Encyclopedia Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes)

A part of nylon.net

The official site of the life, times and career of

Sabrina

19 May 1936 - 24 November 2016

A.K.A. Norma Ann Sykes, Sabby, Mrs Sabrina Melsheimer, Dr. Norma Sykes

for the past years.

 

 


 

Contact Mark, the SabrinaMaster

See the full history of Encyclopedia Sabrina from 16 June, 2000 to 6 December, 2024.

Sabrina - Norma Ann Sykes

Search the Encyclopedia Sabrina site

 

New Sabrina Stuff

Full history

 



6 December 2024

So, it's 1981 and you're heading home on the tube doing the Evening Times crossword...

6 November 2024

Finally got around to compiling a Steve Cochran page, cobbled together from various sources to which I am indebted. It needs a lot of editing, but it is a start.

4 November 2024

Finally, you can enjoy the full-length versions of Sabrina's Movies, thanks to Cloud Storage, which alleviates the demands on my limited site storage capacity. Ten movies in varying levels of video quality - just for you :-)

This is the direct link to the complete Sabrina movies.

 

 

See more history from the last years.





Sabrina was the impossibly-proportioned darling of Britain, the cast of the Goon Show , and most discerning testosterone-enabled beings during the 1950s and 1960s.

Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes , D.Litt (Hon) was the voluptuous British Stockport lass who became Sabrina and accomplished above the hips what Elvis accomplished below .

She was the Cheshire cheese-cake pinup, actress, singer, cabaret star, publicity pioneer, and sex-queen who didn't like to be touched.

She was a 'dumb blonde' who was a genius at self-promotion, an ill-educated teenager because of lengthy hospital stays, and an honorary Doctor of Letters with an impossibly-proportioned figure.

A victim of polio, mocked for her lack of talent and excess of bosom, she became an international phenomenon who dated princes; charmed dictators, the public and cynical reporters; and generated more myths, lies, legends and throbbing memories than anyone else of her era.

Falling more or less accidentally into an industry for which she was - at first - unqualified, she endured, trained, paid her dues, and thrived to become the biggest, least talented, most photographed celebrity of her day.

Was she, as she herself once said, just a dumb blonde with a 42½ inch bust and a 19 inch waist? Or was she an pioneering promotional genius with a native sense of publicity that would make most agents weep with envy?


 

 

 


She's Our Sabrina.

Welcome to Encyclopedia Sabrina

Please enjoy the phenomenon that was our Sabrina who - until 24 November 2016 - was alive, gorgeous, and fairly well in Hollywood, and in contact with the Sabrina Site !

Can YOU support the Sabrina Site?

See all the Sabrina News since the site began.

Read a Word from Mark the Webmaster , explaining why on earth I created this site in the first place.


Sabrina Shortcuts

The Life of Sabrina, 1936-2016

In Australia 1959 and 1961

Photos

Magazines and Newspapers | In books

Movies | Stage shows | Plays

Short films | Newsreels | Television

Songs

My Interviews with Sabrina

Odd Things about Sabrina

Incidents Involving Sabrina

Readers' Memories of Sabrina

Sabrina Advertises

Goon Show references

Sabrina in Court

Sabrina Nude

Tributes to Sabrina


Contact Mark, the SabrinaMaster

Site News and History

Conditions of use

Vital Sabstistics


Stage name:

Sabrina ( origins of the name )

Real name:

Born Norma Ann Sykes (she hated the name)
After marriage, Sabrina Melsheimer (she hated the husband)

Born:

19 May 1936
in Heaviley, Stockport, Cheshire, England.
Note: she was not born in Blackpool or Wales in 1933 or 1938.

Stats:

42½-18-36

The "½" was vital - it set her apart from her competition .


AKA:

"The Hunchfront of Lime Grove"
"The British Bosom"
"The Careless Cleavage"
"Britain's Jayne Mansfield"
"Britain's finest hourglass"
"England's Maid of the Mountains"
"Queen of the Big Top"
"The Juliet with the Built-in Balcony"
"The average Englishman's Goddess of Glamour."
"Poor photographer's model"
" British TV's first sex symbol "
" The Shape "
"La Busto" (in the Cuban Press)
"Blondely bulbous non-actress" - Encyclopedia of British Film .

