for the boys

anyone who's followed 'the planet' for any length of time knows how much i love carroll baker. she's a resident goddess. and here, in this shot, provided by jean-lucien, she's cheeky and playful and radiant in her military jumpsuit gear. carroll actually went overseas at one point to entertain the troops with bob hope. she famously wore an almost-see thru gown scattered with rhinestones. but she's somehow sexier and more accessable in this outfit. she seems to have a great sense of humor here... knowing the phrase 'property of the USMC' is branded over her pert little ass. i just love her. so dig it, the patriotic cheesecake. (click to enlarge)

carroll and eli

...baker and wallach. okay, i realize i already gave kazan and his risque 'babydoll' a legitmate

'shout-out,' but hey, what can i tell you? my fingers still feel like typing, so... here we have a great close silky screen shot from kazan's mid-50's masterpiece 'babydoll.' this is from the infamous 'swing sequence,' one of the sultriest things i've ever seen on celluloid. ummm, i'm not gonna go into the plot or anything like that... but i will say that i read carroll's autobiography once, and she admitted being genuinely turned on by mr. wallach... and it shows. hot stuff.

(click to enlarge)

my new book; take a lick!

yeah, i didn't expect to start a new book tonight... like, its hot and i didn't really feel like getting down on the floor like, 'low-down' with the scissors and glue stick and glitter stickers and all that. its far more strenuous than one might think to get a cover on one of these things. seriously. but, as you artists out there well know, the wave just swept over me, and the next thing i knew, i was doing it. and it was a good thing the muses decided to stop by, because my last book was dangerously close to the final useable pages. so yeah, i pushed and cut and glued and placed and made a thousand and one tiny desicions and calculations. because, yeah... i never use rulers or anything to get my stuff straight... its all done by sight. so, i'm happy to say i'm pleased with it... i just wish my photo-equipment was better, but oh well, you work with what you have. so let's see what we have here, models-wise. it seems like my angel joe strummer has the rare honor of being on more than one book. he's a two-time cover boy. this is a great shot of him on the tom snyder show... back when he was on tom snyder. i have no idea what year it was. man, he's effing gorgeous. so sweet, and candy-deelish; hence the title, 'lollipop.' plus, i just like the way the word looks. now for the medallions. from left to right we have: actor richard dixon as oofy prosser in the 'jeeves and wooster' series; sylvie vartan snipped from one of jean-lucien's marvelous collages; the post-'babydoll' glamorous miss carroll baker; the one and only terry jones; the ...multi-talented...?? nell campbell from 'the rocky horror picture show' ; david bowie from 'the man who fell to earth,' ; and finally, but never least, semi-trashy disco chick, debbie harry. so um, dig it... my groovy new book. (click to enlarge)

geisha doll

actually, this should probably also be a late happy birthday wish. the incredible miss carroll baker turned 88 years old on may 31st. yeah, i can't believe it either. (she was born in 1931, so check my math and get back to me if it's wrong, because my math skills legendarily suck chrome.) anyone who's followed 'the planet' for more than a few weeks has probably learned of my undying love and devotion to my favorite hollywood blonde, miss carroll baker. she's an all-american girl, born in johnstown, pennsylvania. she attended the famous actor's studio, and worked with such greats as james dean, elizabeth taylor, karl malden, james stewart, and even roger moore. here she is, very literally 'dolled up' in traditional japanese costume. i'm not sure which movie this is from, but after doing a little research, i'm pretty sure it was from the 1961 film 'a bridge to the sun.' (like, that's the only movie of her's on imdb that has a lot of japanese names associated with it.) wow, she's gorgeous, isn't she? man... what an angel...! like i said, i've never seen the movie. it could be a real gobbling turkey for all i know. but if she spends more than three minutes dressed up like this, i'd love to get my hands on a copy of it, for capturing purposes. here's to you carroll... once again. you are one of the few rare princesses on the magic 'planetcool.' and i suppose its worth mentioning that i've never seen this picture before. (click to enlarge)

baby blue baby doll

miss carroll baker, ladies and gentlemen. wow, what a doll. this particular publicity shot of carroll; in the throne, with her shoes half-off; is surprisingly hard to come by. i found this one tonight, but it was all like, squashed... like, silly-putty distorted. so, after i snagged it, i had to put it through the photographic equivalent of a taffy puller. i tried to get as close as i could to her true physical proportions. (god knows i've studied her long and hard enough... i know every curve and corner and nuance of her body and face, due to my many rapt hours of 'carroll baker-worship.') so dig it, i think i ended up with a sultry result. man, i can't praise miss baker enough. hey, she's my favorite hollywood blonde! (even though she's truly a brunette.) so please dig this carroll shot as much as i do. and hey, carroll... if you're out there, we LOVE you here on 'the planet,' and some of us are dying to know exactly what it felt like to kiss eli wallach. (lucky!) (click to enlarge)

