Margaret Nolan - the Forgotten Golden Girl

[mrs_emma_peel]

Margaret Nolan – the Forgotten Golden Girl ...

There were two beautiful women who were painted from head to toe in gold paint in Goldfinger - Shirley Eaton was famously stripped … painted gold … sadistically murdered by Oddjob in the film - but the first golden girl we see on screen is the girl in the iconic classic title sequence: 60’s busty sex-bomb Margaret Nolan …

the forgotten golden girl of Goldfinger …





Margaret Nolan being shot in gold ... and as masseuse Dink in Miami …







"The blonde is Margaret Nolan, a forgotten 1960s starlet. The man in silhouette is Robert Brownjohn, one of the most innovative, expensive and downright difficult art directors of the 60s. Nolan is being filmed for the title sequence of Goldfinger (1964), the third James Bond film. She was painted gold from head to toe and images from the film were projected on to her body, creating a hallucinogenic effect that was ahead of its time.



Brownjohn had succeeded in turning a title sequence - generally an afterthought - into high art. Had he not died in 1970 from a heart attack aged 44, he would have received greater credit for his innovation.

Robert "Bj" Brownjohn had already made a name for himself as a designer in 1950s New York when he arrived in London in 1960. He claimed that he came over for the city's creative energy. His girlfriend, the super-chic fashion designer Kiki Byrne, remembers it differently. "You could get heroin on the National Health back then," says Byrne. "And Bj did have a problem. But he was also terribly gifted, so he quickly established himself as one of the key figures during a very special period in history."



Brownjohn was at the heart of swinging London when he got the call from Albert "Cubby" Broccoli to design the title sequences for From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. Having been given £850 for the first film, he demanded £5,000 for the second, a huge amount at the time. "We quoted £5,000 and it cost £5,000," remembers his assistant Trevor Bond. "You never made a profit on Bj." Byrne designed the bikini for Nolan.







Goldfinger was to prove a high point in Brownjohn's career. In 1968 he designed the sleeve for the Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed, an unhappy experience that he illustrated by featuring a smashed wedding cake on the back cover. By this time, heavy drinking and drug use had taken over at the expense of output. He broke up with Byrne the following year, and soon he was living alone in a basement bedsit. But once, as his friend and fellow designer Alan Fletcher remembers, "Bj was the right man, in the right job, in the right place.""



Will Hodgkinson – The Guardian online

Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography by Emily King is published by Laurence King

[cully]

Ahem, Emma, Margaret Nolan ( aka Vicky Kennedy) is certainly NOT forgotten by any of her devoted fans from the 60's when she was arguably the greatest of ALL the great glam models of that (or any) era. There are 2 large Yahoo groups dedicated to her and she has recently returned from Spain and started her own website. Here is the URL.



Welcome Page



I first "met" her at a railway station in 1963 in the pages of a Parade magazine and I still think she's the greatest!

[mrs_emma_peel]

I totally agree … I’m one of her fans too … it was simply that, I thought, she never quite got the recognition she deserved as the first golden girl in brilliantly artistic Goldfinger title sequence … the headline was taken from the Arts Guardian article on Robert Brownjohn. Many thanks for the link



The golden girls of Goldfinger.

[Euryale]

Miss Nolan is also a fine comedic actress as anyone will know who has seen her in the Carry On films - her cameo in Henry is priceless - and the A Star is Born episode of Steptoe and Son.





Euryale.

[mrs_emma_peel]

She was absolutely brilliant in A Star Is Born ... one of the best episodes ever of Steptoe and Son and I recently saw her, nearly losing her bikini, in that wonderful fight with Barbara Windsor in Carry On Girls.; and as a busty maid being seduced by Sid James in a terrific scene from Carry On Henry.

[Brigger]

And I`ve just enjoyed Margarets performances in the last two episodes of series 2 of Budgie where she reprised her role from the 1st series as the stripper Inga who befriends Budgie.

[batman]

Margaret is not forgotten, she has featured several times in the Sexiest Actresses thread.

[mrs_emma_peel]

Seductresses supreme:

Valerie Leon and Margaret Nolan with Ronnie Corbett and Arthur Lowe in

No Sex Please: We’re British …





[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuaQQlvk9M&feature=related]YouTube - Margaret Nolan and Valerie Leon[/ame]



Margaret as a busty maid in Carry On Henry …

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cke6z-JroaY&feature=related]YouTube - Margaret Nolan_CARRY ON Euro Maiden Clip[/ame]



Margaret as sexy Nemine Wagstaff in A Star Is Born - Steptoe and Son … absolutely brilliant ...





[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SB3PAIjLiYQ&feature=related]YouTube - Steptoe & Son - A Star is Born - Part 3[/ame]





Extract from rare interview with Margaret Nolan …



Q: Did it really take four months to film the Goldfinger title sequence?

A: The photography? Oh no! No, it took a while though. I earned so much money – I’d never earned so much money in my life. It probably took two or three weeks. I was going to be the Goldfinger girl, so I did everything – the record cover, the book cover…then, when I pulled out of that, there was a lot of confusion as well.



Q: Was that the two-year promotion deal that you turned down?

A: Yeah. So they were quite pissed off because they’d already spent loads of money on me. It was because of what was going on politically at the time, and I wanted to do more serious stuff and be taken as a serious actress.

Source: - Martin Anderson - The Den of Geek

[mrs_emma_peel]

My mistake … the title should have been followed by a question mark …

Clearly … Margaret has an enormous … fan base

[cornershop15]

With Gerald Harper in Adam Adamant - 'More Deadly Than The Sword' (1966).



"Madam, unhand me at once please!"







