Monday, March 18, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Beverly Lee

Once upon a time, finding pictures of the groundbreaking East Asian model Beverly Lee was a difficult task. Now I've been able to find more pictures of her as I get to know where to look. 😃 

 

That's why I get to feature her again only seven months after last doing so (in August 2023).

The photo above is a colorized close-up of Beverly from 1986.  While she can and does appear to be very formal in many of her photo shoots, in the picture below we see the Beverly Lee you'd literally see on the street - relaxed, carefree and accessible. 


And to think this is from a fashion shoot and not a candid shot.

The gentleman in the background represents just about every man who ever saw Beverly Lee come into their presence.  We can't help but be attracted to her.

That's why I feature her so darn much. 😊 

Friday, March 15, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Kiara Kabukuru

The last time I featured Kiara Kabukuru on this blog, in October 2011, she had only returned to modeling part time after a long absence caused by an injury.
 
 
In 2012, however, she returned to modeling full time.

She is currently associated with IMG Models, an agency with locations in New York, Paris and Sydney, as well as with agencies in Germany and South Africa.

And as the above photo indicates, it's good for modeling that Ms. Kabukuru returned to the profession. 😊 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Rosalind Johnson

When I first featured Rosalind Johnson on this blog in August 2019, I noted that she was called "perfection on the runway."  Here's some more of her brand of perfection. 💖


Mercy!

And if you think she looks incredibly sexy in the photo above, dig the photo below, in which she appears to be ready to take flight! 


Mmmmmmmmm!

Rosalind Johnson is certainly a woman who can send me pretty far.  😍 

Saturday, March 9, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Regine Jaffry

Here I feature Regine Jaffry for the first time since April 2017, and in doing so, I feature a photo that focuses not on her outfit but her hair.


For many models, modeling hairstyles was their bread and butter. With gorgeous brunette bangs such as these, it must have been Regine Jaffry's six-course dinner. 😃  

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Mélissa Doucouré

Although Mélissa Doucouré was more dominant on the Paris runways than in print ads and editorials, the former French model by way of Mali has still left a great photographic legacy.


And if the above photo is any indication, she also has great hair. 😊 


Which she had to cover up on occasion for an assignment when modeling hats. For Paris is known for being a premier millinery center.

But Mélissa Doucouré looks great all the time, whether she looks like she's ready to fly in living color . . . 

. . . or is well-grounded in black and white.  

 
I last (and initially) featured Mélissa Doucouré on this blog in August 2019.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition: Lisa Cooper

Lisa Cooper was possibly the blondest of all of the great blonde top models of the 1970s, and she left behind an amazing portfolio after leaving modeling to become a high-end real estate agent. 


The color picture above is from December 1976, when Ms. Cooper was at the top of her game as a model.

Her glamour is obvious, and it also translated well onto black-and-white film, as evidenced below. 


And yes, she knows how to smile.  The picture shows her flashing a smile as beautiful as she is. 


The last time I featured Ms. Cooper was way back in January 2020 - back before this bug called COVID attacked the whole globe.  Yes, it's been that long.  

Friday, March 1, 2024

This Month: The Beauty of Retrospect, March Model Edition!

Because I've abandoned my commitment to posting pictures of a hundred new subjects a year on this blog, I suddenly have a lot of extra space to publish blog posts for women I've featured here before, so I am going to spend the month of March doing that.  This month is devoted to models I've previously featured before, and some of the pictures here are among the best of the respective portfolios of these women.  

Back in a couple of days with my first post of the month.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

The Beauty of Retrospect: Four Nancys

For this Leap Day, February 29, which comes once every four years, I offer four pictures of four different models from the 1980s - all of them named Nancy.  (And their surnames all happen to begin with the letter D.)


Above is Nancy Decker, one of the loveliest and most overlooked beauties from the modeling profession in the 1980s.  The Wisconsin-born Ms. Decker was with the Elite agency in the early part of the decade, and she did numerous ads and editorials. 


Above, in a sexy gold lamé dress, is Nancy DeWeir, who, in addition to doing many editorials and magazine covers, was a regular in cosmetics ads as well.
   

Next we have the timelessly beautiful Nancy Donahue, as evidenced from the recent picture above.  She turned 65 last February, but passing the "senior" threshold hasn't left a mark on her or slowed her down.  As a friend of hers, I ought to know. 💕 
  

Finally, this is Nancy Dutiel, who in the late seventies and early eighties, was the face of Lancôme in the United States.  This image, in fact was taken from a Lancôme TV commercial.  She did more than a few of those, but I've only found one on YouTube so far.   

