TAPE: EF03/0201 IN_TIME: 21:23:41 DURATION: 6:12 SOURCES: APTN RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: London, 5th March 2003 PLEASE NOTE: Images must be credited as follows: 'By Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London' SHOTLIST 1. Various Photographs 2. SOT Joanna Pitman, Author, 'On Blondes': "Really it was a theme set by Aphrodite as the blonde signifying a sexual attraction, youth, fertility. There are people who say that blonde hair actually does make people look younger. And mankind has in his brain that a blonde person is you're therefore more fertile, therefore more able to produce lots of people and appeared the gene. That sort of ancient evolutionary package of sexual attraction has turned into a cultural attraction." 3. Various Photographs 4. SOT Joanna Pitman "When Jean Harlow appeared in her film platinum blonde in 1931 she dyed her hair very vivid platinum color and was able to do so because a new quality of film was being used with the talkies. And for the very first film they were able to film people with very strong contrast. That bright coloured hair was able to come through much better. So she kicked off that whole phase of iconic blond in the cinema in the 1930's." 5. Various Photographs 6. SOT Joanna Pitman "After the war Marilyn Monroe was the first big international movie star. And she was very aware of the sexual pull of her hair. She apparently used ot refuse to be on set with any other blonde. Once someone turned up for one of her films with blonde hair and she said she was either not going to do the part until she was either sacked, or had changed her hair to a dark colour." 7. Various Photographs 8. SOT Joanna Pitman "So she was jealously guarding her position as the blonde in Hollywood at that time. Of course there were a ot of imitators who appeared soon after Anita Eckberg, Diana Doors and many other blonde Monroe type stars who were very successful as well." 9. Various Photographs 10. SOT Joanna Pitman (JEAN HARLOW) "She used an extraordinary mix of ammonia... to dye her hair, she had ammonia, house hold bleach, peroxide and soap flakes. And she put this on every couple of days. And eventually her hair fell out and she had to wear a wig. But she died very young and tragically. I think she was in her late twenties, and the newspapers reported that maybe this cocktail of hair dyes had contributed to her death. Who knows, I don't know what the cause was, but people were very shocked that she had gone to such an extent to be blonde." 11.Madonna Pop Promo 'Secret' 12. SOT Joanna Pitman (MADONNA) "She's not always blonde. She may have gone brunette again at the moment. But she always returns to blonde. And she sells more copies of her albums when she is blonde than when she is dark. And the first one she did when she was blonde 'True Blue' she quadrupled her sales. It suits her image, she hads blonde hair, very pale skin, dark red lips, dark eyes. And she presents this stunning goddess face, and she uses it commercially. She use her hair very cleverly and she knows that blonde hair is what attracts more attention for her. And that means success for her commercially. " 13. Various Photographs 14. SOT Joanna Pitman "Another favourite image of mine is the wall with the 1930's blondes Jean Harlow and a couple of others. Their hair is waved in a certain way, her eye brows are very finely drawn and they are glowing in these pictures, as they did on screen, which is what was so exciting for audiences in the cinema. They really have this silvery shimmering light about them and that comes from their hair." 15. Various Photographs Blondes exhibition From Marilyn Monroe to Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot to Jerry Hall the image of the platinum blonde is one of the strongest since the birth of popular culture in the 20th Century. Distinctive hair color still stirs the fantasies of men and feeds the aspirations of women some two thousand years after it first appeared as the trademark of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and fertility. In London two exhibitions are being held to celebrate the phenomenon: 'Blondes' at the Getty Images Gallery and 'British Blondes' at the National Portrait Gallery. Both exhibitions coincide with the launch of a new book on the subject by author JOANNA PITMAN. When bottled hydrogen peroxide became available over the counter in the 1930s the phenomenon of the platinum goddess took off as scores of starlets suddenly saw their chance to emulate the likes of Mae West and Greta Garbo. One of these was Jean Harlow whose powerful image irreversibly transformed cinema and with it the self image of women. The dazzling blonde hair of the 1930's stars has been imitated ever since, most famously by Marilyn Monroe. Naturally a mousy color she found that once she had dyed her hair it was not long before she was hailed the world's greatest sex symbol. Others like Veronica Lake, Betty Grable, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot also discovered the beneficial effect that fairer hair could have. The '50s blonde was typically characterised in vulnerable and weak roles in movies such as those by Alfred Hitchcock. However as the 20th Century progressed the image of the blonde bombshell was to become one of strength, individuality, power and status as well as beauty thanks to the likes of Madonna whose album sales soared in her blonde phases. Millions of women all over the world dye their hair blonde to achieve the distinctive imagery of youth, vitality and wealth, and these exhibitions go some way to revealing the reasons why. 'Blondes' at the Getty Images Gallery runs from 6th March to 26th April. 'British Blondes' at the National Portrait Gallery runs from 3rd March to 6th July. 'On Blondes' by Joanna Pitman is published by Bloomsbury.

ALICE FAYE - HOLD YOUR MAN ALICE FAYE AS PLATNIUM BLONDE DOES JEAN HARLOW IMPRESSION SINGS " HOLD yOUR mAN "