I read once that the French designer who came up with the bikini had to hire a prostitute to model it-as it was considered obscene. Is this true?
Also, given the puritanical attitudes in the USA (at that time), how long was it until the style became accepted here?
I dimly recall an interview with Annette Funicello where she said Walt Disney made her promise not to wear a bikini when she started doing the Beach Blanket movies.
Why would Walt Disney have to ask her? It’s not like actors make costume choices.
Of course actors make costume choices. And producers make casting choices. Thus the precise size of an itty bitty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini becomes an exercise in hard-nosed negotiation and compromise, just like a bill on maritime crabbing insurance reform.
They do, to some extent, if they are high-demand celebrities. There are plenty of actresses that tell their directors that they don’t want to be seen doing certain things (especially nudity.) When the star is more important that the costume, you make the star happy.
I don’t know if Annette was that popular then. Or if Disney just wanted her to quit rather than wear the image. Or if it was just a meaningless comment-- a way of indicating that he cared enough about her to want to protect her from scandal.
But why would the actor be making costume choices. I mean, if they’re a huge star, yeah, but shouldn’t the director and other people with creative control be doing that? I guess they could choose colors but it’s not like you can say you want to wear an evening gown if you’re doing a beach shoot.
An actor is a necessary part of the decision-making process because he or she has to actually physically don the costume. Actors aren’t automatons. When they have concerns about a costume, they can make such concerns known. Their ability to enforce such preferences depends upon their individual clout and indispensability to the production, of course.
If an actor comes to a production with a relationship with someone like Disney, he or she very well might have not only informal requests but sometimes contractual obligations that conflict with someone else’s costume choice. An actor is essentially an independent businessman – he or she has to ensure that all important business relationships and obligations are tended to. If Funicello owed Disney some kind of informal or contractual obligation to restrict her costume choices, it would be in her interest to make sure that the director and costume department understood that.
It’s really no different than the issue of nudity. Many actresses simply will not appear nude – Michelle Pfeiffer and Sarah Jessica Parker come to mind – regardless of whether a particular role demands it. From their point of view they’re protecting themselves professionally and personally, so they have to step up and make their wishes known. A lot of them even go so far as having no nudity clauses written into their contracts.
The situation with Annette Funicello was simply that she had very large breasts. She herself didn’t want to appear in a flimsy bikini, from what I remember reading. The two piece suits she did wear covered much more than bikinis did and far more importantly had lots of bust support. She didn’t jiggle or bobble or move an inch.
Her image was supposed to be in contrast with “sex kittens” of the day like Ann-Margaret or Tuesday Weld. Everybody involved in her career had a stake in maintaining that image, including her.
Here’s a clip of Annette in that blue and white “bikini” from YouTube. (It repeats the same scenes over and over.) That top probably was underwired and reinforced. It may have been a military-issue bulletproof bikini.
Googling For Annette Funicello’s breasts turns up only strange cone shapes armored objects that look almost nothing like breasts.
I’m having a hard time parsing this… The two piece suits she wore were bikinis. Sure, they’re not as skimpy as some modern swimsuits, but then, early bikinis in general weren’t. And her suits are a heck of a lot more revealing than a one-piece of that time would have been.
Agreed…most modern bikinis are more of the “string bikini” style, which was, itself, considered rather racy when it first became popular (in the 1970s, IIRC).
Any bathing suit that bares the middle is technically a bikini, but technically sports cars and minivans are equally not trucks. You can see clips of Bikini Beach on YouTube and the extras are clearly wearing suits that are what we would call bikinis, just as Annette is clearly wearing more fabric.
You can compare her outfit to Ursula Andress in Dr. No from 1962 or Bridgette Bardot or any other star of the period. Their bikinis were much skimpier than Annette’s. The fishnet she wore in Muscle Beach Party says why. That wasn’t armored and it shows.
I’m pretty sure most stores would separate out two-pieces and bikinis. They’re not quite the same things and they’re for different audiences.
The same appears to be true of her hairdo. I’m guessing that her stylist later went to work for Donald Trump.
While it’s true that the word “bikini” was popularized in the mid 1940s for a , long after two-piece swimsuits became generally popular, I don’t think there’s any general distinction to be made in modern parlance between a “bikini” and a “two-piece swimsuit.” The terms are interchangeable, qualifiers like “string” or “boyshort” or “Brazilian back” or “thong” can be used with either to specify what degree of skimpiness is being talked about. I haven’t noticed them being categorized separately in stores or catalogues either.
Thanks for the link! Imagine how Annette would have looked in a thong-she was damn hot!
is it really that surprising to think that the bikini is viewed by some as obscene especially when first introduced? you’d blush if a girl showed up to class, work, or even a club wearing a bikini wouldn’t you?
Let me just say I’m shocked – shocked! – that a thread about the Bikini has turned into a discussion of Annette Funicello’s breasts. And Tuesday Weld’s and Ursula Andress’ and Bridgette Bardot’s.
Well, maybe, not shocked . . .
Not as hot as the rest of the girls. Meredith MacRae (Animal) put her to shame. Ditto Candy.