I love Leap Day. 😊

For March, I'm going to take a break from new subjects and feature . . . more retrospectives!  Be back soon.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Actress Traci Wolfe

Traci Wolfe is an actress who was ubiquitous in the late eighties and the nineties - primarily in one role.


She played Rianne Murtaugh, the daughter of Danny Glover's character, in all but the first of the four movies in the Lethal Weapon franchise

Ms. Wolfe had started out as a model in the Wilhelmina agency and did assignments for clients such as Avon, the picture above being from an Avon catalog.  In addition to the Lethal Weapon movies, she also appeared in two episodes of "The Cosby Show" and played Virgil Tibbs' niece in an episode of the TV series "In the Heat of the Night."

Ms. Wolfe stepped away from acting in 1998 but returned to face the cameras in a 2020 in an episode of the musical comedy/drama TV series"Katy Keene," and in 2022 she appeared in episodes of "Blue Bloods" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Actress Lauren Vélez

 Lauren Vélez is an actress who has been active since the mid-nineties.


She's nest known for playing Nina Moreno, a police detective, in Fox's "New York Undercover," which ran from 1955 to 1999, and she also played Gloria Nathan, a prison doctor, in the HBO prison drama "Oz," which ran for six years beginning in 1997.

Playing roles related to law enforcement must come naturally for Lauren Vélez., as she also played Captain Maria LaGuerta in the Showtime serial-murder series "Dexter," which ran for six years beginning in 2006. 

Friday, February 16, 2024

Actress Tamara Tunie

Tamara Tunie is an actress who has appeared in both the movies and television.

 

She's best known for playing medical examiner Melinda Warner in the NBC police drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and she's also played Monica Graham in CBS's police drama Blue Bloods."

Ms. Tunie's film work includes two movies with Al Pacino, 1996's City Hall, in which Pacino played the mayor of New York and Ms. Tunie played his press secretary, Leslie Christos, and a lawyer's demonically possessed wife of a partner in his law firm in 1997's The Devil's Advocate.

Ms. Tunie has also played a real-life person - singer Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's mother, in the 2022 film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody


And if you think as a result of the picture above that Ms.Tunie could play Vice President Kamala Harris, she already has - in a play the debuted in London, The 47th, titled in reference not to Kamala Harris's status as the forty-seventh U.S. Vice President - she's the forty-ninth, in fact - but on who will succeed Joe Biden as the forty-seventh U.S. President.

Monday, February 12, 2024

Actress Sydney Sweeney

Sydney Sweeney is a young American actress making her name in television.


She started out as a child actress before  appearing in the satirical Netflix show "Everything Sucks!", which aired in 2018.  Ms. Sweeney gained a great deal of attention playing promiscuous  teenager Cassie Howard in the HBO drama series "Euphoria," about high school students in a California town dealing with intense personal issues.  That year, she also played a Manson Family member in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Ms. Sweeney has also played a cynical college sophomore in another HBO series, the black comedy "White Lotus," and she played a young and obedient girl in the dystopian series "The Handmaid's Tale." More recently, she appeared in the promotion video for the Rolling Stones single "Angry." 

Friday, February 9, 2024

Model Micaela Sundholm

Micaela Sundholm is a 1970s-1980s model from Sweden, a place a lot of models seem to come from. 😊


She appeared on the covers of Glamour and Seventeen magazines.


In addition, she also appread in ads for Max Factor and Vidal Sassoon, as well as in catalogs. 


Fun fact: Ms. Sundholm was the third winner of the third Miss Young International pageant (in 1975).

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Actress Desiree Ross

Desiree Ross was a regular on a television series that aired on Oprah Winfrey's namesake television channel.


She starred in "Greenleaf," about a family of that name that ran a megachurch in Memphis.  Ms. Ross played Sophia, a granddaughter of Bishop James Greenleaf wrestling with her own doubts about her faith.

Ms. Ross also had a recurring role in the sci-fi alien-invasion series "Falling Skies." 

Friday, February 2, 2024

TV personality Brandi Passante

Brandi Passante is a star of basic cable television.


