Top Actresses of the 1960s

When you're hot, you're hot and in the 1960s there was no-one more sizzling than these female movie stars...

The social revolution of the 1960s and its accompanying shifts in perspective brought about new standards of beauty in the film industry. The pointy-chested, pancaked-faced, voluptuous babes of the 1950s didn't gel with the emergent youth culture who were looking for something a little more edgy to identify with. Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe were on the way out and Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda were on the way in.

It was the era of subversive fashions, revolutionary music, political protest and greater sexual freedom and the new generation had a taste for women who were assertive, freedom-loving, slender, sexy and trendily chic. The actresses featured below represented a new ideal of the individualistic, modern women and they radiated the vibe and energy of the pulsating '60s on screen.

1960s Shoes

The Influential Mods

Modern Go-Gos

The British Mod movement in the early half of the 1960s defined much of that decade's style - as everyone knows, it was a revolutionary period in fashion as well as attitude. Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon, Ben Sherman helped set the tone for hair and clothes and for shoes, designer Beth Levine re-introduced the boot to 60s women and Andre Courrages took it to new levels of funkiness and the white boot became emblematic of the era.

Boots came in various colours and designs to suit mods and non-mods -fur lined ankle boots, white gogo boots in various heights, riding boots, brown or black leather knee-highs, classic blue and white canvas gym boots and later, lace-up Granny boots.

The Mavis Bramston Show

Mavis Bramston

The pioneering Mavis Bramston Show premiered on Australian television (ATN 7) in November, 1964 and ran for three years. It was our first venture into home-grown satirical comedy, showcasing revue-style skits and songs and audiences responded to viewing themselves through an edgier, comedic lens.

At the time of its airing, television had only been a force in Australia for a mere eight years and although we did produce some local content, the vast majority of prime time TV shows were imports from the US and Britain. Bramston was our attempt at creating our own version of some of the more sophisticated comedy shows that were coming out of the BBC. Groundbreaking shows like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Not Only but Also, The Frost Report and That was the Week That Was, were popular here, proving that Australian audiences could digest more than Wagon Train and Z-Cars.

1966

It Makes Cents!
1966 was a big year for Australia - for one thing, it was the year our currency changed from pounds, shillings and pence to the decimal system. The changeover at the Royal Mint in London was given the title "operation fastbuck"  - everything had to be ready by the 14th of February and new coins dispatched Australia-wide to the banks. At first there was public resistance to the change and a transitional period of dual currency but the government kindly provided the population with a catchy little jingle to help us along...

Kimba the White Lion

Osamu Tezuka

Creator of Kimba, legendary animator, Osamu Tezuka

Anime, the Japanese style of animation that has garnered a huge cult following worldwide, really took off in the 1960s with the work of a man called Osamu Tezuka. It was Tezuka who introduced the characteristic wide, expressive eyes which are such a feature of Japanese animation.

Although in Japan the term anime covers all animation, in the West it has come to represent a particular style of Japanese drawings, an early example of which is Tezuka's 1960s animation series, Jungle Emporer, known in English speaking countries as Kimba the White Lion.

Dick York

Eternally Darrin

Dick York

Actor Dick York is perhaps best remembered for his stint as Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) husband in the 60s TV show Bewitched. York played the mere mortal -  king of his castle but threatened by his wife's supernatural powers,  pressured at work and belittled by his worldly mother-in-law. In many ways he was the representative male of white, affluent, middle-class America. Not that the average guy is married to a witch but Darrin Stephens was the essence of conservative ordinariness.

Darrin wanted his wife submissive in the kitchen and less powerful than himself -  he longed for normalcy but was surrounded by mayhem. Interestingly, the show was made on the cusp of the feminist revolution, when notions of a wife subverting her natural gifts for the sake of her husband's insecurities would be seriously challenged.

Koala Swapcard

An Iconic Swapcard

Koala swapcard

Trading pictorial swapcards was a very popular activity among primary school children in Australia the 1960s, particularly for girls. In fact it was a pastime almost exclusively enjoyed by girls. Although boys may have trading football cards, the pretty picture cards were girls territory.

Single cards with plain backs could be purchased for 2 or 3 cents at the Newsagency but often the cards in circulation would have players marks on the underside, having at some point been commandeered from a deck.