carroll smokes

yes, anyone that knows me, knows that i love shots of my fave stars that are 'never-before-seen' by me. and this glamorous shot of the marvelous carroll baker certainly falls into that category. believe me, i pearldive for carroll baker picksh regularly, and i know i've never seen this one. and it's hot, no? if you think the color looks a little queer, its because the original was so shock-overexposed i really had to do some strange work on it to make it a little easier on the eye. god, she was a sexy little hot starlet in her day. and i love her because i've seen her without all that makeup, and it really IS her face under there, if that makes any sense. like, she really doesn't need any of that paint, but its only intensifying what's already there; not really 'creating' any false lines and-or contours. she really doesn't need much 'help,' ...she's just naturally that lovely and sexy 'as-is.' i probably don't have to say this shot was in the early 60's, around the time she made the trashy and surprisingly boring 'harlow,' and the soap-opera-fied 'the carpetbaggers.' but hey, to me, she'll always be my little 'babydoll.' hey carroll, smoke one for me, you wild temptress.

more carroll

yes, there's no such thing as too many sultry photos of the great carroll baker. i know i had this one in my collection at one point, but i lost it somewhere, and tonight i found it again. i love her in this picture. she looks so sultry and her hair is a lot closer to her natural color. that would tell me that it was taken relatively early in her film career. mmm, she had everything marilyn had, sex-appeal-wise... and i daresay she was at least as good and actress, if not better. so carroll, if you're out there somewhere, i just wanna tell you that your talent and bombshell good looks live on on planetcool. so um, dig it, the satiny sex appeal that IS miss carroll baker.

oh carroll

i lucked out last night on my pearldive. i found some great, rare, high quality shots of my darling miss carroll baker taken during the filming of the elia kazan masterpiece 'babydoll.' i really feel like, what can i say? she's so beautiful its weird... and i don't even like blondes. (georgina hale and helen mirren excepted.) in the movie, karl malden accuses her of having a 'mona lisa smile'... and he's right about that. slight and mysterious, but so lovely its hard to look away. this shot leapt out at me, on account of it was very 'never-before-seen' by my eyes. and trust me, i google carroll baker all the time. and she's not just a pretty face. she can 'shred the screen' as well as brando and vivien leigh... or any of those confirmed 'greats.' she was also fortunate enough to be in 'giant,' ...one of james dean's three films. she was nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of the child bride in 'babydoll.' she lost to ingrid bergman for 'anastasia,' which i haven't seen, so i can't truthfully say whether or not she 'got robbed.' carroll's still around, last time i checked. so carroll, if you're reading this, i think you're the best.

europa

here's a shot of my most recent notebook cover... like, the one i'm currently writing in. jean-lucien was good enough to make a high-quality scan of it when i was at his place last weekend. (he's got some incredible equipment... and his scanner isn't bad either, hah hah.) in any case, i think it came out beautifully... like it looks just like it looks in my lap when i'm writing in it. the models are the lovely angelic carroll baker and the dark and seductive eli wallach in the controversial film 'babydoll.' a hell of a nice screen capture, and i give jean-luc credit for that. its soooo silky, i mean the 'grain' simply melts in the mouth-of-your-mind, if you know what i mean. i backed the main image on some black cardstock, glued it on with simple cheap drugstore glue stick, and did a little embellishing via some scraps of picksh and girly prismatic stickers. the title came as a vague tribute to the thomas dolby song, and that goddess who 'made it real' with a bull. dig it. (and click to enlarge.)

b is for 'babydoll'

well, what can i say about elia kazan's 'babydoll' that i haven't said already? it has a hard and fast place in my top five favorite black and white movies of all time. i can't tell you how many times i've seen it. it fascinates me on so many levels. even after repeated viewings, the performances crackle with fresh electricity. i've never seen a trio of actors in leading roles turn in finer performances than carroll baker, karl malden, and eli wallach in 'babydoll.' they're all so good its almost unsettling. its a dirty, hot, florid, unscrupulous, voyeuristic film. the main players never seen to know they're being watched. its wicked and funny and at times, even genuinely frightening. the famous 'hide and seek' sequence is every bit as scary as it is sexy. over the years, the image of carroll baker sleeping in the baby's crib has endured as an iconic image, but i would argue that the image of silva vacarro, (eli wallach) riding the rockinghorse with a whip in one hand, a pitcher of lemonade in the other, chewing on a piece of fried chicken, is every bit as provocative and brazen. if you've never seen it, go find it and watch it. i've never really seen anything quite like it.

