Encyclopedia Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes)

WARNING. This page contains wobbly bits!

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Nude Sabrina Jigsaw

21 December 2021

Is anyone interested in a jigsaw of our Sabrina nude ?
Of course you are.
Click here or the pic below for more information

 

The Sabrina Nudie Card Saga

18 November 2012

It is with a touch of sadness that I present the (nearly) complete nude Sabrina photo set taken around 1952. Sad, because any long-term mission that finally ends has more regret than satisfaction since the thrill of the chase is over.

But I must thank Graham of England, of venerable age, who emailed to say that in his 20s he purchased the set of five naughty Sabrina nudie cards at a naughty London shop and kept them in perfect condition ever since.

He was kind enough to sell them to me at a fair price, allowing young and old men alike to finally see what all the fuss was about. And what a big, well-rounded fuss it was.

The scans of the photos have been edited because even 60 years after the event Sabrina still hated them.

Sabrina nude 1 Sabrina nude 2 Sabrina nude 3
Sabrina nude 4 Sabrina nude 5

Sabrina - Norma Sykes

But the hunt may still be on! The picture above is still to be found .
I don't think Russell Gay would have taken only 6 shots during that famous photo session.
There must be even more photos still out there, lurking in the sock drawers of elderly peers of the realm!

And delving back into older times, here is the history of Sabrina nudiness

Sabrina nude

All right. Hold your breath. This is BIG.

For the first time on any internet.

We - well, I - bring you a vintage and previously-unknown photograph of Norma Ann Sykes , aged just 16 in a cold (you can see the goosepimples) studio being photographed by Russell Gay in a photoshoot that led to the infamous FIVE OF SPADES.

Such a powerful pose for a sixteen year old girl. Russell Gay certainly knew how to use his camera, and young Norma certainly knew how to present herself to it.

12 July 2011 - I have taken down the full, uncut image at Sabrina's request.



Thanks to 'The Producer' we now present, for the first time in recorded history, the uncensored nudie cards that shocked Britain and outraged Sabrina.

Click any card below to see the nudie gallery.

Sabrina nude

Yes, Norma Ann Sykes posed nude for photographers when she was 16, alone and hungry before her break as 'Sabrina'. The question is: did she later really regret it, or did she turn it into a blockbuster publicity exploit? The press and her friends seem to believe the latter...

Sabrina nude
The bowdlerised 5 of spades.

Other nudies are not featured on the cards...
Click them to read the article in Lowdown

Sabrina nude

When Sabrina was shot in the nude!
Lowdown , July 1956

And the accidental nudie here

Sabrina accidentally nude

BOOBS icon

Further references on this site - in Nudological Order ™

Bullet

"A spokesman for the card manufacturing company was more pleased than worried about the latest uproar. "We're not worried," he said "All the pictures are respectable and have been seen by Scotland Yard. The models have no grounds for complaint. All copyright is being taken care of. The sets are going very well both in Britain and overseas." ( Associated Press, 8 Jan 56 )


Bullet

14 May 1955 (Mirror, Perth)

NUDE PHOTOS ANGER STAR

London, Today: Scotland Yard has received a request from a television actress to halt the circulation of nude photos of her which were taken when she first arrived in London.

Actress is well-known 18-year-old Sabrina, who says she has learned that some of the photographs have been on sale in London and Manchester under her professional name.

Also on sale is a calendar, said to be similar to the famous Marilyn Monroe publication.

Sabrina said that when the photos were taken she was plain Norma Sykes and struggling to make a living from modelling.

She said: "Scotland Yard intends to get photographs for inspection and there may be proceedings. These photographs could ruin me.

"At a party I was terrified that people might be talking about them. I was frightened that every time they looked at me they were thinking about those photos. Some of these nude photographs were taken when I was only 16 and a stranger in London.

"I thought they would help me to be a success in modelling. I was hungry and alone and didn't know what I know now. I want to be a success in films and on TV.

"I have everything to live for and now some unscrupulous people try to take advantage of something I did when I was little more than a kid."

