Journalist Chrystia Freeland

Canadian Chrystia Freeland is the U.S. managing editor of the the U.K.-based Financial Times.

Globalism, dude! :-D

Freeland runs the paper's American ediciton and appears frequently as a pundit on American television.

Model/fitness expert Nancy Donahue

Nancy Donahue was one of the coolest, loveliest blonde models of the eighties. Debuting in 1979, she accumulated a portfolio that included editorial work for Vogue, Redbook and Mademoiselle and Helena Rubenstein's British ad campaign, as well as American campaigns for brands like Clairol.

She also became a certified fitness trainer, and she's taught and trained physical fitness in health clubs in her native Massachusetts.

Nancy Donahue recently began modeling again. The picture below, from Wikipedia, is from 2009.

She clearly became more beautiful over the previous thirty years. :-)

Go to Nancy Donahue's Web site for more information about her.

Model/actress Alva Chinn

Alva Chinn was one of the most striking and stunning models of the early 1980s.

In addition to being glamorous and sexy, she had a playful side, as seen below in her pose with a noted celebrity . . . the Pink Panther!

This picture's just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh, by the way, which one's Pink? :-D

Today Alva Chinn is an actress and a yoga instructor. Both pictures below were taken in 2009, when she was 57.

She says that men look at her more often these days than when she was a model.



I can see why. :-)

Actress Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt is a young British actress making waves these days.

First gaining attention as Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada, she more recently appeared in The Wolfman, and she plays Queen Victoria in the early part of her reign in The Young Victoria.

Ann-Margret

Off I go with another round of subjects from A to Z, starting with Ann-Margret. I don't have to explain to you who she is, do I? :-)

Some people think of Ann-Margret as a singer, others as an actress, and others still as a dancer. In fact, she's all of those things.

Her movies include a slew of Elvis films, as well as more memorable fare such as Carnal Knowledge, Middle Age Crazy, I Ought To Be In Pictures, and Twice In a Lifetime. She even found the time to play Mrs. Walker in the film version of the Who's Tommy.

She's had a few hits as a singer, such as 1961's "I Just Don't Understand," which made it into the Beatles's live repertoire. Ann-Margret is still active as a singer, releasing the album All's Faire In Love in 2008.

Born Ann-Margret Olsson in Sweden, she came to America as a little girl, settling in suburban Chicago with her family. She took to performing early, and she secured a recording contract with RCA (Elvis's label, naturally) at the age of nineteen. Her role as Kim in the 1963 movie version of the musical Bye Bye Birdie made her a star.

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Seven

In 1999, Karen Graham returned as a spokesmodel for Estée Lauder to promote the company's "Resilience Lift" face cream, as noted here earlier. the stint lasted about three or four years. This picture, from that ad campaign, is from 2002.

Note: She was 57 at the time.

True beauty is timeless.

That's it for my Karen Graham retrospective. I'll be back with new pictures of new subjects. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Six

Here are two more pictures of Karen Graham, the legendary Estée Lauder spokesmodel from the seventies and early eighties. Here she is in an undated glamour shot. :-)

The second one, below, is from an ad from February 1985.

It was in 1985, when Karen Graham turned forty, that she chose to retire from modeling because she wanted to go out while she was still on top. But she would return to represent Estée Lauder for one more brief but glorious time. I'll elaborate on that tomorrow. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Five

For my fifth picture in my Karen Graham retrospective this week, I thought it would be appropriate to show you this photo from an Estée Lauder ad showing five images of our heroine.

It doesn't get much better than Karen Graham in quintuplicate.

Quintuplicate? Is that a word? Well, it is now. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Four

Karen Graham was my first celebrity crush. This picture is a reason why. I remember seeing it as a teenager and feeling a lump in my throat.

Among other things. ;-)

This photo from Estée Lauder's "Private Collection " perfume ad campaign is from March 1982.

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Three

Here's Karen Graham in ad for Estée Lauder's "Private Collection " perfume - photographed, as always, by Victor Skrbeneski in an elegant tableau.

Her upright, dignified pose becomes the standard set for Estée Lauder spokesmodels by Mrs. Lauder herself.

