February 2009 - Style Of Eye

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Style of Eye - February 2009

Paul Newman

February 20th 2009 06:33

Paul Newman was not only a fantastic actor, but he was also a great human being. But that’s been said a thousand times. His devotion as a husband was the stuff of Hollywood legend. He made a pretty darn good salad dressing. He wasn’t too shabby behind the wheel of a racing car. And he was a fabulous humanitarian.

The camera loved him too.

Paul Leonard Newman was born in 1925 and died last year of lung cancer. At 83 he lived a long life for someone who smoked heavily for a considerable part of it. He is survived by his second wife Joanne Woodward and five daughters (his only son died of a drug overdose in 1978). His marriage to Joanne lasted nearly fifty years. No other Hollywood couple can make that kind of claim.

Newman began his Hollywood movie career in 1954 and he continued acting up until 2007 (another claim few Hollywood actors can stake). He won one Academy Award for The Colour of Money, although he should’ve won it for numerous other films such as The Hustler, one of my favourite movies. His most famous roles were “cowboys”; Hud, Eddie Felson (The Hustler, The Colour of Money), Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy, Gondorff (The Sting), and in a rusty kind of way, Frank Galvin (The Verdict).

It was Newman’s ruggedly handsome face with his piercing blue eyes that made women fall weak at the knees and men muttering envy under their breath. Yet, he charmed us all, time and time again. In latter years when asked why he never fell prey to all the starlets who would throw themselves at his feet, Newman responded, “Why go out for hamburger when you’ve got steak at home?” A golden answer from a golden man.

Paul Newman, may your blue eyes twinkle forever on that big silver screen in the sky.

Paul Newman Dennis Hopper photograph 1964

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward Leo Fuchs photograph

Miss ya Paul! My favourite pic here is the "steak and kidney" profile shot. I love all the black and white photographs, especially the ones taken by Leo Fuchs. My other favourites would be two of Paul as Cool Hand Luke (shirt off, star of David necklace) and Paul as Butch Cassidy, he wears that hat and threads so well. The arty chain-link fence pic shot by Dennis Hopper is superb. I also love the pics of him with wife Joanne Woodward, they exude a true love.

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Posted By: Raoul Duke - Category: photography

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Penthouse covers

February 11th 2009 05:05

It might sound a little unusual, but I received my most formative sexual education from within the pages of Penthouse magazine, Bob Guccione’s International Magazine for Men, which was founded in England in 1965, but came to prominence once it was launched in America in 1969. It went on to become the preeminent hardened softcore American sex magazine of the 70s, riding the crest between the creamy, coy softcore of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine and the sleazy, over-lit, hardcore of Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine.

Penthouse first American issue Sept 1969

The inaugural U.S. edition September 1969

Whereas Hefner was a journalist, Guccione was a photographer (and Flynt was an opportunist filthmonger). Hefner’s Playmate’s were frequently blonde and the pictorials often looked the same. Guccione’s Pets were often brunettes (mmmmm) and the pictorials were far more erotically adventurous. Playboy might have enjoyed a wider social limelight, especially with Hefner’s Playboy Mansion, but Penthouse possessed a more complex sense of mischief (Caligula being one such venture) and was altogether more alluring.

However, despite the sensational pictorials, it was Penthouse Forum that provided me with so much insight into the adult world of seduction and sexual behaviour. As a budding adolescent I learned all the lingo from those dirty-minded and explicit letters to the Forum editor (years later I came to realise that most of them were fake, but hey, they read good).

Venus on the half-shell

I recently discovered a site that had pics of Penthouse covers, a reasonably comprehensive gallery from 1969 through to present day (though some faves were missing). Looking at the covers I was suddenly transported back to my father’s art studio (where he had his collection stashed). All these memories came spurting, er, gushing, er … flooding back. I realised from looking at the stylish images of erotic femininity on the covers of so many of these issues, and comparing them to the current covers of Penthouse from the last decade or so that I’d seen in shops or wherever, that they simply don’t shoot them like they used to.

Hot Summer, but no nude cigar

Never did find out if her cuffs matched her collar

There is definitely a period where Penthouse magazine was easily the sexiest magazine on the shelves. I’m talking about the allure of the cover here, not necessarily the pictorials inside, and often the woman portrayed on the cover wasn’t featured in a pictorial on the inside (but on numerous occasions reader’s – or should that be viewer’s – demand decided the woman on the cover would end up in a pictorial on a later issue.

Bowler hats never looked so cum hither

I perused the monthly covers of all the issues of Penthouse from 1969 into the 90s, and it became apparent that the aesthetics of the fashion (clothes, hair, makeup) and photographic techniques (composition, lighting, props) changed considerably. I lost interest in the late 80s. The very best covers were from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. The women were voluptuous, the colours were sexy, the poses were erotic … and there was bush. Call me old-fashioned, but I dig bush. Not necessarily big bush, but I think a pubic mound on a woman is a direct erotic statement. It says "I am woman", not "I am girl". But the pubic hair debate is another kettle of fish I guess …

So without further adieu, here is my selection of some of the very best covers that graced Penthouse magazine chronologically from 1969 to 1987; the Lush Years, as I like to fondly them.

I love 'em all, even though some of my other favourites I couldn't include because I couldn't find scanned images of them. Yes, I'm old school, but damn, these covers arer undeniably sexy, and frequently downright erotic. Playboy covers were never this good. Even Euro-styled mag Oui couldn't compete. Bob Guccione had an eye for the seriously alluring. Bless his cotton socks. Oh, and my very, very favourites amongst these? Scroll your cursor over pics: July 1971, July 1975, November 1977, August 1979, June 1982, April 1984, July 1985 ... sheesh, I can't stop myself, I even broke my Rule of 24, heh, heh.