She was a star of "Storage Wars," a series on A&E in which a group of regulars compete with each other for stored goods in storage garages in which the contents have been confiscated by the garage owners and offered to the highest bidder.  The rules of the game in "Storage Wars," though, was that competitors only got a basic rundown of what was in the garage before bidding on its contents.

Brandi Passante  left "Storage Wars" to pursue other opportunities. 

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Model Chris O'Connor

Chris O'Connor is a model from the 1970s.


She mostly appeared in fashion editorials for the U.S. edition of Vogue, one of which, from February 1974, included the picture below.


She also did some ads, including a cigarette ad for a German brand, from which the photo below is taken - with the offending cigarette (and matchbook) edited out.


She's one of those rare top models who has had a store mannequin made in her image. 😊 

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Dutch model Karen Mulder

Karen Mulder is a legendary model form the nineties who almost didn't enter the profession.


She thought about entering a modeling contest sponsored by the Elite agency, but as she was wearing braces at the time, she chose not to.  That is, until a friend of hers sent pictures of her - with her mouth closed, apparently - to the contest's organizers.  Ms. Mulder won the preliminary contest in Amsterdam and placed second in the finals.  But because her beauty and poise placed her in great demand, no one remembers who placed first.  


It just goes to show that whoever said "You don't win silver, you lose gold" obviously never won silver.

Karen Mulder has an extensive list of modeling credits, both in print and on the runway.  Among the designers she represented in fashion shows were Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Christian Lacroix, Versace, and Giorgio Armani.  Her ad campaigns include Chloé, Revlon, Jacques Fath, Gianfranco Ferré, Gianni Versace, Chanel, and Hervé Léger.   And she's appeared on at least as many covers of Vogue as Bruce Springsteen has appeared on covers of  Rolling Stone.  Which is, to say, quite a lot.


For all of her womanliness and worldliness, though, Karen Mulder never lost her childlike sense of wonder, showing a deep appreciation for her career and amazed and mesmerized over how dreams can come true.  Anyone who had doubts about that changed their tune when they heard Ms. Mulder talk - and heard the joy and the innocence in her voice behind that exotic Dutch accent. 😊   

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Model/actress J.J. Kinnersley

J.J. Kinnersley (ahh, don't ask me what either of the Js stand for, I have no idea) is a model from the 1960s and 1970s with aspirations of becoming an actress. 


The former Utah resident  mostly appeared in print work, such as catalog assignments like the one above, though she also did commercials, like from an amusement park in Tampa (from which the picture below is taken).


She hoped that modeling would be a gateway to musical comedies.  Ironically, her best-known work in that field was another commercial.  In a 1975 commercial for Aviance perfume her reputation doing a strip tease in a kitchen while singing about how she looked forward to an evening of romance after a day of being a plain ol' suburban mom.  It was certainly musical, and it appeared to have been unintentionally funny.   Here she is in that long-running Aviance perfume commercial. 
            

Admit it.  You remember this one.

This commercial ran for several years, and while the general public likely saw her as just another commercial actress, the ad did get her noticed among booking agents.  "I was making $60 an hour in print work," she remembered. "My bank account was okay. But people really didn't know me. "They'd say, 'Oh, hello. What have you done?'  I always wanted to do something better than that. I wanted people to know my work."
 
Consider it done, Ms. Kinnersley.  😊

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Actress Bianca Kajlich

Bianca Kajlich is a actress who has been in numerous TV and movie productions.


Her credits include recurring roles in the TV series "Boston Public," as a senior high school student, and "Dawson's Creek."   M. Kajlich also played Leslie, the sister of a womanizer who can't pick up a woman, in the 2010s NBC sitcom "Undateable."
 
Her best-known movies are Bring It On, about cheerleaders, and the 2003 horror movie Halloween: Resurrection.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Model Debra Halley

Debra Halley is a model who was mainly active in the 1970s.


She mostly appeared in print ads, such as in ads for Pendleton wool, one of which this photo is taken.  Biographical data on her is scant.

Monday, January 15, 2024

Actress Karlee Eldridge

Karlee Eldridge is a young actress just beginning her career.


She has mostly appeared in TV shows, such as "Being Mary Jane" in 2013 and "Ballers," about a football team, in 2015.   She has also been in the 2023 Lifetime movie Her Obsession.

On the side, Ms. Eldridge has als ostarted a career as a full-time makeup artist.  "I grew up with the hustler mindset," she said in an interview. I sometimes can’t believe I am still 'doing it,'  I hope I can inspire young creatives that it is possible and to never give up no matter how many times you hear no… because trust me, you hear it a lot."