As Raymond Chandler would have said of Sabrina, she had curves “to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window”.


Career span:

Working years: 1954-1969.

Golden years: 1955-1959


Residences:

Potential future shrines:

  • 1936-05-19 - 25 Buckingham St, Heaviley, Stockport, England [ photo ]
  • 1948 (approx) - 1 Saville Rd, Blackpool, England (parents' B&B) [ photo - video ]
  • 1955-09-27 - 233 Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale, London, W.9 [ photo - letter ]
  • 1960-08-01 - Sutton Place, NY. [ source ]
  • 1968-08-01 - Woodland Hills, LA, USA [ court record ]
  • 1968-10-07 - 5432 Calhoun Ave, Sherman Oaks, CA, USA [ burglary ]
  • 1984-12-19 - Hortense St, West Toluca Lake, CA, USA

Talents:

Self-publicity
Pinup modelling
TV celebrity
Stage acting
Singing
Acting in film and TV
Performing in cabaret and concerts
Driver [MP3]. Chef [MP3]

Status:

Sabrina died on 24 November 2016 but our memories of her burn brightly.

Her ashes were spread in a secret location in England.

Do not believe the post-mortem crap published by the Daily Mail . Their vicious calumny is biased and often factually incorrect - probably a puerile and vindictive reaction caused by their now-defunct sister publisher The Mail on Sunday which published defamatory lies about Sabrina and were later forced to retract tem . The snivelling cowards now prey on Sabrina's memory now she cannot defend herself.

The editors and staff of the Daily Mail deserve to be slapped in the face on every possible opportunity. If you see them slithering along the street, please feel free to slap them in the face with a cricket bat on my behalf. As they crumple to the concrete gasping "Why?", whisper "Sabrina" into their shell-likes.

You're new here?

You're new here?

You're frightened, confused, overwhelmed by the sheer hugeness of Sabrinastuff? I would not be surprised. They ARE huge.

Sabrina simultaneously terrified and delighted short men like Arthur Askey who were standing nearby when she turned around suddenly.

Here's a good place to start your Sabrina experience.


Sabrina's Life Story

The Life Story of Sabrina


Could there be a miniseries in this?


Vince Gilligan, let's do lunch. Tentative series title: Breaking Bra .



Photos - I have about 2,900 in 2022.

Let's face it, chaps: Sabrina was not camera-shy.

 

Vintage magazines and newspaper articles - hundreds to peruse.

It may shock you, but Sabrina was not averse to publicity, and that led to a fascinating farrago of Fleet Street facts and fantasy.

Read all of it; believe half of it. Cry out "Bloody Nora!" over the other half.

 

Sabrina's movies

Sabrina's movies . All ten of them. She was always perfectly cast.

 

 

Sabrina in Australia

Sabrina in Australia 1959 and in 1961

 

Sabrina in court

Sabrina in Court

Litigious Sabrina spent quite some time in court

Find out why.

 

The study of Sabrina

Sabrina in the modern press

Sabrina in recent books

Social Commentary on Sabrina

Sabrina University - academic interest in Sabrina

Sabrina in Cabaret

Sabrina's Live Cabaret Shows

  • Chiswick Empire 1955
  • French Capers - 1955
  • This'll Make You Laugh - 1956
  • Pleasures of Paris (London) 1957
  • Pleasures of Paris (Australia) 1958-9
  • Showgirls - 1961

 

Sabrina's songs

Sabrina's songs . It's not a large discography, but it is a memorable one.

 

Sabrina on stage

Sabrina's plays on stage . Legitimate theatre, darrrrrrling!

  • Pajama Tops (1965-1966 in Baltimore and St Louis)
  • The Loving Couch (1966)
  • Rattle of a Simple Man (1966)

 

When I was in touch with Sabrina

The Sabrina interviews - by phone, by me.


Also see In Touch with Sabrina - my contacts with Sabrina.


Sabrina references on radio

Sabrina references on radio (featuring steam-powered Goon Show references to Sabrina - where this site began!)

Sabrina was an object of fascination and unbridled lust to the Goons - especially author Spike Milligan. Uncover the cryptic references to Sabrina that have puzzled some younger listeners, and forced older listeners to call the nurse and draw the brown paper screens.

 

The Goons

Who is this Mike Spilligan anyway?