Every recess, the swapcard girls would form a concentrated huddle in the playground and flip through their card stack - some girls had piles three or four inches thick, which they sometimes kept in purpose designed boxes or more rarely, in albums.

Deciding whether or not to swap was a serious business and of course, some cards were more desirable than others. Horses were very high on the list followed by cats, puppies and other cute furry animals. There were literally hundreds of designs in circulation - animals, people, places, toys, novelty pics etc.

The mother and baby koala card featured here, from a mid-century deck, was one of the desirables and widely traded on the swap card circuit in the 60s. It's significant in that it was one of the few designs that was uniquely Australian and likely to stir a nostalgic ripple in the memory of  anyone who was into swapcards in the 60s.  The koala card is still floating around on ebay and various places - selling for around $3.

Steptoe and Son

London, Junk and Family Relations
In its heyday, which was the 1960s, the British comedy series Steptoe and Son was a ground-breaking tour de force, watched religiously by Brits and devoted fans in several other parts of the world as well. The show followed the exploits of two aging 'rag and bone' men - junk dealers who sparr and bicker amid the detritus of their lives. Harold; Steptoe the younger, is irrevocably tied to a kind of paternal umbilical cord - a cord that stretches dangerously thin at times but never actually breaks.

Louie the Fly

Louie the Fly

Louie da fly, I'm Louie da fly

Straight from rubbish tip to you...

Spreading disease with the greatest of ease
Straight from rubbish tip to you
I'm bad and mean and mighty unclean

 Mortein's 1962  Louie the fly ad campaign was one of the most successful ever launched in Australia. Louie was a tough talking, street-wise insect, who never seriously underestimated the chemical power of a good fly spray. The animation was created by British born cartoonist Geoffrey Morgan Pike and originally voiced by Neil Williams in a campaign  put together by creative director Bryce Courtenay, who went on to become a highly successful novelist.

Afraid of no-one, 'cept the man with da can of Mortein...  
Hate that word Mortein...brrrr...jeeeeeeee

According  to legend, Courtenay scribbled out the ad concept in 1957  while riding in a taxi on his way to meet the managing director of Mortein, Bill Graham. It proved to be a terrific concept and Morgan's drawings and music/lyrics of the jingle, written by James Joseph White,  helped to firmly embed Louie the Fly in the national consciousness.So successful was the Louie campaign  it's been retrieved in a new form  more than once - most recently in 3D animation.

Aeroplane Jelly

Mr. Sheen

Tab Cola

My Living Doll

Julie Newmar and Robert Cummings

Of all the all the whacky TV themes of the 1960s, perhaps the whackiest was the premise for My Living Doll, a 1964/65 situation comedy based around a bachelor psychiatrist, Dr. Bob MacDonald (played through clenched teeth by Robert Cummings) and his robotic...literally, secretary, Rhoda Miller, aka AF709 (played with statuesque charm by Julie Newmar).

Riding on the success of My Favorite Martian, producer Jack Chertok was able to sell My Living Doll to the CBS network without presenting a formal pilot. However, although it achieved some modest popularity, the show never really took off in a big way  and faced cancellation after only a year.

Sock it to Me

Dan Rowan (left) and Dick Martin. Hosts of Laugh-In

Rowan and Martins Laugh-in

NBC's hit 1960s show Laugh In, hosted by Dick Martin and Dan Rowan, began life as a one-off comedy special which aired on US television on September 9, 1967 but proved to be such a raving success it was brought back a year later as a prime-time Monday night comedy series which ran until 1973.

Witches Britches

A Frilling Sight

1960s Witches Britches. Image from sportslinkup

One of the more eccentric trends of the 1960s was the fad for witches britches - long frilly, straight-legged, mid-thigh underpants that deliberately revealed themselves under a mini skirt when the wearer bent over.

Usually there were two or three rows of lace or frills along the bottom of the pants in a contrast colour, while  subtler varieties just had one frilly edge along the bottom and were all one colour.

It's hard to say how this trend originated and mercifully, it only lasted for a relatively short period but possibly it  had something to do with the 60s penchant for reinventing quaint ideas from the past...in this case,  the old bloomers (undergarments) of the 1910s and 1920s.

