"ONE LOOK IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS"

Back in 1921, ad man Fred Barnard is said to have coined the phrase, "One look is worth a thousand words". There are a number of versions of the phrase from different eras, but I think Mr. Barnard's fits the bill here.

Longtime WoM correspondent from Horrorwood, Karloffornia was kind enough to provide this photo of the lovely Susan Denberg from CINE WORLD magazine from ca. 1966.

I'd go on, but I've used as many words as I've needed to.

See more about Susan Denberg HERE.

TOPLESS TOPSTONE

The story goes that the young Judy Crowder had dreams of being a painter, but when a photographer saw her work and then met the artist in person, he had other ideas for her career. With a little coaxing, he talked her into a photo session, the results which appeared in SCENE, December 1960. She was 18-years-old. As a result, Miss Crowder became one more in the long line of glamour models posing for pinups and magazine pictorials in the 60s. The feature also mentions that "she wants to follow her sister, actress Louise Stewart, to Hollywood" (another article names her as Ann Stewart).

During her relatively brief modeling career, Crowder was featured in numerous men's magazines such as FIGURE QUARTERLY Vol. 32 (1961), NUGGET, KNIGHT, HI-LIFE and PICTURE SCOPE.

There is scant biographical information about her and it's mostly found within the pages of said magazines. It was a common practice that the text accompanying the photographs would be largely made up to further titillate the reader. If any of the information is accurate several magazines boasted of her 37-24-36 figure and that she hailed from Taylorville, Illinois. Another magazine went on about how she loved clam chowder (!) and claimed she had 20 different recipes. This is likely made up, all so the writer could use the tagline of her name rhyming with New England's favorite soup (see below) .

Her sister's acting career appeared to have fizzled, and Judy's didn't fare much better. She did guest on an episode of Boris Karloff's THRILLER, so that qualifies her as a THH, a tangential horror hottie! Other than that, her acting career was over. I'm guessing that she went back to painting.

You're probably wondering about now where I'm going with all this. Well, what got Judy Crowder as the topic of this post today is a photo identifying her as wearing one of Keith Ward's Topstone masks sometime in the 1960s. If there's any doubt about the claim, while I was preparing this post, I unearthed a second photo of her with the mask pulled up over her head. No doubt, it's Judy Crowder under it.

From a Topstone mask collection.

Most of her photos are in considerably better taste than many models who posed unabashed in their birthday suits. In this gallery, you can see that she was nevertheless talked into showing a little more.

SUSAN DENBERG ON A MATCHBOOK COVER?

Her turn-ons were sports cars and "exciting" clothes. She had aspirations to become an actress. She liked to read, dance, sunbathe and swim. Her favorite author was Harold Robbins. She was also Playboy's Playmate of the Month for August 1966.

Born Dietlinde Zechner on August 2, 1944 in in Bad Polzin, Germany and raised in Klagenfurt, Austria, as a young woman she took the stage name Susan Denberg and became a dancer in London and Las Vegas. After her photo shoot in PLAYBOY by renown glamour photographer Peter Gowland, she signed a contract with Hammer Films and starred alongside Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN in 1967.

Despite her learning some English, Denberg's accent was so heavy that the studio opted to dub her dialogue using the German voice actress Nikki van der Zyl. Miss van der Zyl also dubbed Honey Rider's voice (played by Swiss actress Ursula Andress) in DR. NO.

Prior to that, she played Magda Kovacs in the Season 1, Episode 6 story, "Mudd's Women", on STAR TREK.

After just a few more film and TV appearances, her life suddenly spiraled out of control and she descended into alcoholism and drug addiction. This, she claimed, happened after her first LSD trip sent her off the rails.  After spending some time in a mental hospital, she was able to turn her life (somewhat) around. By that time, her parents had disowned her.

Updated image, now legible!

She returned to Vienna and worked as a topless waitress in a "porno bar" called Rondell Rauschkino and a nude dancer at another Vienna club called Renz.

Although she was once reported as dying by suicide, as far as this blogger can tell, she is currently spending a quiet, retired life in Austria at the age of 81. By all accounts, she's fortunate to have made it this far.

A lot of famous blonde actresses aren't so lucky.

The idea for this post happened last week, while I was absorbed in watching an episode on Scott Michaels' Dearly Departed Tours YouTube Channel titled "Hollywood Matchbooks THEN and NOW". Michaels has several of these vids where he takes a handful of matchbook covers from old Hollywood restaurants, hotels and other locations and compares them to what's at those same addresses today. Sadly, at least half or more of them have either been demolished or have changed hands or venues.

A few minutes into this show, he opened up a matchbook for Hollywood Massage. When he turned it over and I was amazed to see the color picture of someone recognizable. After rewinding it a few times, I finally figured out it was a picture of none other than Susan Denberg!

Now, I'm positive that such an upstanding establishment as Hollywood Massage would have passed on any permission to use the photo and this was before licensing became a common business practice. Still, it surprised the hell out of me.

I was unable to come up with a photo of Susan that exactly matches the one on the matchbook, but I'm sure you'll forget that small detail after you scroll through the images below and visit her naughty, NSFW gallery HERE.

This looks to me like same outfit as in the matchbook photo.

Now, had I known that Susan Denberg was working at the Hollywood Massage back in the day . . .

View the Dearly Departed Hollywood Matchbooks THEN and NOW episode HERE.

SUSAN DENBERG'S VITAL STATISTICS

Susan Denberg

Miss August 1966

BIRTHPLACE: Bad Polzin, Germany

HAIR: BLONDE

EYES: GREEN

BUST: 34" C

WAIST: 25"

HIPS: 34"

HEIGHT: 5' 7"

WEIGHT: 123 lbs

• AMBITIONS: I'd like to be an actress.
• TURN-ONS: Sports cars, exciting clothes.
• TURNOFFS: Impoliteness, bad dressers, self-admiration.
• IN MY SPARE TIME: I like reading, dancing, sunbathing, attending car races, relaxing and swimming.
• FAVORITE AUTHOR: Harold Robbins.
• PLAY ME A: Ballad.
• PEOPLE I ADMIRE: Caesar, Napoleon and Cleopatra.
• MY IDEAL EVENING: Dinner in a romantic restaurant, seeing a show and the drinking and dancing till closing time.
• FAVORITE ACTORS: Steve McQueen and Sean Connery.

SUSAN DENBERG GALLERY

STARING AT JEANNE 'CAR'MEN

Horror movie fans will know the name Jeanne Carmen from her role in the B-movie shocker, THE MONSTER FROM PIEDRAS BLANCAS. However, when she wasn't acting in films, Miss Carmen was also a world-class trick-shot golfer and car enthusiast and in her spare time hung out with mobsters as well as mega-celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.

Speaking of cars, here's Jeanne (a natural brunette) in a photo-feature from the men's gag mag STARE (February 1960) showing that's she's just as charming inside a race car as on the golf course. Two words come immediately to mind: Hubba! Hubba!