Mrs Dickens and her droopy Dundees.....

Advert for Echo margarine from Family Circle magazine, issue dated February 1969. The 'Mrs Dickens' would refer to the wife (or perhaps mother) of the artist, one Frank Dickens, creator of 'Bristow', the longest running strip cartoon by a single author, which ran for 41 years from 1961. Somewhere I have a pile of old Bristow books; I must search them out and do a few scans for a future post.......

Is that you, Joanna?

Actress, comedienne and supporter of the Gurkhas, Joanna Lumley, was a model in her earlier days. Her are two anonymous appearances; on the front of a dreadful old record of piano covers, no doubt cashing in on the popularity of Mrs Mills, a much loved and accomplished player of the 1960s/70s and in an advert for Patons Wools, this from the Christmas 1969 issue of Woman & Home magazine.

London Girls

The 1983 single London Girls, by the ever excellent Chas & Dave, bought this morning in charity shop for just 10p. Worth it for the cover alone..........

Don't fancy yours much..........

Sixties Style

Model Bobo White, about whom I can find nothing, adds even more elegance to an E-Type Jaguar on the cover of Motor, issue dated 9 May 1964. The photographer was Marc Dimac.

Housing war-workers

This scheme for housing for war-workers was designed by Geoffrey Jellico F.I.R.B.A. in 1942 and drawn by Margaret Whittington for The Englishmans's Castle, by John Gloag, published in 1945. Gloag was very critical of modernist housing, describing such buildings as what the architects thought the people ought to want, rather than what they would actually like. He disliked Art Deco, which has since developed an enthusiastic following, seeing such concrete boxes as bleak and comfortless. What did he subsequently make of 1960s brutalism, I wonder?!

Pimp My (1970s) Ride UK

I would imagine that car customisation began shortly after the invention of motoring itself, certainly it was popular between the wars with the advent of the hot rod, cars modified to get them to look better and go faster. The TV programme Pimp My Ride transferred this to the small screen in 2008 and spawned versions around the world, including the UK.

This little selection came from a series that appeared in the magazine Popular Motoring during the early 1970s, a bundle of which I have recently acquired.

A cheaper option is just to spray on some cool colours, even your old Austin Devon apparently......

Ford Populars are popular...........

Parky in Penthouse

A rather worried-looking Michael Parkinson in an advert for Black & White whisky from the Christmas 1970 issue of Penthouse magazine. This was a little before he embarked on his career as a chat-show host, which began on the BBC in the following June. Today, he can be found flogging life insurance to the over-50s.

Dunlop Formula 70

So that's how you get the girl........outrageous claim from Penthouse magazine, issue 7/8 (1972).