One of the first Mary Quant models, Prudence Bury was part of Swinging London at its beginning. Prue appeared with the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” before Mary sent her to New York to introduce the miniskirt to America.
In celebration of Prue’s birthday, here is an item from The New Yorker during her first few months in the Big Apple. The author took a rather bemused tone regarding the proceedings. I heard from Prue today and she’s okay, avoiding Covid in Spain.
To anyone familiar with Beatles history, just saying the name “Astrid” speaks volumes. Astrid Kirchherr has died, closing yet another point of contact into appreciating the most fascinating musical and cultural phenomenon of the 20th century.
Depending on your level of interest, there are plenty of places to read about Astrid, so I don’t need to go into any details here, but the most exhaustive telling of her significance is found in Mark Lewisohn’s book Tune In.
Here are some of Astrid’s candid photographs taken during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, featuring my wonderful friend Prue.
Sitting around between takes, with Prue’s hair still pinned up by stylist Betty Glasow.
A few low-quality scans from the series that Astrid took, showing Prue as I know her, spirited and very funny.
For Prue, on her birthday. Something Prue once said, that made me laugh out loud was, “I assure you, Douglas, not all men who are ballet dancers are gay!”
Armstrong-Jones had a distinctive approach to his casual photos of women, having them wear one of his shirts, it seems. Here is one he took of Prue…
… and one he took of another friend, who Prue says, “wasn’t Tony’s type.”
On the Facebook group devoted to the Wrecking Crew movie, about the legendary Los Angeles studio musicians, a question came up about the lady on the cover with Herb Alpert on the “What Now My Love” album. I chimed in with an explanation, and look who liked my comment!
Expiring today on Watch TCM is the 1963 movie “The Haunting,” with Claire Bloom wearing clothes by Mary Quant.
This should start at the right point to see Prue. There’s an introduction you can watch by going back a bit in the video.
https://youtu.be/Pcf4R1kzYiQ?t=787
Prue was with Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon from the very beginning, and it’s a shame she wasn’t given an opportunity to talk about those days at the start of Swinging London.
