To: pml1@yahoogroups.com
From: Mark Tomlonson
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 10:56:36 -0400
Subject: [PML1] CC: Marilyn Waltz I

In Marilyn Waltz' centerfold (April 1954) she's leaning against a blue 
velvet throw tossed over a settee.

Marilyn (who may be Margaret Scott) really deserved the attention she 
got from the pin-up world. She was an absolutely attractive young woman. 
She's not at her best here, but even then she looks very good.

The downer for me is the lack of imagination. As attractive as Marilyn 
is, she can't quite swim upstream against indifferent production.

The source of this centerfold is "The Odalisque" and other 
late-Nineteenth Century paintings of Working Girls. The posture, the 
setting and the fig-leaf flowers all rely on that heritage. The hairdo 
comes from Veronica Lake. It works on Marilyn, but is nothing to write 
home about.

In a real sense I could be asking too much of the photo. It was meant 
for a time when pictures like this were squirreled away, hidden from the 
public eye. They were enjoyed only in private, rarely receiving the kind 
of scrutiny I'm giving it here. In that sense the rote iteration of 
art's oldest subject is up to the task it was asked to perform. Marilyn 
jumps beyond it in leaps and bounds.

Photographer: (unknown)

Scoring:
Pin-up: 2.0
Erotic: 1.5
Artistic: 2.0

Overall: 1.8 out of 4.0

Cyber Club Portfolio Photo I like better than the Centerfold: There is 
no portfolio.

http://cyber.playboy.com/members/playmates/files/1954/02/centerfold.html


Mark Tomlonson
Kalamazoo MI