Gorgeous Hollywood Glamour Girl Joan Collins 1950s Pin - Up Photograph
Item History & Price
Thanks to all our eBay bidders! We are honored to be your one-stop, 5-star source for vintage pin up, pulp magazines, original illustration art, decorative collectibles and ephemera with a wide and always changing assortment of antique and vintage items from the Victorian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-Century Modern eras. All items are 100% guaranteed to be original, vintage, and as described. Please feel free to contact us with any and all questions about the items and our p...olicies and please take a moment to peruse our other great eBay listings. All sell no reserve!
ITEM: This is a 1950s vintage and original studio portrait photograph of the always-gorgeous Joan Collins. What a lovely pin-up glamour portrait of the star from the early years of her career as an up-and-coming bombshell.
Measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, single weight paper stock.
Pencil notations on verso.
CONDITION: Fine condition with corner wear, a thin tear in the right margin, and light, general storage/handling wear. Please use the included images as a conditional guide.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
••••••••••••••••••••
British actress Joan Collins, daughter of a London theatrical booking agent, made her showbiz bow in a production of The Doll's House -- in a male role. She was 9 years old then, and it would be the last time there would be any doubt as to her gender. With the sort of glamorous countenance that prompted people to ask "why aren't you in movies?", Collins first appeared before the cameras in a small role as a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1953). She made an auspicious American debut as an Egyptian temptress in Land of the Pharoahs (1955). This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts (Girl on the Red Velvet Swing [1955] in particular) and an adroit comic characterization in Rally Round the Flag, Boys (1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more. She was perilously close to "perennial starlet" status in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was the uncrowned queen of "B" pictures. Offscreen she cut quite a swath through the tabloid headlines; if her autobiography, Past Imperfect is to be believed, she dallied with virtually every male actor in Hollywood except Wile E. Coyote. Her maturation from mere personality to superstar came about when she was cast in 1981 as glamorous and predatory Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, the role giving her arguably the greatest exposure of his career. Though she continued to work steadily up until 2003, she never landed in a project as embraced as Dynasty but highlights include 1995's comedy In the Bleak Midwinter and 2000's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. In 2015, she was cast as a modern Grand Duchess in E! first scripted series, The Royals, playing Elizabeth Hurley's mother.
Despite professional and personal setbacks, Collins has managed to survive in an industry that swallows up lesser starlets on an average of ten per hour. Nor is Joan the only Collins with talent and charisma; her sister Jackie Collins is a highly successful romance novelist, whose books The Bitch and The Stud were turned into films, both starring sibling Joan.
••••••••••••••••••••
