Pirate Radio has been sitting in a Netflix envelope for a couple of months, and I finally watched it Friday night. Historically the movie is a mess, fabricating events left and right, and mixing in songs from years beyond the end of the movie, but I’ll take it on faith that it captures something of the spirit of the time in Sixties England, when Pop music was played by illegal, offshore radio stations. BBC Radio 2, my favourite radio station today, came about thanks to pirate radio.
One scene in the movie was obviously staged to draw attention to a picture on a wall.
That’s Jean Shrimpton, the preeminent British model of the 60’s, before Twiggy.
Just as British and American music competed for attention, so did British and American fashion models.
Colleen Corby may not have been a household name like Twiggy was, but you can’t be an American over age 50 and not recognize Colleen’s distinctively lovely and iconic face. Cheryl Tiegs may have made the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue a phenomenon, making her a lust object for men, but Colleen had a different audience, modeling for women’s catalogs and magazines. I became aware of her thanks to having sisters. Colleen Corby was beyond being merely pretty, and she truly defined a class of attractiveness all her own.
Time passes, as it must, and this is Colleen Corby today.
Later, I’ll be talking more about 60’s fashion models, and in particular a promotional tour called Youthquake, and Prue Bury’s part in it.