(Note the framed pictures on the tables. One of them just has to be of a long-deceased European monarch - remember, I once showed a picture of Ms. Graham posing next to a framed photo of Nicholas II, the last Russian czar. :-D)

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part Two

Many of Karen Graham's most memorable Estée Lauder print ads were photographed in black and white, but a few of her color ads were also standouts.

This color photo, showing Karen Graham with a very tropical look, is from a 1977 ad.

The Beauty of Retrospect: Karen Graham Week - Part One

Why a week devoted to a retrospective of seventies supermodel Karen Graham?

I've offered brief returns to the subject of the legendary Estée Lauder spokeswoman in the past. But why a whole week?

The answer is simple. I accumulated several pictures of Karen Graham for another page I'd been contributing to with the interest of adding them to my blog at a later date. I now have so many, I have enough to fill a whole week, so why not just do that rather than let the pictures use up precious space on my hard drive? :-D

So here we go! :-)

The picture above, featuring Karen in a very regal pose, is from a 1972 Estée Lauder ad. The photo below, from a 1973 Lauder ad, shows her in a Stephen Burrows evening dress. Never mind how I knew that! :-D

Both, of course, were taken by Victor Skrebneski.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Part Ten: Sheila Johnson

Sheila Johnson was always the perfect model for any purpose - fashion, cosmetics, you name it.

Her look and her versatility allowed her to strike any pose from sexy . . .



. . . to soft . . .

. . . and everything in between.

She retired from modeling and started a business in Alabama with her husband. She markets a product worn under clothing to . . .

Actually, why don't you click on this link and see for yourself? :-D

The Latest Numbers

I have now posted pictures of 319 different women on this blog, although I've posted far more pictures. :-)

I'm going into retrospective mode for awhile, posting new pictures (new, as in they haven't been shown here before) of women I've already featured while I consider new subjects to feature later on. Thanks for your support - you know who you are! :-D

Actress Dawn Wells

A couple of weeks ago I featured Tina Louise, the actress who played Ginger Grant on "Gilligan's Island." Today, in the spirit of equal time, I present the artist formerly known as Mary Ann Summers. :-)



Dawn Wells had appeared in a few television shows in the early sixties before accepting the role that made her famous in "Gilligan's Island." As the Kansas farm girl Mary Ann, she provided a down-to-earth sweetness in contrast to the Hollywood glamour of Tina Louise's Ginger.

She went on to have a very successful stage career in the seventies and the eighties, but she has remained a keeper of the "Gilligan's Island" flame, defending the sitcom against criticism and hosting a 2001 TV special on the series that was part biopic, part documentary.

In the forty-odd years that "Gilligan's Island" has been in syndication, male fans have always divided over whom they liked better - Ginger or Mary Ann. Where do I come down on that controversial question? Oh ho, you're not going to get an answer out of me on that! :-D Civil wars have been started over more trivial issues.


Fun fact: Wells, born and raised in Reno, Nevada, represented Nevada at the 1960 Miss America pageant. Today, she's more famous than Lynda Lee Mead, the woman who actually won that year. (I looked it up.)

New Links

Two new links appear on my blog, both for sites founded by sixties fashion model Linda Morand. The first is Ms, Morand's own site, and the second is to "MinMadMod60s," a page ostensibly devoted to fashion models of the sixties but includes pictures and information of models from other decades. If you're a Baby Boomer who had a crush on a model back in the days of mini skirts - or if you just appreciate beautiful women (that's why this blog is here!), then these pages are for you.

One more entry in the current A-Z cycle, coming up. :-)

TV personality Meredith Vieira

Meredith Vieira has been a woman of many hats.

A former correspondent on CBS's "60 Minutes," the renowned broadcaster later went on to host the syndicated version of the game show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire," sort of following Mike Wallace's career path in reverse. But she was also the moderator of the ABC women's talk show "The View" for nine years, and then in 2006 replaced Katie Couric as a co-host of NBC's "Today."

When she started at "Today," Vieira vowed to put the "broad" back in broadcasting. :-D

She's also been a contributing anchor to "Dateline NBC."