Venus in handcuffs: Jane Birkin



We recently found these splendid pictures of Jane Birkin handcuffed to a bed and felt that they were worth posting.  Jane Mallory Birkin was born in Marylebone, London on 14th December 1946 but she was educated on Triple P's favourite place in Britain, the Isle of Wight.



From 1965 until 1968 she was married to James Bond composer John Barry but in 1968, following small parts in the films Blow-Up (1965)  and Wonderwall (1968) she auditioned for a role in the French film Slogan (1968). She won the lead role even though she didn't speak French.


Her co-star in Slogan was Serge Gainsbourg with whom she started a relationship that ended in 1980, although, she never really got over him and her grief at his death in 1991, effectively ended her subsequent relationship with film director Jacques Doillon.


These days Jane Birkin is much better known in her adopted home of France than in Great Britain. It could be argued that, outside France, she has never really been famous for anything other than being famous. Who, these days, has actually seen let alone enjoyed, her breakthrough film Blow-Up (1966): a now very dated period piece?



She has made quite a few films, mostly forgettable and, as a singer has recorded over twenty equally forgettable albums. No, her fame, for most people, is largely based on her rather dreadful performance in Serge Gainsbourg's self-indulgent and pretentious record Je t'aime... moi non plus.




Originally this, so-called, erotic single had been written by Gainsbourg for his then girlfriend Brigitte Bardot but after Bardot married Gunther Sachs she asked Gainsbourg not to release the version they recorded together.



Instead he recorded it with new girlfriend Jane Birkin, who had just split from John Barry. In fact Bardot's version is better and sexier than Birkin's but it was the Birkin version that was released, got itself banned in many countries and, therefore, whose success was assured.





Some of these pictures first appeared in Lui magazine (for whom she posed several times) in December 1974 but have also appeared in Oui.








Some year's later Birkin and Bardot shared a bed in Roger Vadim's film Don Juan (1973), which was famous mainly for being Bardot's last film.  In fact, the stills from the film are more famous and more effective than the rather dull and faintly bewildering production they came from.









Still, this is not to deny Birkin's gorgeousness in her prime as these pictures show. The combination of the iron bed, the stockings and the handcuffs is quite potent. Agent Triple P had a bed just like this for his first year in college and soon discovered that at least one young lady enjoyed being tied to it with the knotted rope that served as a fire escape from our rooms!




This particular girl liked to be tied up and locked in Triple P's rooms whilst he was sent off in search of chocolate. The trick was to keep the girl guessing as to how long it would be before he returned. Somwhere between twenty minutes and half an hour usually ensured the right amount of simmering time.




By Pompeo Posar for Playboy 1970




Once, we had tied her to the foot of the bed so that she was on our red lino floor rather than on the matress. Unfortunately, after acquiring the requisite chocolate we ran into an old school friend and his parents. They invited Triple P to tea and we didn't feel able to tell them that we couldn't go because we had a girl tied to our bed. By the time Triple P returned to his room, quite some time later, said girl had made a puddle on the lino. We didn't bother to untie her.





These pictures, with the simple black background, are by Pompeo Posar and come from an earlier set which appeared in Playboy in November 1970.





Splendid!
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Centrefold Venus of the Month 10: Denise Johns





This month is the 45th anniversary of the first edition of Penthouse; which was first published in the UK in March 1965. This is the very first Penthouse Pet of the Month from that first edition: eighteen year old Denise Johns from Camden, photographed by publisher Bob Guccione himself.


Denise on her pictorial's title page


Guccione had overstretched himself on the first edition so much that he couldn’t afford a photographer. There was only one thing for it: he would have to take the photographs himself.




He had never taken any photographs before but believed that his experience as a painter would stand him in good stead. Nevertheless, he had to take a one day photographic course before he shot this pictorial.





Desperate for a model for his first edition, Guccione hung around outside a secretarial employment agency in the Kings Road in Chelsea asking likely looking girls if they would agree to be photographed for his new magazine.


Denise has a really lovely bust


After being rejected by a number of girls, who quite clearly thought that he was a pervert, he persuaded Denise to agree. Guccione was in a hurry, he was running out of money so when Denise turned up to be photographed in Guccione’s own flat, on a Rolleiflex borrowed from a friend, the session was over in 45 minutes.





Whilst this may have been good news for Guccione it was slightly bad luck for poor Denise as she was being paid on an hourly rate.




So for the privilege of being Penthouse’s very first Pet of the Month she received the princely sum of...4 pounds and 5 shillings. Worth every penny we would say: all one thousand and twenty of them!  In fact, while it sounds like a tiny amount, in 1965 a secretary was paid £5 a week!




Unable to afford fancy lighting, Guccione used the available light from his apartment window; thus developing a style he would use for many years and in complete contrast to Playboy’s huge team of technicians.


Cute but naughty


Note the red flowers in the background of Denise's centrefold. These would feature a lot in subsequent Penthouse pictorials (not the same flowers, obviously!)





Denise also featured in the fold-out flyer that Guccione had printed to attract subscribers before the first magazine was published.




Denise holds centre stage in the original promotional leaflet along with a number of other girls destined to be Penthouse Pets


He got into trouble for sending these "obscene" pictures to random people on a mailing list he had bought but the subsequent controversy didn't damage him at all!


Please, sir!



In fact the first edition of 120,000 copies sold out in five days. The first edition now sells on eBay for up to £80 a copy.


Gravity does delightful things to Denise's bust




The trendy graphics only lasted the one edition





In the first few issues the centrefold wasn’t the last image in the pictorial, there was another page afterwards. So here is our last look at Denise in, possibly, the sexiest shot of the lot. If any picture put down a marker to Playboy that there was a new approach in town then this was it: nothing girl next door about Denise here.


Red Flowers!


A year on Penthouse collected their first year's worth of Pets into one pictorial and we got this extra superbly tactile picture of lovely Denise and her lovely bust!

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