These shots show U.S. actress Teresa Graves today in 1970, and despite the fact that her bizarro hairdo makes her look counterculture, she was in Washington, D.C. attending the Honor America Day celebration. If you've never heard of Honor America Day, that's because it was a one-off, hastily cobbled together by then-president Richard Nixon, who was under pressure due to his decision to send U.S. troops into Cambodia during the Vietnam War, a move which precipitated a protest at Kent State University at which Ohio National Guard troops shot and killed students.

Graves was a minor television star at the time, a recurring guest on the show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, however she was a natural for the D.C. event because she had built her career partly by touring Southeast Asia as a singer with Bob Hope's USO show. She would eventually become a major star on the police drama Get Christie Love! By then she'd ditched the hairdo that looked like it picked up signals from space for something conventional, as you can see at this link. But whatever shape her hair took, she was quite beautiful. 

Above: a nice photo of Marilyn Monroe in bed, shot in 1953. That was arguably her pivotal year. It was when her massive hits Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How To Marry a Millionaire came out, and she made two appearances on The Jack Benny Show. No wonder she was tired. 

It's the first of the month, which would normally mean a new shot from the Reiko Ike Weekly Playboy calendar of 1972, but the magazine doubled up for June and July, using the same image for both months. That means we needed a substitute for this month, so above you see a lovely shot of Reiko that first appeared in 1971. You've heard the phrase “Mona Lisa smile.” This is a Reiko Ike smile—a little mysterious, a little amused, a little bit knowing, and she looks a hell of lot better than the Mona Lisa. We have plenty of images of this cinematic icon in the website, so feel free to look around. 

Above you see U.S. actress Joan Delaney in a promo image made for the 1967 film The President's Analyst. The movie deals with the president's shrink getting fed up and running away, leading to foreign spy agencies attempting to capture him and harvest his valuable knowledge. It's a clever premise. James Coburn plays the analyst, and Delaney plays his sweet girlfriend—until she isn't sweet anymore. It was her first role, one of only five film appearances she made, along with a sprinkling of television credits. 

Kathleen Hughes heard about the Pulp Intl. gymnastics team and is busily getting into top condition in this 1955 promo image made in Los Angeles. This represents a real turnaround compared to when she was younger and lazier, and all we can say is if she keeps up the good work she might get to hang with Bardot and Co. eventually.

A wild hairdo, a bit of animal hide, and not much else usually comprises an actress's costume for the typical lost world flick. Raquel Welch is considered by many to be the pinnacle of visual achievement in that area (though opinions vary), but U.S. actress Edwina Booth beat Raquel to it by more than three decades. She's clad in monkey fur and a few animal teeth in this striking promo image made for her adventure Trader Horn. We won't talk about the movie extensively today because we may delve into it later, but let's just say that as a pre-Code film set in Africa there's a lot to unpack. In addition, though it made Booth a star it ruined her career because she contracted malaria or schistosomiasis, prompting her to sue MGM Studios for negligence, her illness being—according to her lawsuit—a direct result of being made to run around the jungle half naked. She was probably right. As a reward she was blacklisted in Hollywood. Nevertheless, she looks very beautiful here. Trader Horn came out in early 1931, so this shot would be from sometime in 1930. 

In this photo there's something you used to see up until maybe the early 1980s. A lot of people feel great nostalgia for it, though it's large, somewhat unwieldy, and definitely out of fashion now. We're talking of course about the classic bakelite telephone, here being used by the lovely Italian actress Leonora Fani to call an ambulance for her overwhelmed date, who hit the floor seconds after her clothes did. At least that's the way we like to see it. You probably haven't heard of Fani, but she was in about twenty-five movies, including the unforgettable Dog Lay Afternoon. No, that's not a typo. Lay, not Day. The one you're thinking of starred Al Pacino. The one Fani was in starred a doberman and was made in Italy as Bestialità. We could tell you more, but if we did you might end up on the floor too. We shared this photo for one reason. After the 170-page frustration that was The Nude Who Never we figured we'd present a nude who always. Or at least usually. 

As summer and the endless possibilities of that time of year approach, a person's thoughts turn naturally to— Oh, screw it. Let's not intellectualize it. It's basically always summer where we live, so who are we bullshitting anyway? We just like nude images. Here's an excellent example featuring one of our favorite actresses, Hitomi Kozue, star of Sukeban Deka: Dirty Mary, New True Story of a Woman Condemned to Hell, Confessions of a Female Secretary: Juice from the Fruit, and other worthy efforts, and who, like Pam Grier, Christina Lindberg, Reiko Ike, and other stars of obscure ’70s b-movies, we're determined to document in her entirety. This image came from a 1974 issue of Heibon Punch and it's part of a series, the amazing remainder of which we'll show you later. Teaser: they're even slipperier. 

We don't know if this low-cut kaftan or whatever U.S. actress Rosalind Cash is wearing is suitable garb for a machine gunning, but who's going point that out to her? She's probably going to Studio 54 later. The image was made for 1971's The Omega Man, which starred Charlton Heston and was based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, a book we discussed a while back. Talk about getting your career off to a good start. Cash's first role was a small part in the classic drama Klute, with The Omega Man coming out months later and featuring her third billed in what was at the time considered a big budget sci-fi epic. From that point Cash worked steadily for twenty-five years, finishing her movie career with 1995's Tales from the Hood. We've also seen her in Uptown Saturday Night and Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, two blaxploitation movies we may talk about later. Cash is good at looking tough. For confirmation, check out this shot. 

We actually know exactly what the occasion is. This amazing photo of British actress and model Margaret Nolan, aka Vicky Kennedy, shows her at the 1968 British Film Awards wearing what has to be one of the coolest outfits of all time. Nolan came to mainstream attention in the opening credits for the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, and made a quick appearance as Bond's masseuse, but she's also much beloved as a prolific nude model and star of occasional nudie loops. We've featured her photos in two issues of Folies de Paris et de Hollywood, which you can see here and here. Those represent a tiny fraction of her output, but we'll circle back to that later. As an actress she appeared in A Hard Day's Night and more than a dozen other films, but worked mainly on television, including on such shows as Mystery and Imagination, The Newcomers, and Take a Pair of Private Eyes. This shot was originally black and white, but has been colorized by an unknown. It's very nice work.