As Sadie in The Persuaders - Element Of Risk (1972)

[mrs_emma_peel]

Great pictures cornershop15



Emily King - New York Times - 2005:

the Robert Brownjohn – Margaret Nolan - Goldfinger opening titles shoot:



Squeezed into a gold leather bikini, her skin painted the same shimmering hue, the magnificent statuesque starlet Margaret Nolan (41-23-37) stood still while scenes from the just-finished James Bond movie ''Goldfinger'' were projected onto her voluptuous curves.



The shoot was long and meticulous, the brainchild of the graphic designer Robert Brownjohn. A golf ball was made to disappear between her gilded breasts; the license plates from Bond's Aston Martin DB5 were another playful gag. And to think that the Bauhaus had come to this.



Unlikely as it may seem, using a live, three-dimensional screen recalled the projected-light experiments at the Bauhaus in the 1920's, something Brownjohn learned at the Institute of Design in Chicago (formerly the New Bauhaus). He first played with the idea in the credits for ''From Russia With Love'' (1963).



But in 1964, in a three-minute title sequence accompanied by Shirley Bassey's theme, his solid-gold images became the most sensational of all Bond openers. Although, ironically, as Shirley Eaton has recently revealed, many still believe they are looking at Shirley rather than Margaret.

[Lord Brett]

Cornershop, that second picture in colour is lovely. What's it from?

[cully]

name='Lord Brett']Cornershop, that second picture in colour is lovely. What's it from?

Sadie in the Persuaders "Element of Risk".

[cornershop15]

name='Lord Brett']Cornershop, that second picture in colour is lovely. What's it from?

Sorry, I should have put the title beneath both captures [Must remember]. Here are two more of her appearances, ten years apart.







This is from her brief cameo in The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (1964), where she was uncredited as the Girl in the Casino. That's Wilfred Brambell with her, 'Steptoe' of course, playing Paul McCartney's grandfather. She's a striking presence in this scene.







In 1974 she played Alfred Marks' girlfriend in The Sweeney episode 'Thin Ice', where she proved a very good comic foil to his blustery villain.



Sad to realise Margaret's now 65, exactly one week younger than Catherine Deneuve, and that she hasn't been seen in anything since 1986. What was she like in 'Crossroads'?



I look forward to seeing her in Budgie, which I ordered from Network on Saturday, and will try and find the best captures for you.

[Moor Larkin]

name='cornershop15']As Sadie in The Persuaders - Element Of Risk (1972)

and today:

[cornershop15]

I think you'll find that's Sarah Alexander.

[ShirlGirl]

Yes!



It's certainly not a 65-year old Margaret Nolan! If it was, I'd be asking for her cosmetic surgeon's phone number.

[Steve Crook]

name='cornershop15']I think you'll find that's Sarah Alexander.

And hardly forgotten. A very clever lady and still appearing in a lot of shows - the latest being the one about the choir on BBC1 with Sarah Lancashire & Neil Pearson - All the Small Things.



Steve

[batman]

name='Steve Crook']And hardly forgotten. A very clever lady and still appearing in a lot of shows - the latest being the one about the choir on BBC1 with Sarah Lancashire & Neil Pearson - All the Small Things.



Steve

Shock horror! I watched part one of that series and quite enjoyed it.

[cornershop15]

Sorry for the delay! Goodness, it's exactly five months since that last contribution and I've noticed a couple of changes in my 'style' since then. It was interesting to see that post where Lord Brett missed the title of The Persuaders capture. That prompted me to do things differently thereafter. This was also before I developed the habit of adding transmission dates and chart information - for all it's worth!

name='Euryale']Miss Nolan is also a fine comedic actress as anyone will know who has seen her in the Carry On films - her cameo in Henry is priceless - and the A Star is Born episode of Steptoe and Son.



Euryale.

This is something I first noticed in Margaret's scenes with the greatly missed Alfred Marks in that Sweeney episode, and much more so in Budgie.

name='Brigger']And I`ve just enjoyed Margarets performances in the last two episodes of series 2 of Budgie where she reprised her role from the 1st series as the stripper Inga who befriends Budgie.

I'll be watching the end of Series 1 later, so I've still got a long way to go before seeing those.

name='cornershop15']I look forward to seeing her in Budgie, which I ordered from Network on Saturday, and will try and find the best captures for you.

It was weeks before I saw her first appearance and I've only recently got round to capturing the episode - Everybody Loves a Baby. If Graeme sees this thread, it's the one where Budgie and Charlie try to intice customers with "They're naked and they move!"

" 'Backed a winner'? I've never known Budgie back a winner in his life!"

Original ITV transmission: 28th May 1971, when Knock Three Times by Dawn was #1



Other guests in Everybody Loves a Baby:

There's a great supporting cast in this. I love Frank Mills as the The Landlord saying "You've gotta laugh, haven't you!" - he reminds me of Ron Manager in The Fast Show. Frank was the bookmaker (I think) that Ray Brooks visits in a forgotten series called Big Deal, which was popular in the mid-Eighties. Apart from his role in this, Johnny Shannon is best known to me as one of the gangsters in the film Performance. It's Margaret's baby that he adopts, after Budgie suggests it to him, and the new mother was played by Carol Dilworth, hostess of The Golden Shot, wife of Chip Hawkes from The Tremeloes, and soon to be a mother herself - of Chesney. This was her last credited performance.



Talfryn Thomas, a very distinctive Welsh character actor, didn't have much to do at all in this - just pay to become a member of a strip club! I don't really rate Anoushka Hempel as an actress, but she was a well-known TV personality when I was a child, mainly in Whodunnit?. The big surprise was to discover that one of the other strippers turned out to be a very-different-looking Judith Arthy - she's full of surprises! There's a thread where I can elaborate on that ('Actors We Didn't Recognise ...')!



I will try and post more images of Margaret in Budgie soon, hopefully including one with Adam Faith.