1960s Makeup

1960s icon, Twiggy

The Eyes Have it

For most of the 1960s, makeup was an essential part of the mod look, with a heavy emphasis on the eyes. The effect was really an echo of the smoldering dark-eyed, dreamy look of the 1920s, only more so and minus the coloured lipstick. In the 60s, foundation was natural in colour and the lips pale. While it may seem bizarre, it wasn't unheard of for some girls to wear white zinc cream on their lips. The basics included:

• Foundation to cover blemishes and even out skin tone
• Optional blusher in pale pink or peachy tones, used sparingly
• Black eyeliner
• Lashings of mascara
• Neutral or pastel eyeshadow on the lid (blues and greens were popular)
• Dark eyeshadow in the crease
• Highlighter just under the brow
• Pale lipstick in baby pink, beigey pearl or silvery white

1920s "It" girl, Clara Bow.

 Popular brands of make-up in 60s youth culture included Mary Quant and in Australia, Prue Acton, who's distinctive yellow and black mascara tube was a big seller -some mascaras came in a cake form that required dampening with a wet brush and eyeliner was almost always in tricky liquid form, which required a steady hand..

Twiggy Eyes

Penelope Tree. Image by Avedon

The popularity of iconic, super-slim model, Twiggy in the second half of the decade led to a brief fashion for painted on fine-lined 'Twiggy' eyelashes, drawn with an eye pencil on the outer corners of the lower eye lids or in some cases, all the way along. Twiggy was something of a a visual contradiction...boyish in figure and hair yet ultra-feminine in her stylised, romantic eye makeup.

Essentially, the 60s look depended on drama and making an impact through the eyes - windows to the soul - rather than the traditional vivid lips and voluptuous hair and clothes of the previous decade.

Duffel Coats

Gloverall Duffles

In the late 1950s/early 1960s, traditional duffel or duffle coats - of the type worn by merchant sailors and the like - suddenly became very popular in an emerging youth culture. They conjured an aura of exotic mystery, travel and slight seediness...indeed, at the time, many bourgeois parents thought the duffel coat "subversive" and refused to buy them for their teenage sons and daughters.

The old-style duffel coat is made form a thick, coarse and very warm, woollen fibre that originated in the town of Duffel, in Belgium. Traditional colours include tan, black or navy blue- the coat has a hood, is lined in cosy tartan or check and has "walrus teeth' buttons - ie; oval shaped toggle style buttons made from wood or horn and attached with rope or leather cords. For convenience, duffel coats always have two deep, front pockets with cover flaps.

Farah Vintage Duffel. From asos

The style first became popular with sea-faring folk via the British Navy who issued a camel coloured duffel coat during WW1. Although often associated with the Beatniks, the association of duffel coats as a fashion statement with the youth of the late 50s/early 60s can be linked to the very early mod movement.

Part of the mod fashion philosophy was to customize iconic, traditional style elements, such as the union jack, pinstripe suits, the bulls-eye emblem etc and reinvent them as a kind of ironic, hip, rebellious fashion statement. As a classic symbol of the Navy, the duffel coat was ripe for a style snatch. The coats also had an androgynous element and were worn by both sexes.

Gloverall "Monty" duffel coat. The same as those issued by the Royal Navy duringWW1

Merrill duffel coat

Sadie, the Cleaning Lady

In November 1967, blonde, clean-living English immigrant Johnny Farnham released his new single Sadie the Cleaning Lady onto the Australian air waves and immediately he became the darling of teenyboppers, housewives and dishwater damaged, aging domestic engineers everywhere.

Farnham, with his warm and fuzzy nice-boy personality, exuded too much youthful charm to be ignored and the song was, at the time at least, the perfect vehicle for his husky, sympathetic voice. By early 1968 it was #1 on the Australian singles charts, where it remained for six weeks, only to eventually become the biggest selling single in Australia by an Australian artist in the 1960s - 180,000 copies - huge by Australian standards.

So Young. Johnny Farhnam, State Library of Victoria.

Sadie was written by Americans, Dave White, Johnny Madara and Ray Gilmore yet slotted in well with the upbeat, kind of tongue-in-cheek UK working-class sentimentality of the era - it would have made a good companion piece to King of Skiffle, Lonnie Donegan's 1960 hit, My Old Man's a Dustman. The B side, In my Room was written by Farnham and while the singer went on to see a couple more songs in the singles charts they failed to match the success of Sadie.

