Blonde ambition: book looks at the women who became Britain's post-war cultural icons

"The stories of Diana Dors (1931-84), Ruth Ellis (1926-55), Barbara Windsor (1937-2020) and Pauline Boty (1938-66) act as anchors for this far-reaching account of social and cultural change in the 25 years following the Second World War. Yet how can the fates of these four women expose the role of class, social ambition and desire in reforming the cultural atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s? And how did complexities of gender roles and visual culture become more convoluted still?"

"The book begins with the 1967 album cover image of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by Jann Haworth and Peter Blake. Within the colourful crowd scene, Nead picks out the figures of Hollywood blondes Mae West and Marilyn Monroe and her first British blonde, Diana Dors. Hidden in plain sight is the diagonal line between these three figures that tells the story of the post-war passage of American glamour to Britain."

"Blonde became British, Nead argues, when Dors, the British troops' pin-up girl during the Suez Crisis of 1956, was dubbed the British Marilyn. The perception was that Dors flirted with respectability while revealing a degree of vulgarity in her demeanour, and her glamorous image soon began to detract from her status as a serious actress and performer. Her marriage to Dennis Hamilton in 1951 heralded, through his mismanagement of her finances, a period of bankruptcy and legal cases that affected the rest of her life."

The 1967 Sgt. Pepper album cover places Hollywood blondes Mae West and Marilyn Monroe beside Diana Dors, revealing a diagonal lineage of American glamour to Britain. Blondeness became British when Diana Dors, troops' pin-up during the 1956 Suez Crisis, was dubbed the British Marilyn. Commercial promotion of blondeness, through hair dye, sold the dream of a perfect lifestyle. Dors's flirtation with respectability and perceived vulgarity undermined her acting reputation. Her marriage to Dennis Hamilton led to financial mismanagement, bankruptcy, and legal troubles that shaped her later life. The lives of Ruth Ellis, Barbara Windsor and Pauline Boty expose class, ambition, desire, and shifting gender and visual cultures in post-war Britain.

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