Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Caroline Munro Archive: Adam, November 1968

by John Scoleri

I have a lengthy history with Caroline Munro. And I'm not just talking about being a six year old fan seeing her in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad for the first time.

As long as I can remember, I've collected memorabilia about her, including her movies, magazine appearances, and an extensive photo archive. In the early days of the internet, in the absence of any other web presence, I created "The Ultimate Caroline Munro Image Library," for which I scanned all the photos in my collection and posted them to share with Caroline's other fans (Many of those original scans are still circulating on the web today. What can I say—I was naive).

Like the Electric Banana, don't bother looking for it, it's not there anymore.
One day, I was contacted by Caroline's wonderful stepdaughter, Tami, who asked if I'd be interested in making my site the 'Official' Caroline Munro website. Of course I jumped at the chance. I finally got to meet Caroline on a trip to London in 1999, and a few years later I proposed producing a DVD interview with her (having done something similar with my good friend, artist Ralph McQuarrie, two years previously).

Email for ordering info
Caroline Munro: First Lady of Fantasy was released in 2004, coinciding with a special tribute to Caroline at the historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. It was quite a thrill watching a trailer for our DVD in such a hallowed venue. In addition to a feature length interview, it includes clips from almost all of her films, examples of her rare television commercials (Noxema and Dr. Pepper), music videos she starred in, an extensive photo gallery, and more. You can check out our opening and some clips a fan uploaded to YouTube below:



Along the way, management of the official website moved into more capable hands, and the original Image Library was lost in the transition from Geocities to Yahoo. But my admiration for Caroline lives on.

Which brings me to this, the first installment of what I hope will be another semi-regular feature on bare•bones, in which I feature rarities from my Caroline Munro collection. For this first installment, I thought I'd go back to a very early Munro collectible - her appearance in Adam magazine at age 19 (under the misspelling "Carolyn Munroe").

Adam
November 1968, Vol. 12 No. 11


From the contents page: "Carolyn Munroe" (sic) sounds like the sex symbol she is


Carolyn Munroe (sic) may be a sound-alike of the late Marilyn Monroe, but when it comes to looks, she's like original, man! A comment in Sheilah Graham's column put us on her trail. We called Paramount studios, since she was working on the film Where's Jack? with Tommy Steele and Stanley Baker. She was a mystery—nobody knew anything. The film was being filmed in Ireland and all publicity was handled there.


Our photographer in England finally arranged an interview, though, and now the cat is out of the bag. She's beautiful, all right, but she's not at all like Marilyn. Her long legs, dark hair, fiery eyes and sensuous mouth are strictly Carolyn Munroe (sic)—star material.

Carolyn (sic) lives in London with her family. Being an outdoor girl, she commutes to Brighton, a south coastal town, on weekends, where she swims and takes brisk walks along the cliff tops with her pet Yorkshire terrier, Fido.

If you can't visit our cover girl there, try writing her in care of Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, California.


Be sure to let us know if you'd like to see more of Caroline Munro in bare•bones!

3 comments:

Will Errickson said...

On, now this... this is glorious. What can I say but "More, please!"

Jack Seabrook said...

I can't imagine any guy who grew up in the 70s not having the hots for Caroline Munro. And, based on the video clip, she looks pretty darn good for 60!

Holger Haase said...

Wow, John, I only discovered this now. For years I heard about this mag but this is the first time I see images of it and proof that it really exists. Great job!