Farnham's career seriously sagged in the 1970s until he replaced Glen Shorrock as lead vocalist with Little River Band in the 80s,  after which, with the help of manager Glen Wheatley and songwriters Vanda and Young, a mature Farnham very successfully reinvented himself in the late 1980s and 90s as The Voice...John Farnham

 Tragic Offshoot...?
According to music writer Jeff Jenkins, talented singer Mike Furber was offered the Sadie song but rejected it, later telling Farnham's then manager, Darryl Sambell, that that early mistake signalled he was not "destined for success".

Furber suicided in may 1973, apparently having hanged himself in the garage of his Sydney home. Whether or not this was related to his own perceived sense of failure at having missed a chance at the upward trajectory to stardom, is anybody's guess but whichever way you slice it, it was a tragedy He was 25 years old.

White Boots

Cheerleader, Amber van Eeghen in retro white boots

Go-go boots - flattish, calf, knee or over-knee high vinyl or leather boots, were a hot item in the 1960s and for a while there, there was a real craze for funky white ones. They stood out on the discotheque floor, looked striking with bright, psychedelic colours, mini-skirts, accentuated good legs, drew unwanted attention to bad ones but worked 'specially well with a tan or flesh-coloured stockings.

Mod look boots were not so much self-consciously sexy (though they were sexy) as deliberately perky. They were also super-comfortable, as they weren't too tight and the wearer didn't have to totter around in high heels.

Moon Girls

Hard to believe but before go-go boots came on the scene, women's boots were generally only worn for specific activities - such as horse-riding or as weather protection and they were almost never white, unless they were ice-skating boots.

It wasn't until 1964, when innovative designer Andre Courrages unwrapped his Moon Girl collection that go-go boots made their world debut. Courrage paired his white, low-heeled plastic footwear with flared mini-skirts and out-there accents on the clothes, such as clear plastic portholes and stripes.

The look was a raging success and it wasn't long before go-go boots were out in the streets. Fashion-wise, Mods were risk-takers and welcomed anything that looked good and at the same time, set them apart from the conservative fashion status quo.


 

Not 60s but still groovy. FLY London white knee boots

White boots have never really regained the swoop of popularity they had in the 1960s, yet with the right outfit (and on the right legs) they can look sensational.

These days the white boot tends to be reserved for the ultra-trendy, who are confident enough to want to stand out amid the browns and blacks.

60s Chain Belts

60s chain belt.  Buy from decotodiscovillage

Chain belts were very popular in the late 60s/early 70s and appeared in a variety of link styles and sizes but the most popular were large rings linked together by smaller ones.

The belts came in silver, gold and brightly coloured plastics - often in red, green, orange, black and white.

Click image for Amazon

It was a pretty funky look that departed from the idea of a belt pulling in your waistline, as they were worn low, along the hip line and gave the wearer  an ultra- casual look.


Decotadiscovintage at etsy has some groovy original 60s chain belts such as the green one above and the black, mixed circle and rectangle design below.

60s chain belt. Buy from Decotodiscovintage

Bay Studio stud twist chain. click image for Amazon store.

Mary Quant

Mary Quant in one of her defining 'black and white' dresses

Designer Mary Quant was one of the dynamic forces that helped shaped the iconic styles of the 1960s. Quant was born in Wales in 1934 and when the 60's hit full swing she was in her thirties and already had experience in the clothes industry. In the 50s she had completed an apprenticeship in couture millinery (hat-making) and in 1957, with her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett-Green and former solicitor Archie McNair, she opened a clothes shop in Kings Road, London, called Bazaar and another branch later the same year.

It was the height of the beatnik era, which favoured drama and existential black, so Quant sold black tights and white collars to enliven black dresses and tees. This black and white combination was to become one of Quant's defining style features and the basis for the famous 'Mary Quant" dress that was such an icon of the Mod era.

Youth Revolution

By the time the 1960s rolled around, the youth cult revolution, born of a new affluence and consumerism, was driving the fashionable trends of the decade. For the first time, young, working Brits had disposable incomes they could spend on clothes, records and accessories. Everything about Mary Quant exuded style and originality and in many respects she exemplified the fearlessness, boyish androgyny and playful experimentation of the era. Quant had her hair cut in striking, geometric bobs by Vidal Sassoon, another 60s icon...and wore equally bold, eye-catching dresses, tights and shoes. - she took risks and among other things, was credited with inventing the mini-skirt and hot-pants. Quant was the right designer at the right time and part of the visionary apparatus that made London swing.

