Well, yes, I'm teasing, but I'm also curling, piling and shellacking! It's a hair-brained post devoted to some of my favorite big-tressed looks of the 1960s, '70s and beyond. We've followed this strand before
here and
here, in case you wish to revisit some of the other amazing looks that have been put forth over the years. Our cover girl today is Priscilla Presley, sporting a teased, towering 'do that apparently can withstand the force of a jet engine! She and then-hubby Elvis are looking terrific here in everything from clothing to makeup.
Elvis costarred with Miss Nancy Sinatra in
Speedway (1968) and the occasion called for her frosted locks to be forged into a fun, back-hoed, up 'do.
An even more serious pileup occurred with Austrian actress Susan Denberg, whose brief career included
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), shown here.
Yvette Mimieux is looking rather stacked here.
German actress Elke Sommer could usually be counted upon for a pretty big 'do.
Sommer's 1966 campfest
The Oscar was made at a time when tall hair was at or near its pinnacle.
Natalie Wood chatters on the phone at home wearing soup can-size curls.
We adore Elizabeth Taylor's elaborate hair confection here.
Ursula Andress is all curled up in 1979's
The Fifth Musketeer.
Probably our all-time favorite movie hair belongs to Ava Gardner in
Mayerling (1968), thanks in no small part to the fact that she's the one wearing it!
The outrageously voluminous hair might seem a bit much to take in but, truth be told, her character in real life, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, was known and admired for her considerable locks.
Check out this doozy, sported by Shirley Jones, who is congratulating her then-husband Jack Cassidy on his role in the Broadway production, "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" (Actually, it was a flop, though several attempts with varying degrees of success have been made in an effort to revise and revitalize the property.)
The world of
gospel music was often a fertile breeding ground for big hair. Listen and you might hear the aerosol cans buzzing as The Harmonettes get ready.
And brace yourself for this combo, Mama with a washboard of curls heading heavenward while the daughter learns how to balance a cornucopia of curls atop her own wee head!
Hee Haw (1969-1997) has also provided some teasy looks over the years. Here we find Junior Samples sandwiched between Dianne Scott and Gunilla Hutton.
Frequent guest star Lynn Anderson is positively impenetrable here!
Another familiar guest on the show, Jeannie C. Riley has a serious mane going.
But series regular Lisa Todd seems to have really won in the Hee Haw hair-off! Wowza!
Now let's look at a few movies, starting with 1964's
Youngblood Hawke, which seemingly had one hell of a hairspray budget. Suzanne Pleshette has her raven locks curled, teased and set.
The story, set amid the publishing world, has her attending this function and that, always decked out.
Sometimes, a large piece is added to the top for added drama!
She's shown here with the film's star James Franciscus and another hair hopper, Eva Gabor. In a typically ridiculous example of anachronism from this era, the story takes place in the 1940s, yet not one woman looks like anything other than 1964...
Eva piles her hair even higher than Miss Pleshette in her handful of glitzy scenes.
This film gives us a pretty good look at what Eva looked like before she dove into the false eyelash drawer that would be her stock in trade through
Green Acres (1965-1971), which was right on the heels of this.
Also costarring in the movie is French actress Genevieve Page.
Miss Page gets dolled up with a diamond-encrusted 'do during one of her key scenes in the film.
Movies are always more entertaining to me when they include styling of this nature!
In 1968, Jane Fonda appeared in one segment of the Poe anthology film
Spirits of the Dead. She played a spoiled, selfish Contessa who sets her romantic sites on a cousin of hers (who, amazingly enough, was played by her own real life brother Peter! You can probably thank her kinky husband at the time and the director of this, Roger Vadim, for that.)
The hair designer went all out here, particularly in this archery sequence! (Apologies for the graininess of this one...)
She also had a big teased 'do in this scene with a young admirer/plaything.
In 1969's
Age of Consent, which stars James Mason and Helen Mirren, Mason is courted by a lonely widow played by Andonia Katsaros.
Katsaros possesses one vivid head of vibrant red curls.
A few days ago, I got a serious treat. After waiting for thirty years (yes!), I FINALLY got to see the 1971 Joan Collins movie
Quest for Love, which had eluded me all of that time. Some treasured soul has put the alternate reality romance on youtube and one of my faithful readers and friends turned me on to it. Collins, who has long been one of our idols, is dressed and coiffed beautifully.
Not only does she look dazzling over and over (and not just in the glamorous moments, but in other more subdued ones), but the little-known gem of a film contains what I and more than a few others consider to be the best acting she ever did on screen. She's absolutely marvelous, filled with emotion and nuance, throughout.
If you have any affection for Miss C. and her work at all, seek this hour and a half movie out on youtube and give yourself a Halloween treat.
Another loyal reader, knowing how much I worship and adore this stuff, sent me a scan of this book cover! See, you too can determine how best to apply and arrange your favorite falls and wiglets! The cover girl on this tome is none other than Susan Blakely of
The Towering Inferno (1974.)
Also came this one, featuring supermodel-turned-actress Lauren Hutton.
Inside, Hutton goes brunette in the lower left corner for a wiglet demo.
We'll wrap this up today with shots from one of the campiest miniseries ever to come out of that genre's hey day,
The Last Days of Pompeii (1984.) Lesley-Anne Down starred as a whore with a heart of gold (and hair for days.)
Here we see her plying her trade before some gentlemen (although they appear pretty snug on their little chaise!)
Down has a huge heap of hair, but her styles are nothing compared to high priestess Olivia Hussey who must have needed a brace in-between takes on this project! (Poor Linda Purl, as a blind slave, has to make do with that simple side-roll look.)
Hussey has the good fortune to be adored by the humpy
Nicholas Clay. But, seriously, look at her hair!
In another scene, her up-do lives up to its name in spades! She's lucky her hood will cover as much of it as it does.
Hussey and her brother Benedict Taylor are under the heavy influence of evil priest
Franco Nero (who in this miniseries is shorn close to the scalp.)
Lovers of big, elaborate hairstyles cannot afford to miss this the next time it heads their way!
By 1978, her roles in movies and on TV were sporadic and the films included campy, low-budget fare such as Warlords of the Deep (1978.) Thus, here she was playing another exotic, imperious, mysterious type in sequins and chiffon. She was not called upon to demonstrate a particularly wide variety of expressions!
