original The LADY MUCK
From Cressida Bonas’ aristocratic mum covered in oil to Cilla cracking jokes at the beach, the iconic photos of the women who made the Sixties swing
THE image — of a beautiful young woman naked and covered in motor oil — is as striking as they come. It’s one of a series of vintage modelling shots to be found in Birds Of Britain — a reissue of a book first published 50 years ago and an accompanying exhibition.
Quite whether it sums up the Swinging Sixties is debatable, but it’s certainly attention-grabbing and provocative. The sexism of the title seems staggering now but, like the images, typical of its time. And the girl involved was, it seems, quite up for the experience.
‘Good God, yes,’ laughs John d. Green, the photographer who took the iconic image. ‘She was full of fun. She was a lovely little dolly bird. I had this idea of smearing oil on her face, a few smudges on her forehead, but I didn’t know how she’d react to the idea. She said, “Great, let’s do it”, but then we kept adding more. Eventually we ended up going to a garage and getting a whole can and smearing it all over her.’
He bumped into the girl — a society type — a few times over the years, but met up with her again recently, only to discover she ‘hadn’t changed a bit’.
‘She bounced up and said “John, since I saw you last I’ve been married four times.” She was rather proud of it.’
The sting in this story is that the oilcovered model was a 20-year-old It-girl of the time, Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, actress, model and dancer, daughter of the 6th Earl Howe — and now the mother of Cressida Bonas, recent girlfriend of Prince Harry.
For her part, Lady Mary-Gaye has said: ‘I wasn’t stripped as the picture may suggest — it was as decent as high tea.’
But why slap oil on her? ‘Her grandfather was a motor racing driver, Francis Curzon, and won Le Mans in 1931,’ says Green. ‘So I thought the oil would be appropriate.’
If she (and the Royal Family) thought her colourful youth had been forgotten, then the reissuing of this picture might come as a shock. Lady Mary-Gaye, who once had a cocktail named after her at Claridge’s, might lead a less attention-grabbing life now, but the famous photograph of her will feature in the new book and exhibition.
Birds Of Britain was a huge talking point worldwide when it first appeared. The first shoot for it took place 50 years ago, just weeks before England won the World Cup, and Green, then an advertising photographer aged 32, with a blue E-type Jag, says the word ‘birds’ to describe women was ‘commonplace then. Sexist? I don’t think so.’
It went on to sell 60,000 copies — 20 times the original print run — and led to a U.S. tour and appearances on TV shows for Green and some of his models.
LADY Mary-Gaye was one of an army of beautiful young women pictured by Green over a year. The book was designed, he says, to ‘celebrate what was happening in London at that time’. London was then the centre of the Swinging Sixties, the fashion and cultural capital of the world.
Now an updated version is being launched — reigniting interest in these women and the world they bestrode, dressed mostly in mini skirts and platforms.
Hearing Green talk about the project is a reminder of how much the world of photography, fashion and even celebrity has changed. ‘Everybody was saying London was swinging, but I wanted to ask “What is it that is making it swing?” And for me it was the girls.
‘All the girls we wanted were famous, at the top of their game,’ he says. ‘We went after people like Julie Christie, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black. Nowadays, to get any celebrity, you’d have to go through agents. Back then, we called the girls up.
‘None of them got paid. The only one I didn’t get was Twiggy, because she did want money.
‘One might have asked to be picked up in a limo, but we laughed at that. The ride was more likely to be on the handlebars of my bike.’
He photographed Cilla on a sand dune after collecting her from a hotel in Blackpool, where she was appearing for the summer season. ‘I had an open-top car, and Cilla said, “You’d better put the hood up or we’ll be mobbed.” After 15 minutes she said, “Can you put the hood down. No one seems to be recognising me.” ’
The roll-call of photographic subjects is jaw-dropping. John persuaded such icons as Marianne Faithfull, Lulu, Susannah York, Mary Quant, Edina Ronay, Sandra Paul (now Sandra Howard) and Charlotte Rampling to take part.
There in the line-up are Pattie Boyd with an insect on her nose — a reference to her husband, Beatle George Harrison — and Jane Asher, Paul McCartney’s then girlfriend, who was photographed sitting in the middle of a pond on London’s Putney Heath.
‘Not one of them complained about what I asked them to do. Julie Christie was my favourite. We thought she might be difficult — she was the most famous, I guess, at the time — but she was adorable, and endlessly patient.
‘We went on set with her, and she was a dream. It was the same with Lulu and Cilla Black. They all understood what we wanted to do, and at the time they all wanted publicity.’
Also accommodating was singer Dusty Springfield, who had acquired a reputation of being quite a diva. He says. ‘Her reputation was awful. She rang up and said, “I can give you half an hour” and was quite short. We arranged she’d come round at 7pm. When she arrived, and we got working, she was fine. She left at 2.30am. I don’t know why, but she just started to talk and, my, that was one sad lady.’ It would be years before Dusty went public about her sexuality, but that night she told John about her anguish. John says: ‘She came out. I felt very sorry for her. She was living this lie and I think any difficulties she had in how she came across were because she was portraying this front.’ The aim of the project, says John, was to capture images that were, yes, sexy and cheeky, but in a fun way rather than overtly provocative. ‘The thing about that time was the women were so alive. The Pill had become popular, and there was this air of emancipation. It was an exciting time. We wanted to encapsulate that in a book.’
In practical terms, it was a challenge. John was working full-time in advertising, so most shoots happened at night, many at his home.
Also coming up with fresh ideas of how to get the girls to pose was a challenge. Happily, this was in the days ‘before health and safety’, he points out, so the scope was greater than it would be today.
‘We found out one model, Diana McCloud, was frightened of mice, so I had the idea of having her — hair standing on end — on one side of the picture, and a mouse on the other.
‘How to do it, though? There was a hatch in my ceiling and I ended up having someone hang her out of it, upside down.
‘My assistant covered his hands in baby powder — but after four shots he started shouting, “She’s slipping, she’s slipping.” I dropped the camera and went over and grabbed her and we all collapsed on the floor, laughing our heads off. You’d never be allowed to do that today.’
Another advantage of the time, interestingly, was that ‘Photoshop hadn’t been invented’, nor was Botox de rigueur. ‘Thankfully, I didn’t have to contend with that.’
The sad thing about organising the current exhibition, and once again examining the pictures, John says, is ‘realising how many of the girls are no longer with us’.
Legends like Cilla and Dusty are gone. ‘It’s hard to believe.’
John came to tire of photographing models and has done many things since — running a nightclub among them — but he also turned to photographing cars. ‘It became a specialism,’ he laughs. So his early dousing of Lady MaryGaye Curzon in mechanic’s oil was a taste of things to come. Let’s hope she will see the funny side.
Birds Of Britain by John d. Green is at snap Galleries, London, until November 26. The Big Book Of Birds Of Britain will be published in February by Ormond Yard Press.