Quant fans---  

Check out:

Sixties Hair

Mod Clothes
1960s Makeup

Jackie O

Jaqueline Onassis - Trendsetter
Jackie O, socialite, book editor, mother, former president's wife and Greek millionaire's widow, was undeniably a woman of style who, in terms of media attention, rivalled perhaps only Princess Diana. TV, the newsprint media and magazines all adored her, or rather they adored the spike in sales her image on the cover could engineer...plus, you know you've made in a big way when Franklin Mint brings out a porcelain doll in your image.

So what defining feature was it about Jacki O that made her exude dignity and good taste from every pore? Well, the fortuitous circumstances of her birth might have helped.

Jackie (doll obviously!)  Franklin Mint

Born Jaqueline Lee Bouvier in South Hampton, New York in 1929, Jackie was raised amid privilege and an atmosphere of 'high expectations'. The Bouviers were no ordinary American family - the patriarch, "Black Jack Bouvier", was a Wall Street stockbroker and did very well at it. However, Jackie's parents divorced when she was eleven and shortly aftward her mother Janet Norton Lee, married Standard Oil heir  Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr.

Jackie Bouvier and her younger sister,  Caroline Lee, attended the top  private schools, rode their own horses, mixed with the 'right' people and generally lived a life of cultured, extensive comfort - a good start for any girl.

Physically, Jackie was unusual and though perhaps not beautiful in the conventional, poster-girl sense,  she possessed an indefinable elegance.  Reed slim, she wore clothes exceptionally well and her thick dark hair, widespaced eyes and broad smile conveyed an uncommon charm. Most importanly, Jackie O was an individual and had the quiet self-confidence to express herself in her own way. All this was reflected in the clothes she wore, her hairstyles and her manner and movements.

By the 1950's, when Jacki Bouvier was in her twenties, she had come out as a debutante and was moving in illustrious cirlces that included the wealthy and influential; attending soirees and dinner parties and making the most of being young, attractive and rich. On one such occasion in 1952, she met the man who would change the course of her life and transform her into one of the most famous women in the world. That man was, of course John F Kennedy and the two were married in '53 and moved into the White House in 1960.

As First Lady, Jackie's fashion selections were a matter of public scrutiny and in a time of rapid social change and shifting clothes trends, she made a significant mark on a style scene that was already soaked with trendsetters like Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon and the Beatles. The First lady's style was smart and functional but not conventional or stilted. On her arrival at the Whitehouse, she comissioned hot designer Oleg Cassini, (ex boyfriend to Grace Kelly) to create a personalised wardrobe for her and he continued to influence her public fashions until 1963.

Arriving in Dallas

Cassini and Jackie's fashion choices were for clean, uncluttered lines - sleeveless, tailored dresses in beautiful fabrics and colours and pert, short-jacketed suits with three-quarter sleeves, which were teamed with pristine gloves and modern pillbox hats. The striking pink Chanel suit and hat she wore on the day of her husband's death became etched into the US national consciousness as well as inspiring a range of Air Hostess uniforms.

Wisely, Jackie never went over the top with her fashion choices and even in jewellery, she kept it discreet (though she had a large and beautiful collection), often wearing exquisite brooches and her signature triple-stranded pearl necklace.

As a hostess, the President's young wife excelled and she was famous for her dinner parties and social events - her life-long, avid interest in the Arts meant politicians and diplomats could mix freely with poets, writers, photographers, artists and musicians. Of course, Jackie's time at the White House ended all too soon, cut short by the assassination of JFK. Long after, however, she remained a much-watched fashion icon, albeit one that gaurded her privacy and even her measures here did not escape attention. The large dark glasses and trenchcoat she obscured herself behind became a fashion combo icon. Jackie O it seemed, just couldn't help being watchable.

Vintage TV Table

Early Sixties Bernard Hesling "TV" table

When television hit the Australian market in the late 50s, new products came on the market to compliment the new craze. The small table above was designed by Australian enamel artist Bernard Hesling and enamelled in Australiana motifs- a kangaroo, emu, platypus, snake and fish. Hesling was clearly inspired by the dot art and colours of indigenous Australians, as the artwork has a distinctly Aboriginal feel.

The top of the table lifts out to become a handy tray, so the avid TV viewer can enjoy dinner in front of the box. Just an interesting little piece of Australian design history...

Bernard Hesling