One of my favorite French girlie magazines of the 1950s is Frou-Frou, a perfect word for those frilly petticoats that got flounced around by Can-Can dancers at the Folies Bergere. Beginning after WWII with particular interested in movie stars and starlettes, Frou-Frou featured for many years, almost exclusively, American film actresses on the cover.
Earlier this year, at the paper show in Paris, I found a hardbound volume of Frou-Frou, circa 1953, with four different issues bound together. Two featured Marilyn Monroe covers, one with her sitting on the lap of character actor Charles Coburn (posed with them is Jane Russell in a still photo from Gentleman Prefer Blondes); the two other covers featured Ava Gardner and French star, Martine Carol.
The four issues are filled with pin-ups, bathing beauties and international models posed in lingerie, as well as music-hall and cabaret performers in scanty costumes plus a few photos of dancers in frou-frou skirts doing the Can-Can - bien sur!
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