Britain's Answer to Jayne Mansfield

Hi-Life magazine
(Vol. 1 Num. 3, November 1958)

Kindly scanned and sent by Argyle who wrote:

I found your Sabrina Site quite by happy accident, and was most impressed. Sabrina was one of the first models I really actively collected, and I was happy to find in your collection a great number of the Sabrina scans I had made and posted to newsgroups and my Pinups! site long ago. Your collection is undoubtedly the most comprehensive anywhere, and I doubt I have much of anything "new" to contribute, though in looking through your magazine appearance articles I didn't happen to see one I do still have--"Hi-Life Interviews Sabrina". Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Argyle!

The fabled Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon have long since disappeared from the earth, but even the chromium-trimmed 20th Century is not without its esthetic and engineering miracles. We refer not to the filter tip or to the dual exhaust or even to the no-deposit bottle - as wondrous as these things are - but to a living phenomenon which promises to benefit mankind even more bountifully than the Amazon fly-catching plant or the praying mantis.

rounding, ripening and redolence

We refer, in short, to the SABRINA, a fur-bearing, two legged creature native to the British Isles - long of limb, white of skin, yellow of hair, pneumatic of hip, heavy of lid; a prototype female of the species Homo Sapiens, whose 18 years have been dedicated to a rounding, ripening and redolence of secondary sex characteristics which medical authorities have been heard to describe as "absurd."

Understandably skeptical about the accuracy of the Sabrina's advertised dimensions (or even about the existence of a Sabrina), a research committee from HI-LIFE recently took advantage of a rare opportunity to observe the elusive creature in her native habitat: a Manhattan hotel suite. Arriving full of doubt, but laden with camera, note-book and tape measure, we rounded a corner and were confronted without warning by an unobstructed view of the Sabrina herself languishing on the divan - as you see her here - swathed in an amount of fur that would embarrass the smallest kitten in a litter, and fanning the immediate vicinity (which included a cluster of feverish press agents) with the most amazing pair of ... black eyelashes!

Stricken with the same feeling of smallness and humility that overcomes all visitors to Grand Canyon, we were momentarily unable to state our reason for being there, and were being borne away from the Circe on a tide of bodyguards, when voice returned to our throats. We mumbled out the purpose of our visit - waving the tape measure and referring to the thousands of men whose entire sense of proportion depended on the outcome of our findings.

the innermost circle

And finally - after mentioning the Good Neighbor Policy, praising British Colonialism and drinking to the Queen, our intentions were considered honourable, and we were admitted to the innermost circle surrounding the divan. It was here we learned the two things which made our visit - yea, our very lives - worthwhile: First, that the medical authorities who described Sabrina's physical development as "absurd" were guilty of understatement; and second, that the Sabrina, in addition to existing, is also capable of speech . In the course of our visit she was actually heard to say "Coo, wot brass! Oy nevah 'ad to tayke off moy bra in England, nossiree!"

every parabolic and elliptical curve

"Brass" notwithstanding, however, we managed to walk away with living testimony to the truth of the Sabrina legend. Our unsteady fingers pressed the shutter button from every accessible angle. Our trembling hands stretched the straining tape measure around every parabolic and elliptical curve. And we emerged at last, shaken but triumphant, with evidence which authorities can no longer scoff at.

And here it is, recorded not only for our readers, but for posterity : the British Sabrina herself in word and picture - all 41½-17-36 of her testifying that whatever else it may lack, the 20th Century is not without its own particular Colossus, its own special brand of Hanging Gardens, its own magnificent version of the Pyramids of Cheops.

Archeology, anyone?