Continuing the process of cleaning off our French shelf, we have an issue of the pin-up magazine Stop. This one, issue #18 from 1962, is devoted entirely to Brigitte Bardot, and inside you get studio and outdoor photography of the legendary sex symbol, plus production stills from several of her films.

The cover image of her in front of the Eiffel Tower is iconic, but the image in panel sixteen, just above, is one of the most famous ever made of her. It was shot by Willy Rizzo in Saint-Tropez during the 1956 production of Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… crea la femme, aka And God Created Woman, and it pretty much sums up the quality of Bardot’s sex appeal.

Saint-Tropez was just a sleepy seaside village back then, so you can imagine what all those crusty fishermen in the cafés thought the first time they saw this woman walking barefoot along their waterfront. Mermaid? Tramp? Angel? Waif? Bardot had all those elements and more, which is a large part of why—in addition to her copious talent—she became such a transcendent star.

Today she remains in the public eye, if controversially, and it’s ironic that someone who once united people in their appreciation of her beauty, acting and singing is now such a polarizing figure. The above photo isn’t the only image that survives from that famed Rizzo session, so just for the fun of it, we’ve posted a few more below to help you dream about springtime.

The publishers of The Lowdown went for titillation overload on this screamingly bright November 1961 cover, managing to hit several of the hot button issues of the day, from birth control to lesbianism. Frank Sinatra gets the star treatment here, and The Lowdown actually gets one right—Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe (bottom left) were involved in 1961, around the same time her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio (second from left) was growing concerned about the people around her and asked her to remarry him in hopes of stabilizing her life. Was Sinatra one of the people DiMaggio distrusted? Perhaps, but Monroe said no to Joe's proposal and was dead the next year.

As for Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot (bottom right), we can’t find any references to the two being involved, but they did meet during 1959 to discuss co-starring in a film to be helmed by Bardot’s ex-husband Roger Vadim (second from right). After the three of them talked about the project for a couple of days the idea fell through because Bardot didn’t want to work in Hollywood and Sinatra didn’t want to work in Paris. Did Sinatra and Bardot manage to sneak off for some international relations? We tend to doubt it—in addition to traveling with her ex-husband Vadim (who surely would have frowned on her cheating), she was married to actor/producer Jacques Charrier. Still, you can’t really put anything past Sinatra. But short of reading every Hollywood tell-all ever published, we just can’t say whether he and Bardot got together. The Lowdown hints yes, but take it for what it’s worth.  

If this looks like a poster for some sort of gothic lesbian vampire romance, well, you should start up your own psychic friends network, because you’re right. Alternatively, maybe you aren’t psychic, and this is just extremely successful promo art. Directed by Roger Vadim, Il sangue e la rosa is loosely based upon Irish author Sheridan LeFanu’s classic tale Carmilla, which appeared in his 1872 anthology In a Glass Darkly. Vadim’s adaptation was originally released in France under the title Et mourir de plaisir, but later renamed and paired with the fantastic art you see above. It premiered in Italy in… well, if you’re psychic you already know.

Brigitte Bardot started as a dancer and model, but soon moved into film, debuting in 1952’s Le trou normand. But it wasn’t until today in 1955 that she exploded onto the international scene in Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… créa la femme, aka ...And God Created Woman. As Bardot’s career blossomed she embraced the role of luscious sex symbol, and was eventually voted honorary sex goddess of the 1960s—though by whom we aren’t sure. Anyway, if she’s a sex goddess, she’s pulp, so here she is on a collection of vintage posters.

Later in her career Bardot released several albums, charting hits in collaboration with French musical legend Serge Gainsbourg. As Bardot aged she became reclusive, but still speaks out on political issues. Recently she slammed U.S. vice-presidential candidate and fellow sexpot Sarah Palin for, among other transgressions, downplaying the environmental harm caused by humans. There’s much more to Bardot’s life than we can describe here. We recommend checking out her Wikipedia entry and renting her movies.