carrollita

hey, nobody loves carroll baker more than me... so it was me that paid cash-bucks several years ago for a vhs copy of the film 'the miracle,' wherein miss baker played an innocent nun that falls in love with a soldier played by a very young, blonde, pre-james bond roger moore. yeah, if i remember correctly, after carroll wrecks her vows for the soldier, she falls from the faith to become a castanet dancer or something. yeah, it sucked pretty hard, but i wanted to post a shot of carroll, so here you are. even in a snooze-fest like 'the miracle' she takes her acting pretty seriously. and she looks damn nice in the dress.

sultry carroll

ahhh, the breathtaking miss carroll baker, ladies and gentlemen. as i've said before, probably my favorite hollywood blonde. its hard to find good pictures of her. i know there have to be like, tons of them out there. for a while she was pretty famous... i'm sure there had to be some steamy press photos taken for 'babydoll' and 'harlow,' still... they're very hard to find. i've had this one for so long i can't begin to remember where i found it. she looks great, though... even better once i tricked the colors and contrast a bit. so unapologetically sexy. i read her autobiography, and from what i remember, she never had much of a problem with the whole sex symbol thing. in fact, i think it was pretty well established that she left the US and went abroad in the late 60's and early 70's in order to be free to, well... 'smut' it up a bit. and groovy for the rest of us. on YouTube, you can order up several clips of her in italian productions. she's the best. i love carroll.

miss baker

yes, the lovely miss carroll baker was lucky enough to show up on planetcool on a night when i officially don't care! don't get me wrong, i do care about carroll baker. she's my all-time favorite hollywood blonde! i just don't care about being all stunning and-or groundbreaking with my literary tributes tonight. what can i say about carroll that i haven't said in the past or won't say in the future? she's the greatest. and her portrayal of the precocious child bride in elia kazan's 'babydoll' is black and white sizzling excellence captured on celluloid, and won her an oscar nomination. so lets all blow a kiss at sweet carroll, and go rent 'babydoll.' you'll love it. well, if you don't love it, then you obviously have different tastes in like, movies or whatever. (can you tell how much my heart's in this tonight?)

o carroll

the marvelous miss carroll baker, ladies and gentlemen. this still frame was taken, of course, from the genius, highly contro-versial 1957 elia kazan film 'babydoll.' its required viewing. i read her autobiography. what a woman. smart, tough, beautiful, and admirably dedicated to her craft. some parties attempted to ban the film with no luck. carroll stars as a child bride who finds herself in the center of a firey vengeful uproar. the role raised many prudish eyebrows and won carroll an oscar nomination. in the early 70's, she parted ways with hollywood to explore the looser restrictions of movies abroad. there were several mainly italian productions in which she was able to take some chances, and take off some clothes. she even worked with andy warhol. i can't praise carroll enough. she's my favorite hollywood blonde; even above harlow and monroe. oh, carroll... it was love at first sight. sigh.

sweetlife

here's a still my mate jean-lucien made and tinted a long time ago. its a frame from the movie

'babydoll.' the girl is carroll baker. if i start praising her, we'll be here all night long. the choice of the single word 'life' in the corner was added by jean-lucien, and i find it particularly positive. the choice to tint in such a queer shade of pink, and the angle of her smile... well, all in all, i think its a sound work of art in itself, on a very strong and legitimate Warhol level. i like it like a kid likes sugar.

babydoll

when something is banned, i sit up and take notice. you may have heard of director elia kazan in reference to his supposed standard-setting masterpiece 'on the waterfront,' but the lustier folks know his harder mark was made by the scandalous and steamy 'babydoll.' it was condemned by the 'legion of decency,' and even now, one could see why. its hot and cruel and tragic and has all the elements of southern-fried Shakespeare. it stars the underrated Karl Malden, the sinister and slithering Eli Wallach, and the powder-soft giggling lust of miss Carroll Baker in the title role. She was nominated for an Oscar for the part of Babydoll Carson McCorkle, and should have won. It is a devastating, horny entertainment. Pricking, even frightening...but nonetheless, required viewing. Dig it.