Sabrina

LEND-LEASE NUDE

Sir! September 1957

by James Connolley

IT's only natural that Britain's answer to the twin threat of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield the bosomy Sabrina-should come over here to exhibit her abundant wares to the American public on TV and in the movies.

Tourists in England have the privilege of viewing one of the country's stateliest mansions [ Thoresby Hall, Sherwood Forest - Ed.] , with the rather startling message over the door: "Sabrina Slept Here."

(For pix, see Sir! September 1959 )

For a little extra they get a glimpse of the bed. Thus a British businessman enlisted the aid of a bust to keep from going busted.

British bluebloods have been vying for gimmicks to boost the tourist business. One of the more enterprising aristocrats arranged for Sabrina to sleep in one of the two hundred rooms of Thoresby Hall . It's a reply to rivals who advertise that "Queen Elizabeth I Slept Here."

Except for the women of the royal family, who are really of German extraction, British females are regarded in this country to be rather on the flat-chested side. And the staid Englishmen are not supposed to take the interest in cleavage that the American male evinces. But Sabrina changed this misconception indeed.

The day Sabrina first leaned out of British TV sets with her 41-inch bosom, Englishmen crowded closer and closer to her bulging image. The second time she displayed her charms on a TV closeup the BBC, in a sharp departure from its usual stuffed-shirt attitude, hailed the well-stuffed Sabrina as "Queen of National Dairy Week."

Within a few days contract offers came in so fast that Sabrina had to disconnect her telephone, complaining: "After all, I only have two breasts."

She began getting the English equivalent of two hundred dollars and more for fleeting appearances at fashionable charity shows. A society photographer asked her to pose for him and she started a movie.
All this was in very sharp contrast to the two bucks she'd been paid for nude poses about three years before, when she'd arrived in London at the age of sweet 16, bravely determined to make her way in the world as a model. Things were tough and the only work she could get was posing for art photographs. A girl has to eat, and she had the naive belief that no one would recognise her undraped. Those photographs were destined to become almost as famous as Marilyn Monroe's calendar.

A hep car manufacturer had decks of cards made up with the photographs on the back. The cards sold so fast that the vice squad had to be called into action. Sabrina's mother squawked to Scotland Yard. She told inspectors her blonde daughter was "an inexperienced girl when those pictures were taken, and it's shameful."

Sabrina herself threw a tantrum. "I was only a kid of 16 when those were taken," she wailed. "I was not going to admit defeat to my parents and ask them for my fare home. I will do everything I can to stop them from being circulated."

Scotland Yard officials promised that the heavy hand of British law would be raised, particularly if any of the pictures "come outside the category of art studies."
One official told reporters: "I will not rest until I have the full collection on my desk here before me. I'm treating it as a matter of priority."

Cynical newsmen have observed that the Sabrina decks are livening up many a midnight card game in the venerable portals of Scotland Yard.

Sabrina's case was somewhat similar to that of 15-year-old Pat Pedrick, another charmer in the nude card-deck series. Pat also “took legal advice” when she hit the headlines after her schoolteacher complained she was spending more time posing in the altogether than doing her homework.
Widely, distributed eyefuls of Pat led to her being chosen as Lady Godiva for a bareback ride in a pageant. Commented a spokesman for the London card-making firm: "The sets are selling very well at home and abroad."

Sabrina's real name is Norma Sykes, and she's the daughter of a fairly well-off Manchester couple. After she began wowing British male TV audiences with her Dagmar-type act and wonderful front she attracted crowds almost as big as our own Elvis.

Four thousand stampeded and shouted as the big-bosomed blonde arrived to open a tailor shop at Sheffield, England. Dozens of young men rushed her, knocking down women and children. Sabrina's form-fitting dress was torn and she was bruised and scratched.

Then at Birkenhead she took to her bed to recover from the shock of having too much of herself revealed in public. Sabrina was leaving a theatre when a crowd closed in. Someone stood on the train of her black velvet evening gown, skin-tight naturally. Someone else pushed her. There was a ripping sound and for a moment Sabrina stood nude to the waist. Then she screamed and fainted. Police broke up a near riot. And well they might. Merrie old England hasn't seen anything like it since Anita Ekberg lost her dress in a London hotel - another sight to gladden the stout British male heart.

Incidentally, Ekberg, Marilyn Monroe and France's Brigitte Bardot were told to watch the cleavage at the royal film show last October [1956]. Queen Elizabeth, from her seat in the Empire Theatre, looked directly down when the gals performed their curtsies. Sabrina made her curtsy straight up and down. It's not recorded whether any male members of the royal party were disappointed.

Sabrina went to work early in 1955, when top British comic Arthur Askey wanted a really curvaceous , dumb blonde for his TV show. She didn't have to act or speak, An agency recommended Sabrina.
As we've said, Sabrina's success was soon "bustin' out all over" the United Kingdom and her fame spread throughout the Empire.

But like all artists, Sabrina was not content to remain in the one role, She declared with some hauteur: "I'm not going to be treated like an animal. I refuse to wiggle my hips and stay dumb," So they gave her three lines on the BBC's show "Home James."

Sabrina was allotted two days to rehearse the three lines. They also gave her a ticket to Manchester, where the show was to go on - her home town; by the way, But the ticket was third-class. Now, could a famous personage go home third class? Sabrina's breast really heaved-all 41 inches. She refused to rehearse.

"I'm not going to be treated like a cheap vaudeville act," she fumed. The dignified BBC didn't take long to swing the axe. The big, beautiful Sabrina was fired. A 20-yea rold London model, Corrinne Grey , was hired to take her place. Corinne was properly humble. She had no dramatic aspiration: and did not get the three lines originally written for Sabrina."I have deputised for Sabrina before, though my 36-inch bust doesn't compare with hers," Corinne commented with great modesty.

Now, with the British gentry taking up Sabrina to sleep in their ancient piles as an advertising gimmick her star is in the ascendancy again. You can't hide a gal like Sabrina under a bushel, or even under two bushels. We're looking forward to the day you come to the States, Sabrina. Make it soon!

THE END