Centrefold Venus of the Month: 28. September, Davina

This month’s centrefold, who goes by the name of Davina, comes from the September 1976 edition of Paul Raymond’s Club International.  This issue also features the magazine's most explicit cover to date as the cover model's pubic hair is shown clearly escaping from the edge of her denim shorts

Raymond had launched Club International in 1972 but unlike his other major title at the time, the venerable Men Only which he had bought and re-launched in 1971, this was an original publication. 

The photographer for this set was Rupert Daines, about whom it has been impossible to discover anything.  He was very active for Paul Raymond publications in the seventies and eighties, however, and a review of Men Only photographers in 1978 merely says that he was rarely ever seen in the offices of the magazines he worked for! 

The Pubic Wars, which we discuss at inordinate length elsewhere, were also, to a certain extent, mirrored in the UK too.  UK magazines had got their models to flash their fur earlier than in  more conservative America with Mayfair showing glimpses in 1969, even before Penthouse.

Initially, as Penthouse became more explicit in the mid-seventies, the UK market didn’t follow and pictures showing labia were cut from the UK version of Penthouse in 1974 and 1975, when they first appeared in the US magazine. 

Gradually this changed and Club International was very much at the forefront of this.  Always slightly racier than Men Only it had shown glimpses of labia as far back as 1973, even before Penthouse in the US.

Up until 1976, the depiction of labia in UK magazines was rare and photographs were still being doctored to remove any glimpse of a girl's bits.  The UK edition of Penthouse only showed labia for the first time in February of 1975.   Club had had a few partial soft-focus shots in 1975 but it wasn't until their September 1975 issue that two of their models were portrayed clearly displaying themselves.

There was another barrier to be breached, however, and this was really only first glimpsed in men's magazines in 1976, firstly in Penthouse. 

In April 1975's Club International there had been a small picture of a girl showing her anus although, ironically, her labia had been blurred, as was the then custom.  Davina, however, is the first Club International centrefold to appear in a full page shot clearly displaying her anus.  This would have been a relatively easy shot to doctor so it must have been a conscious decision on the part of the magazine to show Davina's arsehole in all its glory.

This picture of Fanny by Clive McLean, from the same issue, shows the usual treatment for the previously offending area in that deep shadow covers it up. This was the way that it been handled up until that point in all rear-end photographs.

 Vivian by Dwight Fox, also from September 1976's Club International

Club International, was always more bottom fixated than the other major magazines, especially in comparison to its competitors in the US. As a market the US was always more interested in breasts than bottoms as evidenced by the fact that specialist breast magazines far outnumbered those aimed at bottom fanciers.

 Margaretha, also by Dwight Fox, from the same issue

For this issue, however, the editors at Club International must have decided that September 1976 was going to be arsehole month as all the other girls in the issue had explicit rear-end featuring pictures.

 Bibi by Clive McLean

The picture editors must have made a deliberate decision to seek out these pictures from the ones the photographers submitted.  Photographers would submit a lot of pictures for each pictorial so they had many to choose from.  John Allum, for example, who worked for the Paul Raymond publications a lot, would usually submit 360 photos for each feature.

This shot of "Debbie" from the same issue is as bold in its depiction of the model's anus as Davina's picture is (this pictorial by Michel Moreau is interesting for several reasons and we will feature it in its entirity soon).

Roxy from Men Only October 1976

From this point on pictures featuring the models' anus would feature more and more in the two main Paul Raymond magazines, although they never became common and by the end of the seventies both Club International and Men Only were actually less explicit then they were in 1976 and 1977.  The following month Men Only also not only featured a girl showing her arsehole but touching it as well.

So we like Davina and her splendidly displayed arsehole but are less happy, of course, by the display of cigarettes in the pictorial!

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Venus in a hammock: sculpture by Antonio Frilli

Scarlett Knight has commented that she was not aware of composer, Andre Lloyd-Webber's art collecting habit.  Here, as an example of his taste, which centres very much around the nineteenth century, is Antonio Frilli's magnificent Nude Reclining in a Hammock which Lloyd-Webber bought at Sotheby's, New York in 1994.

Not much is known about Frilli, other than the fact he was based in Florence where a studio he established still produces high quality copies of classical and renaissance sculpture.  His work was first recorded at the Esposizione Nazionale in Rome in 1883 and he also exhibited in Glasgow in 1888, Paris in 1889 and the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904, the setting, of course, for the musical Meet me in St Louis (1944)starring Judy Garland.  It was at the St Louis exhibition that this sculpture was bought by William Goldman, ironically, a theatrical entrepreneur. 

The Mastbaum Theater in Philadelphia which was build in 1929 and demolished in 1958

Goldman kept it in his garden until he moved it to join the numerous other works of art adorning the palatial Jules Mastbaum Theatre in Philadelphia in 1932.  This huge 4,717 seat cinema was named after Stanley cinema chain owner Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926) who was also a collector of sculpture. Mastbaum owned the largest collection of works by Rodin outside France, which he donated to the city of Philadelphia where they are still on exhibition in a building he commissioned (Agent Triple P went to see it a couple of years ago and we will feature it in due course).

Diana with a Deer (c.1900)

Frilli produced a number of copies of works by other sculptors and like other Italian sculptors of his generation was more influenced by 17th century style than the previous generation's reverence for neo-classical sculptures like Canova.  He produced a number of sculptures in what is known as Stile Liberty in Italy (Art Nouveau) such as these mixed marble and bronze pieces Diana with a Deer and Girl with Peacocks.

Girl with Peacocks

Frilli's workshop in Florence also produced a number of attractive decorative marble busts in bronze, marble and alabaster, such as the two examples below.

Nude reclining in a Hammock is his masterpiece, however, and it is believed that he worked on it from 1883 until 1904 when it was first exhibited.  At least two versions, both in white marble, were produced.  The second (below) was sold at Sotheby's New York as well in 1999 for $100,000.

The feeling of suspension Frilli achieves in this sculpture is really quite marvellous and you quite forget that the apparently flimsy draperies are what are holding the whole thing up.  The girls arm looks like it is idly dangling when, of course, it too, is part of the structure supporting the weight.

There is nothing classical about this wonderful, life-sized sculpture; she is a naked, modern girl beautifully captured in a sensuously indolent moment.

Utterly brilliant!

More girls in hammocks another time...

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