Girl Illustrated Volume 5 Number 1

In a mood which amounts to something of a purr of pleasure we celebrate this fiftieth issue of G.I. with a cover picture of the current Miss World; begins the editorial triumphantly. Its interesting that come the one-hundredth issue of G.I., the anniversary fails to get a single mention! Maybe they lost count? The editorial also celebrates the worldwide continuing erosion of censorship, and states that G.I. would continue to liberalise its policy. I'm not quite sure the continue is the correct word, as I see nothing in issue 50 that wouldn't have been allowed in issue 5. True to its word, the magazine would continue to reveal more as 1971 rolled out, but within a few issues would lose its model based focus.
This issue kicks off with some interesting pictures of Edith Catry in a studio mock up with autumn leaves, interesting because they have a blurry shadowyness reminiscent of photographs that might have been taken forty years previously.
Next comes Essex girl Christine Carey, whose photo I provide below. Astonishingly, she looks much younger here than in the colour photo which appears oppoosite it in the magazine.
Bradford's Toni Lee makes an appearance with three pleasant backlit full nude shots. The blurb says that she has a striking combination of red hair and green eyes, so it's a shame that we don't see any colour photographs of her.
Merci Montello from Brooklyn is very pretty and it is a shame that of the three pictures shown, two are very small and the third is split across the fold in the page.
Next comes three classic black & white photos of Reading's Donna Marlowe in a hammock, and she is followed by GI favourites Rita Rubin and Georgia West, their photos clearly taken from the same sessions used for Souvenir Editions Numbers 1 & 2 respectively.
The centre section this month features Dream Girls of Vienna as it is said that Vienna lays claim to be host to more beautiful girls than any other capital city, and certainly in 1970 held the dual posts of Miss World (Eva Reuber Staier) and Miss Bosom of Europe (Elizabeth Feichner). And to be honest if I was limited to only five of the ten beauties shown here, then those two would be left on the doorstep. HH, TB, JB, GF, and SH (see table) are probably the five finest of the whole magazine; it just a shame that the pictures we're given of the Viennese Top 10 are so small.
Three rather nice photos of A-level Maths student Sally Keane follow, her moody earthy look defies her tender age. My criticism here is that all three photos are rather too similar to each other.
My second featured girl, is not a model in the professional sense but a dancer and choreographer. She is a buxom, yet shapely woman who endeavours when modelling to express herself in terms of naked grace rather than sexy glamour.
This issue seems to contain a high proportion of well qualified women; Diane Ashley as a result of her success in the field of music has more letters after her name than there are in it, Liza Denby has a doctorate following postgraduate work in sociology, and Isobel Lyons when not modelling is a librarian. All, especially Isobel have very tidy figures indeed.
The issue closes with eight studies of the controvertial sturdy figure of 20 year old German Mady Mann; buxom yes, but certainly not with the shapely attributes of the likes of Helen Russell. Still each to his own, and it did give readers what they wanted, (and others what they didn't).
The letters page highlights the problem of models doubling up on names, although the only example given is incorrect. There are the usual requests for full nudity and also a couple for celebrety nudes, but on the latter point readers are politely asked not to hold their breath.



Cover Eva Rubier Staier
Back Chako Tsukuba
Inside Edith Catry
Christine Carey
Suzie Crane
Femi Benussi
Toni Lee
Merci Montello
Donna Marlowe
Rita Rubin
Georgia West
Cathy Crawfoot
Jill Ferris
Nadine
Annette Myrtille
Helga Hirsch**
Tina Brabetz**
Astrid Frankel**
Eva Reuber Staier**
Rosemarie Wyka**
Juliette Bruhl**
Grete Floderer**
Sandra Hesse**
Elizabeth Feichner**
Christine Kariger**
Soraya
Sally Keane
Helen Russell
Astrid Frank
Francoise Pascal
Diane Ashley
Liza Denby
Isobel Lyons
Sally Forrester*
Mady Mann

* usually known as Sue Shaw
**Choice of the Month: Dream Girls of Vienna