Thursday, January 11, 2024

French actress Anny Duperey

Anny Duperey is a French actress who has been in many movies and TV shows in her home country.


One of her best known roles is in Jean-Luc Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her, in which she played a beautician who works as a prostitute as a sideline (only in France!) in what is essentially a cinematic essay about Godard's views about contemporary life (again, only in France!).  She may best known to Americans as Charlotte, the object of desire in the 1976 comedy movie Pardon Mon Affaire, about a man who thinks he's found the woman of his dreams, but then the dream turns into a nightmare. 

Mlle. Duperey is also a writer, having written eight novels.   She also played Catherine Beaumont, a family matriarch, in "Une famille formidable" ("A Marvelous Family"), a French comedy TV series that ran for 26 years - longer than "Gunsmoke" in America - that focuses on the comings and goings of a French family and their friends. 

Monday, January 8, 2024

Sportscaster Melanie Collins

Melanie Collins is a familiar face to football fans.


She's a sideline reporter for CBS Sports at National Football League games, getting a close look at the action on the gridiron than the guys in the booth.

Ms. Collins has also labored for basic cable television, hosting "Driver vs. Driver" on the Golf Channel and serving as a sideline reporter for ESPN.

Friday, January 5, 2024

Actress Shari Belafonte

Oh, come on now, do I have to tell you who this is? 


Shari Belafonte is a famous actress who is also the daughter of the late and revered singer Harry Belafonte.  She famously started out as a model in the 1980s, making an iconic series of Calvin Klein commercials talking about the jeans without rally talking about them (Andie MacDowell, an honoree on this blog, and Martha Plimpton also appeared in those TV ads)before making a name for herself as an actress, playing Julie GIllette  in Hotel, the ABC-TV series version of Arthur Hailey's novel of the same title that was produced by Aaron Spelling  (So many Spelling-produced shows had a character named Julie,  and as none of his wives nor daughters bore that name, I have no idea why they did.)

Since the end of the eighties, Ms Belafonte has done numerous TV series and TV movies, playing  Dr. Laura Wingate in the USA sci-fi drama series "Beyond Reality," which ran for two seasons from 1991 to 1993 as well as the romantic 1994 TV-movie drama French Silk  and the 1995 feminist TV movie The Heidi Chronicles.  She also hosted a travel program called "Travels In Mexico And The Caribbean With Shari Belafonte" on NYC Media.  Ms, Belafonte has, though, also done theatrically released movies - as far back as 1982, she starred in If You Could See What I Hear, a bio film about blind musician Tom Sullivan.  She played Heather Johnson, Sullivan's first girlfriend.  (Sullivan is not black, but it didn't matter to him, as a blind man, that Heather was not white.)


More recently, Shari Belafonte has played Julia on the Apple+ morning-news satire "The Morning Show," starring Jennifer Aniston (another honoree on this blog).

Full disclosure requires me to state that I have connected with Shari Belafonte through social media thanks to my connection with top models of the 1980s.  I told her that my dad loved her dad's records. 😊

Fun fact: Like her father, Shari Belafonte sought to be both an actor and singer.  She released two record albums, The Eyes of Night in 1987 and Shari in 1989.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

French actress Marianne Assouline

Marianne Assouline is a French actress who has somehow escaped the attention of Anglophone audiences. 


She is known in France for starring in a TV series - "Quatre pour un loyer" ("Four For Rent") - about folks who are not rich but pretend to be - so that might explain it.

But Mlle. Assouline has appeared in movies as well.  Among them are L'oeil au beurre noir (Black Eye), a 1987 satire about racism in France, and the 1991 drama Les fleurs du mal (The Evil Flowers).  Some Americans, though, likely saw her on TV without realizing it; she appeared in a single episode of "Counterstrike,"  a Franco-Canadian crime-fighting/espionage series starring Christopher Plummer and Simon MacCorkindale.  "Counterstrike" aired on the USA cable channel in the States.

Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Lindsey Webster

I'm closing out this series - and the year 2023 - with Lindsey Webster, who is part of the new generation of contemporary jazz singers.


Born in 1988 in upstate New York, the same year WQCD-FM, one of the first contemporary jazz stations in the country, first went on the air in New York City, Lindsey Webster grew up in the Big Apple studying the cello but eventually switched to vocals.  When she began her recording career in 2013, WQCD-FM was long since gone, but Ms. Webster has kept on going.

