courting controversy with her sexy look and aggressive onstage performance style. it makes sense that she became the focal point for fans and critics. According to Harry, while some of the guys in the band were weird about her fame they managed to keep their jealousy in check:
We were all happy that it was working. I suppose there was a certain amount of competition or jealousy but ultimately, no. I think that’s a better question for Clem or one of the other members in the band. Of course my relationship with Chris was so close that he was very happy about everything.
In the 1970s, drag racing was such a cult sport that audiences were flocking to the two lane blacktop to watch Funny Cars burn rubber and spew exhaust while chasing the joy of burning past the finish line. Jungle Pam may not have been a drag racer, but she knew how to get the audience on their feet.
Pam was brought to the racing game by "Jungle Jim" Lieberman who was already a high-octane performer, but once she was on the team she went from just a young woman unsure of what she wanted to do, to a go-go boot wearing queen of the asphalt who learned how to change the oil on a Funny Car and get it on the line while every eye was on her. She may have only been on the scene for a few years but she changed it forever.
Kelly LeBrock in the movie, "Weird Science" (1985)
When you look like Kelly LeBrock it's a no-brainer to become a model, right? Wrong, apparently. In her youth, LeBrock had no desire to pose and pout even if she did harbor dreams of becoming an actress.
Lebrock says that everything changed for her after she married her first husband and moved to Lossource Angeles. Once on the west coast it was goodbye vet school and hello lights, camera, action. She explained:
I actually never wanted to be a model, I wanted to always be a veterinarian. I always have had acting in my heart, and it was something I had done since grade school. When I moved to LA and met my first husband, we produced Woman in Red, which was my first film. I really love creating characters and getting the chance to be someone else.
Marlo Thomas between takes on "That Girl" in New York, 1967
Who's that girl? It's Marlo Thomas. Hitting the small screen in 1966, That Girl brought Marlo Thomas to the forefront of pop culture in a series that saw her taking on the Big Apple in a search for stardom. The series was known for being well written and marvelously produced. It set the stage for the half hour sitcoms to come.
More than just inspire writers to make similar shows, Thomas' role on That Girl led numerous young women to become self sufficient at a time when the world was changing. Not just an actress, Thomas produced the series as well and played a major hand in its success.
