Vintage #badgirlcrush – Joi Lansing
With perfect platinum brushed out curls, a
bombshell figure and wardrobe any Bad Girl would be proud to own, our vintage
#badgirlcrush of the week is the beautiful
Joi Lansing!
“I was always known as a glamour girl, and categorized only as that. It was very limiting… many gals in the industry have more talent than they’re given credit for. My being blond and curvy, you might say, was a kind of mixed blessing.”
Born
Joyce Rae Brown in April 1929 in Salt Lake City, Joy was in the whirlwind of
Hollywood fame from the tender age of 14 when she was signed to MGM.
Like
many young starlets she completed her high school education on the MGM studio
lot and in 1952 had an uncredited role in ‘Singin In The Rain’.
Joi
appeared in over 37 films during her acting career, and starred in many
television series. She learnt from a young age that she was mainly hired for
her looks, and any acting talent she possessed was a second thought to the
director, much like her contemporaries Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren.
Joi
gracing the cover of Life magazine in 1949 and Eye magazine in 1950.
In 1950 she was crowned Miss Hollywood!
Joi
was an avid yoga enthusiast, who practised it to help her relax and never
drank, smoke or posed nude.
On
February 8th 1960 she was awarded a prestigious star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6259 Hollywood Boulevard.
Joi
was also noted as the most photographed woman of 1960. During an Actor’s Strike
she discovered her singing talent and took the downtime as an opportunity to
fine tune her voice.
Joi’s car of choice a ’69 Cadillac Eldorado, perfect for cruising between her Hollywood Penthouse and Palm Springs house!
Joi
continued her new found singing career and debuted at the New York Living Room
Club, she went onto to become a notorious singer on the nightclub scene in the
60’s, and did a New York Hotel Circuit performing at the Hilton and Waldorf
Astoria to name a few!
Joi
then cut her first recording album in 1965 for RCA – Victor.
Queen
of Candy at 1964’s World Fair
In
1968 she starred as gold-digging Lorelei Lee in an eight week theatre
production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Throughout
her life Joi was married four times and had noted romances with Mickey Rooney
and Frank Sinatra.
In
1958 Sinatra cast her to appear in his ABC variety show at the El Capitan
Theatre and their relationship blossomed from there, she was later cast in ‘A
Hole In The Head’ and ‘Marriage On The Rocks’, which was to be her last major
studio movie.
Sinatra
remained good to Joi and paid for her hospital bills when she was in the last
stages of her life with breast cancer, she later passed away in Santa Monica in
August 1972.
With her perfect pincurls,
beautifully arched brows and rose petal red lips , Joi remains a timeless
hollywood pin-up and total Bad Girl to this day.
Measuring
36-23-33, Joi and sweaters were a match made in heaven and like other pin-ups
of the era, she championed the Sweater Girl look, here’s how to get the Lansing
look with TOBG:
Pair your Golden Heart or Vixen top with short shorts for a perfect summer Bad Girl look, and when the evening cools add cigarette pants for a killer ensemble!
Pour
your curves into the Lola top and a pencil skirt for a 9-5 Bad Girl look, or pair
with high waisted capris and mules to wiggle the night away! Add a slick of rose
petal red lipstick to complete the look!
Don’t
forget to add #TOBGSTYLE and #theoriginalbadgirl to your photos so we can see
how you channel your inner Joi!
(Columnist for The Original Bad Girl Blog)
