Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful book - Hollywood legends mixed with porno models!, July 2, 2000
By A Customer
I am so glad I was able to see a copy of this book before I ordered it because I would have hated to shell out good money for it. In this author's eyes, the legends of Hollywood be they Harlow or Hayworth are no more accomplished or important than last month's Playboy centerfold! I feel there are two very different markets the author is trying to combine, those who love Hollywood and those who love "retro raunch" as they call it or contemporary nudie models and this book is quite clumsy in its attempts to equate the two. Most audaciously, the author lists these 1,000 women in some sort of sexy importance order and somehow a number of women with no more accomplishment than being say Miss April in Playboy may rank above a Hollywood legend. Thus you have Clara Bow, THE sex symbol of silent films, and Mae West, whose sexy films truly changed the film industry barely making Sullivan's top 100! And you have Dorothy Lamour, one of the top four pinup girls of World War II barely making the top 350! And worse of all are these little small paragraph biographies of the women that anyone with the slighest knowledge of movies could have written (and written better because I noticed several factual errors even in this short space. Indeed the author seems to know little about general film history, despite claiming this is an "alltime" sex symbol list I spotted maybe only three women from the silent era) There are several topless photos of several completely obscure women that are totally meaningless to anyone unless you are really into porno. I'm not a prude and I don't mind at all that someone may be interested in more data on these nudie girls (if you can call tiny paragraph bios "data") but please have a little respect for the legitimate film stars and their legacies and don't be so sexist as if to suggest they have nothing more to offer than the visual appeal of a men's magazine model.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary!, March 3, 2000
I loved this book! I've been collecting books on movies, popular entertainment, glamour and pin-ups for many years, and I'd always been a bit frustrated that none of these books really covered the full range of beautiful women who made contributions to our pop culture. That huge gap has at last been filled--with style and beauty--by "Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia."All the obvious names--Monroe, Mansfield, Jean Harlow, Raquel Welch, Kim Basinger, Sharon Stone, Tyra Banks--are of course covered with brisk, informative biographies and striking photos. But perhaps half of the 1,700-plus women in this amazing book are exactly the kind of gorgeous, intriguing women who had NEVER been included in any previous movie or entertainment reference book. That fact alone makes this book a must-have for any serious fan. For example, I'd vaguely recalled seeing photos in Life magazine in the '50s of a beautiful blonde starlet who drove all over Hollywood in a crazy convertible covered in pink rugging. That starlet was Sandra Giles, who (I learn in this book) appeared in films with Elvis and Raquel Welch and had an interesting, colorful career. There's also a terrific photo, and an address to write to her. A blonde bombshell of more recent vintage, Heather Elizabeth Parkhurst, co-starred in the sexy Showtime series "Sherman Oaks" a couple of years ago; here I learn about her other movie/TV credits and magazine appearances, along with her fan-mail address and a sizzling photo. Just about every page has something--either a piece of trivia, anecdote, or photo--that will "grab" just about any reader. Author Steve Sullivan has really created something special here. This is the ultimate reference book for any fan of glamorous gals past and present.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, February 24, 2000
From the perspective of a longtime collector of vintage men's magazines and glamour/pin-up memorabilia, "Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia" is a book I've been waiting for all my life. The concept is terrific, and the execution is even better; it's a slam-dunk 5-star winner.Hundreds of the 1,700-plus women covered in this remarkable book are ladies I'd long admired, but knew relatively little about. Author Steve Sullivan rectifies that problem with the in-depth information and sizzling photos provided here. Just a couple of examples: 1970s burlesque star Morganna was widely known as "The Kissing Bandit" for running out on baseball fields and kissing players. But thanks to the Glamour Encyclopedia, now I know when and where she was born, what she's been up to in recent years, what her best magazine appearances were, and an address to write to her. (The book includes hundreds of fan-mail and website addresses for pin-up stars past and present.) The photo is terrific, too. Men's mag collectors may vaguely recall the name of Jane Dolinger, who was featured in many magazines during the '60s. But author Sullivan gives us the full lowdown on her biography, including the seven books she wrote about her adventures visiting with headhunters in Ecuador, exploring voodoo rites in Trinidad, etc., accompanied by one of her most gorgeous magazine cover photos. As we learn in this book, many of these glamour gals led pretty remarkable lives--they had far more going on than met the eye! I could give many other examples, but you're better off discovering them for yourself. "Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia" is an absolute treasure trove of information and scintillating photos (both clad and unclad!) on more than 100 years of the world's most exciting women. This is a book I'm going to spend many hours delving into at my leisure, and I think I'll enjoy every minute.
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by Steve Sullivan
