lowbrow Weirdo sleezey Monster Tiki Trash

Anne Francis in a wardrobe test for “Forbidden Planet”, 1956

Vesuvius cocktails at the Zebra Room, 1946

Vesuvius cocktails at the Zebra Room, 1946

Vintage 1970s iron-on transfers

Connie Francis (c. 1965)

Tarantula Ghoul and Her Gravediggers - Graveyard Rock & King Kong

Dorothy Lamour (1941)

The Kona Kai

Though Zolar X are often labeled glam rock, and they certainly share the androgyny and costume gimmicks associated with that genre, nonetheless, they have a lot of the scrappy DIY ethos and stripped down simplicity of very early Punk Rock. Though they played alongside Van Halen, Jobriath (the first openly gay recording artist on a major label), WASP, Stryper, Twisted Sister, and Quiet Riot, they were the biggest band in the Los Angeles scene to never get a record deal, though they frequently appeared on local LA tv. Most people coming up in the LA scene held them in awe. 

“She Puts Everything in Writhing! Bouncy Blaze Starr Makes Every Curve a Wiggle When She Peels! Blaze Starr is tops in peelmanship! Every line and movement have a message all their own! This sultry stripper, headliner at Baltimore’s Two O’Clock Club, has the ringsiders shrieking when she puts on her take-it-off routine!” Died on this day: the striptease queen billed as “The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque” and "Miss Spontaneous Combustion” - Blaze Starr (née Fannie Belle Fleming, 10 April 1932 – 15 June 2015)! Starr became a fixture in Baltimore’s neon-lit “sin centre” The Block when she bought the Two O'Clock Club – which is where sleaze auteur John Waters discovered her. “Just from a showbiz point of view, I respected her deeply,” Waters has said. "I still think she was the best tourist attraction that Baltimore ever had.” I particularly treasure Starr for her gloriously terrible performance in Doris Wishman’s 1962 nudist camp flick Blaze Starr Goes Nudist! 

Born on this day 111 years ago: high empress of kitsch exotica, nostril-flaring Dominican actress, Caribbean Cyclone and Queen of Technicolour Maria Montez (née María África Gracia Vidal, 6 June 1912 - 7 September 1951). Venerated by the likes of Gore Vidal and underground queer filmmakers Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger, leading lady of films like Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944) Montez is a pivotal figure in the sensibility we now call “camp.” (Early Warhol drag superstar Mario Montez was christened after her). Aside from perhaps the young Yvonne De Carlo, did any woman wear a yashmak with more elan? “When I see myself on the screen, I look so beautiful I want to scream with joy” Montez once famously declared. Maria Montez, you make ME scream with joy! Here she is in Siren of Atlantis (1949) playing – what else? – an evil queen.

MODERN WEEKLY STYLE CHINA Photographer: Hailun Ma; Stylist: Macci Leung; Makeup: Yooyo Keong Ming; Hair: Zhou Xue Ming; Art Director: Doris He; Models: Wai Wai, Annie, Una, Juan, Hei Wa, Bonnie, Ginny

Daisies, Věra Chytilová, 1966

from photographer Otto Benivar, promotional shot for sweeps week, space helmet from the episode, "Jars of Sand"

Famous Fantasy Films fanzine- 1965