Va Va Voom!: Bombshells, Pin-Ups, Sexpots and Glamour Girls

Very enjoyable book. Excellent photos accompinied by informative biographies of each of these women. For those who remember the thrill of seeing a scantily clad and partially nude woman, this is such a book. The book stands out the most by describing how many of these women struggled to do well in their profession, whether trying to be taken seriously in Hollywood, spending their own money on costumes and props for their acts, and how in some cases they are disregarded by the powers that be after a certian age. Well written and very informative.I found the most fascinating subjects to be Lili St. Cyr, Jayne Mansfield, and Tempest Storm. The way they presented themselves and were confident with their own identity, and not feigning indignity about how they were viewed by their fans. These women were truly feminine, and pioneering about the nature of their sexuality during times that supressed such open displays of a sexual nature. Most important, many of these women had fun with their perceptions as sex symbols of their day and made the most of them without the "diva" antics and nonsense displayed in the entertainment industry nowadays.

Good book

Well written, fun to read and great pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the vixens of this era through this book. All the greats are in here.

Few have covered the era of the pin-up as interestingly as Steve Sullivan. Thisbook puts a history and personality behind some of the classic glamour girls of the50s and 60s. He covers everyone from movie bombshells, to pin-up models, to theburlesque performers. Each featured woman has an in-depth biography as well asa sizeable list of their film and pictorial career. The women with the largest amountof ink devoted to them are Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page and Jayne Mansfield. Otherwomen featured in this book include Mamie Van Doren (the cover girl), JulieNewmar, Bunny Yeager, Sophia Loren, Tempest Storm, Lil St. Cyr and BrigitteBardot.The Jayne Mansfield chapter:First of all this is a good introduction to Jayne for the new Jayne fan. Despite littleinaccuracies such as the wrong birthday, the misspelling of Jayne's middle name(it's JaYne not Jane, I have a copy of her birth certificate) and confusion around thetype of bathing suit(s) she wore to the Underwater! premiere, this is a decentbiography. Where we seem to get off track in the bio, as well as the bios of themany other women in the book, is that the author becomes annoying andredundant when trying to decipher 'why' Jayne or the subject was famous. Thebook is also rather self righteous with it's findings of supposed surveys ofinternational cinema and glamour girl fans. Indeed, this is something thewriter--Mr. Sullivan seems to be partly obsessed with is surveys. He runs severalYAHOO! groups where he does nothing but run surveys of famous women.Supposedly he is compiling information for another book. We'll see. But back toTHIS book, written by an obviously straight man, we are forced to sit throughparagraphs and paragraphs of ink concentrating on Jayne's breast size incomparison to the sizes of other female stars. It gets boring and at times, almostgoes off track. I suppose we had the Martha Saxton women's lib fodder in herbook, and 20 years later we have Steve Sullivan's T&A fodder. Those are my maincomplaints about the Jayne chapter. Otherwise, it IS a decent biography on Jayneby a straight male fan who truly seems to 'get' her. The Jayne chapter IS filled witha delight--some rare quotes. The author must have done some extensive researchbecause they are at times new to even me! There is a particularly extensiveoverview of Jayne's early modeling years. Jayne's early years can be confusingand the author does a good job of time and placing things. There is a filmographyincluded and some great shots of the glamazon Jayne, with the focus being on the50s. All in all...pretty good Jayne bio and a treat for fans of all bombshells.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Stella Stevens.

This book is a must for anyone who longs for the glory days of the hollywood bombshell. It features stars, pin-up girls, and strippers from the 1940's to 1960's. Each woman has a complete biography that includes the films she was in, the magazines she appeared in, and any other relevant media in which one might be interested. The author has even gone to the trouble of letting you know who was still alive at the time of printing which is something I always wonder about when I'm reading up on famous faces of the past. The book is chock full of pictures in both color and black and white. The book is very beautiful and quite informative.

Being 41 years old now, I missed the majority of these women when they were in their heyday. But this is the book which introduced me to Bettie Page back in 1998. She is the cream of the crop. I didn't know who she was before I picked up this book, but now I am hooked for life. Nice reference book with detailed biographies. I recommend this highly. It's a classy and well done.