Tallulah's Vintage Nudes

August 9, 2004 3:13 AM

Big Hats and Eroticism is just one of the many features of Tallulahs.com, an excellent site dedicated to images of the vintage nude. There's also lots of wonderful trivia and commentary, such as a brief biography of the Mante sisters (immortalized in the brilliant ballerina images of painter Edgar Degas), and the story of Liane de Pougy, convent girl turned runaway wife, turned celebrated dancer of the French stage, turned Romanian Princess. Or you can read about the mystery of H. Traut, elusive photographer of "the gentle eroticism of fairyland" whose images graced hundreds of postcards for several years until he seemingly vanished from the scene some time before WWI. Interested in drawing or painting nudes yourself? Here's a page of classical nude poses - studies in various categories that you can work from, including "The beauty of butts" and "seductive smoking"! Plus, you can peruse Tallulah's own art nudes, and a fabulous links page. NSFW, obviously.
posted by taz (4 comments total)

Ah! I almost overlooked the fact that posting something with the name "Tallulah" finally allows me tell one of my favorite anecdotes:

During filming of the Hitchcock movie "Lifeboat", Tallulah Bankhead would shock the cast and crew by climbing the ladder up to the set, sans-underwear (that would be "panties" to you, iconomy). When someone complained to Hitch, he protested that it was not his place to interfere, that it was a matter to be handled "by wardrobe, costume, or perhaps hairdressing". (There's a slightly different version here; but I heard mine in a television biography of Hitchcock, and prefer it.)
posted by taz at 3:56 AM on August 9, 2004

Just try not to picture the models as they would appear today.
posted by ColdChef at 4:50 AM on August 9, 2004

This is terrific taz - for an aspiring painter, the techniques guide is really well done, though still (ahem) sketchy.
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:20 AM on August 9, 2004

Nice to know that Bankhead took full responsibility for her own wardrobe malfunctions. If her lack of britches (I love that word, especially when combined with the word 'edible') was a matter that could be handled by hairdressing (that Hitch was such a quick wit) then she obviously wasn't getting a Brazilian Wax.

Hats are so sexy, and the vintage photographs are really scrumptious. Great link, as usual, taz! This site is like an all-day sucker.
posted by iconomy at 6:59 AM on August 9, 2004