(The final 2 paragraphs of the article above were also used in People, 1955 .)


Bullet 9 January 1956 - Amarillo Daily News , Texas. p.6

TV Doll Frets Over Nude Art

LONDON, Jan, 8 - Britain's chestiest television personality - Sabrina - is worried about some nude pictures she posed for before pushing forward as a TV star.

The nudes are used to decorate the back of playing cards widely sold in this country [England] and abroad. Sabrina, who gained a reputation as a pin-up girl by posing in plunging neckline gowns, was silent about the disclosure of her model past.

But the 22-year-old TV star's mother had plenty to say. She told reporters her daughter was consulting a lawyer to see if anything can be done to stop circulation of the nudes.

"These nude photographs are driving her to distraction," her mother said. "I'm really worried about the effect these pictures will have on my daughter's career. She was an inexperienced girl when they were taken.

"It is shameful that she should be exploited and held up to ridicule because of the pictures now. She has been taking legal advice."


Bullet "The fact of the matter is that jobs are going a'begging in Britain. We have a shortage of help. Norma (Sabrina) Sykes could have gotten any honest labor she wished." ( Lowdown, 1956 )
Bullet "An American actor [Steve Cochran] who got to know Sabrina quite well on a recent London visit claimed Sabrina even welcomed the exposure. "She saw her chance for a terrific piece of Marilyn Monroe kind of publicity and grabbed it," he grinned." ( Picture Digest Oct 1956 )

Bullet Norma has an embarrassing but well-padded skeleton in her closet in the shape of the nudes she posed for before making her debut as the sexy by sweet Sabrina. One of these nudes turned up on the five of spades in a deck of playing cards for which Russell Gay provided the 52 alluring illustrations.

When card players all over England began doing tricks with her nude body Sabrina exploded via her lawyer. Writs flew thick and fast until a mutual friend persuaded the artist and the model to get together and settle their differences amicably. With every one of her 40 inches quivering with indignation, Sabrina turned up for the pow-wow ready to give Gay a piece of her mind... ( Art and Photography, May 1957 )


Bullet

"She had the naive belief that no one would recognise her undraped" (Sir! Sep 57)


Bullet "Evidently the head of the BBC was not among the [nudie card] collectors, because shortly after that he had Sabby barred from further appearances on the government TV channel. It wasn't that he objected to the publicity about the purple pictures. It was just that there's no way of concealing the scale of Sabrina's upper assets" (Sir! Sep 59)
Bullet "I thought they would help me be a success at modelling. I was hungry and alone and didn't know what I know now. I didn't want to go home and admit failure." ( QT, 1961 )
Bullet The squatting nude profile that graced the five of spades in this series soon became a collector's item when Sabrina personally destroyed as many copies as she could find in London shops. "I was only a kid of 16 when those photos were taken," she explained to a Scotland Yard investigator after her rampage. "I was not going to admit defeat to my parents and ask them for train fare home." ( 'Bombshells' )

17 July 2011 - Sabrina admits in our third interview that she agreed to the photos to earn some shillings to feed her dog Shane. She herself was living on tinned tomato soup, but she couldn't let her German Shepherd live on soup. She also again denied that she tore up cards in shops: she did ask to buy them all, but could not afford them.

Sabrina and dog Shane

VIP access

[Sabrina and Shane]

 


A Nudical Mystery

Countess Anastasia of Siberia sent me the following amazing shot that bears no resemblance to any other Sabrina photoshoot. It certainly looks like Sabrina.

Sabrina in nylons and little else

And now - if that is Sabrina - here is a rare undocumented nude that must be from the same undated photoshoot. She is wearing the same shoes, knickers, nylons...

Please tell me if you think this is Sabrina or not .

10 June 2023 - Found on eBay, another of the mysterious probably-Sabrina nudes that defy explanation in spite of considerable research. Were they taken in the same photoshoot as the infamous sixteen-year-old nudes? I would have liked to buy the photo, but the seller was asking about $AU100, including postage.

Probably nude Sabrina

 


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