Do blondes have more fun? ?It was Clairol that first posed the question, but the answer never really mattered-just ?being a blonde made you special. In this celebration of the Golden Age of golden hair, ?Barnaby Conrad III, author of the best-selling The Martini, pays tribute to a cultural icon ?that changed the world. The worship of blondeness started with Jean Harlow's wise-?cracking platinum vamp; overnight, blonde became the hair color of choice for the ?adventurous woman, and the ticket to top billing in Tinseltown. Stars like Marlene ?Dietrich, Mae West, Veronica Lake, Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot, Eva Marie Saint, ?Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, and Jayne Mansfield ?each in her unique way advanced the mystique of light-colored locks. When brunette ?Norma Jean transformed herself into the golden Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate dye was ?cast. Combining fashion photography and literary excerpts with a witty ?and admiring text, The Blonde revels in the myth and magic of the blonde ideal. An ?appendix of post-Marilyn blondes including Sharon Stone and Cameron Diaz shows how ?the legacy lives on. Left unresolved is the conundrum of why gentlemen, who prefer ?blondes, so often marry brunettes.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Reviews from: San Francisco Magazine
Los Angeles Times
It's a Blonde, Blonde World. No other hair color carries quite the same mystique, and the gleaming locks of modern-day Gwyneth and Cameron continue to fuel the frenzied search for that perfect shade of pale. Barnaby Conrad III's new tribute, The Blonde, gets to the root of the matter, describing how a hair color became a national obsession after Jean Harlow's silvery locks seduced moviegoers—and Marilyn Monroe's beguiling blend of naivete and sexuality cemented platinum's iconic status. Conrad's richly detailed narrative traces the shade's gilded history through the cinema sirens, including Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, and Lana Turner, women who made being blonde a cultural phenomenon. The text's deft weave of chatty biography, glossy movie stills, and philosophical musing highlights what the hue's hallowed legacy already hints at: Love it or hate it, blonde is more than just a hair color.
Is it true blondes have more fun? Barnaby Conrad III thinks so. The author is following his previous odes to cultural icons, The Cigar and The Martini, with an homage to golden girls.
The Blonde, due this month, is a lavishly history of the Gilded Age of Hair Color, which focuses on the decades between World War I and the Vietnam War. During this enlightenment Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Veronica Lake, Grace Kelly, Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe built the blonde mystique.
Combining film stills, fashion photography, vintage ads and literary excerpts, Conrad tries to explain the inexplicable: the fascination with blondness.
About the Author
Barnaby Conrad III is a painter and the author of ten books including Absinthe: History in a Bottle , published by Chronicle Books (0-8118-1650-8).
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blonde: An Illustrated History of the Golden Era from Harlow to Monroe (Hardcover)
The ideal gift for the man who appreciates both beautiful books and beautiful blondes. Indeed, men and women alike will appreciate this exceptional effort from the charming Mr. Conrad, who has somehow managed to imbue his book with a magical feeling of blondness. Strongly recommended, despite a few errors. For example, Sam Brody was a passenger, not the driver, in the car accident that killed Jayne Mansfield. Also, BC III could have done without including people like Princess Diana, Drew Barrymore and, especially, Madonna. But you can't go wrong with a book that has Veronica Lake on the front cover and Kim Novak's back on the back.
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