Sabrina in newsreels

Sabrina in the Newsreels - before TV news, the stars appeared before the feature film in the cinema.
And Sabrina was often there.

 

Sabrina and Stirling Moss 1958

Sabrina's Short Films . When gentlemen's clubs needed to see Sabrina washing her hair, going to bed, or leaning over for no apparent reason.

 

Sabrina on TV - Before Your Very Eyes , and in America.

 

Sabrina's advertising was a powerful attractant to men whose trousers were bulging... with fat wallets.
Of particular importance is Sabrina's infamous Caltex ad - still popping fly buttons 50 years later.

(Senior Sabrinafans - please explain to youngsters what "fly buttons" were.)

 

Readers' Memories of Sabrina.

The knees may be older, and arthritic, but many still tremble with memories of Sabrina.

Odd things about Sabrina : some are very odd indeed

 

Did you date Sabrina? Yeah, yeah. Sure you did.
Anyway, these big names really dated Sabrina .

 

The Sabrina Hall of Fame
Join this pantheon of honoured contributors - earn a prestigious Sabrina Honour.

 

How to spot the real Sabrina - don't be distracted by second-best. Here are some ways to identify the real Sabrina.

 

 

Donalda Jordan

No. That's not Sabrina.

Sabrina Collectibles . Genuine? Maybe, maybe not... OK. Probably not.

This one is real . An A3 sized nude Sabrina jigsaw - 300 pieces of black and white naked perfection.
You can buy one if you love Sabrina.

 

I realised I had no idea what sort of lingerie Sabrina was wearing in her thousands of photos.

So I started vital reaseach. What is a teddy?

See the Lingerie page .

You're welcome

Site History - everything that has been done to this site, since like forever .

 

In

Search

Of

Sabrina

Stuff


Bullet If you have found Sabrina stuff , I would be delighted if you contacted me . There are precious few undiscovered pictures still to be on the internet but I'm sure there are still a few knees trembling out there, especially in the UK, and those knee-owners may have a buried Sabrina treasure or two in the sock drawer. This is an international philanthropic enterprise, for the benefit of red-blooded males everywhere. Go on - the wife will never know.

Bullet Young men : go to your aged fathers and grandfathers and say, "Do you remember Sabrina?" If their eyes glaze over and they start drooling, let me know .
Personal recollections of Sabrina are valuable.

Bullet You! You were a knee-trembler of the Sabrina generation .
This is what you do: wait 'til the missus is out, and rummage through your secret stash of goodies you don't think she knows about.

There may just be a magazine, a photo, or a single hair of hers that you have treasured for more than half a century.
Or maybe there is a lovingly-drafted letter and poem that you always intended to send to Sabrina, but you never got around to finding the address or buy a stamp..
Perhaps you have one of these elusive goodies stashed away under your pyjamas?  If you find something, steady your trembling fingers and let me know .

Go to it, lads! Sabrina is the last great unexploded bombshell from the blonde and busty 1950s.
We cannot let her memory sink into the abyss of forgotten legends.
We owe it to our sons and grandsons!

(Wipes tear from eye.)

Can you support the Sabrina Site?

B.O.O.B.S.

BOOBS icon

?

BOOBS

The golden keys beneath some of the images on this site are remnants of the " Best Of Our Beautiful Sabrina" scheme whereby special folk who contributed valuable Sabrinastuff could get privileged access to high-quality versions of pix and video.

The Elite BOOBS Society was for discerning and deserving gentlefolk only.
As of 22 Dec 2021, the VIP files section is closed.

But fear not: contributors of rare and wonderful Sabrinastuff can still get mega-sized pix or videos - such as Odysseas from Art & Hue who produced a wonderful Sabrina pop-art poster from a high-resolution image I sent him.


Thanks to all past B.O.O.B.S, members for your support.

In
Conclusion


Thank you for visiting, and I hope some happy memories (and loins) have been stirred.

Many people have gone " corrrr - blimey - I remember those !" since the first Sabrina page was created at nylon.net on 16 June 2000 - only days ago.

Visit the original site from way back when, courtesy of archive.org.



Queen Sabrina

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Encyclopedia Sabrina is a research project that got out of control at nylon.net on 27 April 1998.

This page was last modified on Friday 6 December, 2024 13:53 Australian Eastern Standard Time

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