Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Great Wall of Revelle

She began her career posing for nude figure classes in 1954, won local beauty pageants, and two years later skyrocketed to cover girl. Male-targeted magazines, fetish magazines, even international publications (like the bawdy Continental [Magazine of the World] from Canada), would all bare her rosy, Disney-island looks and propel her status to "most wanted," with endless comparisons to France's Brigitte Bardot.

For three years her popularity soared, until 1959 (according to some sources), when her parents persuade her to leave the business of glamor modeling. The impact of her powerful bust and hazy, Tierney-esque gaze was instant and forever.


From the mid 1960s to the late 1970s, and the advent of bewitching models like Joanne Latham, the slick magazine market steamed along. Rosina rose from a hip-pocket beauty in magazines like The Fabulous Rosina (1957, full-color and an unspeakable fold-out centerfold), to queen of the newsstands in just a short time. But in light of her dusky appearance she was continuously exploited as a French woman, and maybe her parents at home in Warwickshire wanted their daughter to be seen as a daughter from Warwickshire.


Magazines represented all feature Rosina Revelle, all under legal ownership of the author (images generated by): 

Champagne - v1n2, 1961. With photos reproduced from The Fabulous Rosina (1957), including a beautiful centerfold from the same session(s), and stunning lingerie poses. 
Continental [Magazine of the World] - v3, 1959. A Canadian imprint, with Rosina on front and back covers, the interior is bawdy classic lit and jokes with cartoons. 
The Fabulous Rosina - circa 1957. One-shot series, all Rosina, and likely one of her first big appearances. Photos were later used in Champagne (1961), but with a centerfold all its own.