Following the release of her self-titled debut album in 2013, Ms. Webster has put out five more albums, including 2016's Back to Your Heart, 2018's A Woman Like Me, and 2022's Reasons.  Her hit singles on Billboard's, ahem, "Smooth Jazz" chart include "Next To Me," " Open Up," and her number one song on that chart, "Where Do You Want To Go." 

That's it for beautiful women in music and the year.  Back soon in 2024.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson s a big part of the folk-rock scene in Britain and America.
 

Born Linda Pettifer, she changed her name to Peters, but after she met Fairport Convention's ace guitarist, she eventually married him and he changed her name to Thompson. 😃  
 
Yes, she was the wife of Richard Thompson, one of the most impeccable folk rockers to ever come out of Great Britain.  Linda had been going from gig to gig as a folk-rock singer and eventually recorded with Richard in 1972 as well as with other members of Fairport Convention.  After they married, they began working as a permanent duo, simply called Richard and Linda Thompson.  Their 1974 debut album, I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight, yielded a classic song in the LP's title track.

Richard and Linda's sixth and final album, 1982's Shoot Out the Lights, was a huge success in America, but tensions between husband and wife ended the act and the marriage.  Both of them went solo after that, and Linda would go on to record three solo albums, including 1985's One Clear Moment and 2002's Fashionably Late - possibly so named because it was her first album in seventeen years, owing to a conditions that had produced spasms in her voice in between.

Linda has also worked with her and Richard's son Teddy, a fine musician in his own right. 

Saturday, December 23, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Sophie Milman

Sophie Milman is a jazz singer who discovered jazz through immigration and assimilation.


Born in Soviet-era Russia to a Jewish family, she emigrated with her family to Israel, where she discovered jazz and listened to a lot of it. Her family eventually settled in Toronto, where Ms, Milman started her singing career.  

Ms. Milman's self-titled debut album came out in 2004, followed by 2007's Make Someone Happy and 2009's Take Love Easy

Fun fact: Sophie Milman graduated from the University of Toronto in 2011 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Keiko Matsui

Keiko Matsui is proof that the influence of American jazz is far and wide.   

She was born and raised in Japan and took up classical piano as a littel girl, only to discover jazz in her early teens, which led her to compose her own music. 

She recorded her 1987 debut solo album  A Drop of Water on the Passport label, which led to her signing with a big label MCA.  On that label she released her LPs No Borders and Under Northern Lights.  Ms. Matsui scored big time with her 1995 album Sapphire, which topped the Billboard  contemporary jazz chart. 

Ms. Matsui  has worked with several different contemporary jazz artists such as Richard Bona, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Bob James.  Her music combines Western and Eastern influences.

Not a singer, no, but her work has still been very successful.

Her most recent album as of this writing is Euphoria, released in 2023.

Friday, December 15, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Nicole Henry

Nicole Henry is a jazz singer from Philadelphia.


She got her start as a soul singer, singing on other people's records and touring with the criminally underrated rock band Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise as a backup singer.  While Ms. Henry performing in Miami Beach, her bass player introduced her to jazz standards when she asked her to learn a few jazz songs to sing with his trio.

Ms. Henry released her debut album, The Nearness of You, in 2004 on the Banister record label.  Subsequent album releases have included 2005's Teach Me Tonight, 2008's The Very Thought of You,  2011's Set for the Season, and 2013's So Good, So Right.  In 2015 she made an album with Canadian jazz guitarist James Bryan called Nicole Henry & James Bryan - Summer Sessions, released on Banister Records.

Fun fact:  Philadelphia 76ers player Al Henry is her father.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

The Beauty of Song, Part Ten: Carol Duboc

Carol Duboc is a jazz and R&B singer from Kansas City.


Before she began recording her own work , she co-wrote many hit songs,among them "This World Is All" for Patti LaBelle and "Never Do You Wrong" for Stephanie Mills. 

Her first solo album, With All That I Am, was released  in 2001,  Subsequent LPs include 2005's All of You ,2008's Songs for Lovers, a 2009 album of Burt Bacharach covers, and a 2013 album cheekily titled Smile, as if she was making a nod to Brian Wilson.
 
Ms. Duboc mostly writes her own songs with keyboardist Jeff Lorber, among them "Telepathy," "Universe," "Swept Away" and "Shadow Dance."