My incredibly insightful 10 Most Beautiful Women of various decades series of posts has turned out to be surprisingly popular. Who knew men liked to look at beautiful women eh? It occurred to me how odd it was some of the women I didn’t choose. And I don’t regret my choices either. Although I did experience a twinge of self doubt (for a moment anyway) the other day when I saw a news clip on Barbi Benton. She was a “big deal” back in the seventies, I tell you what. She did Playboy, Love Boat, and probably Hugh Hefner too. Its that blurry line confusing beauty with sexiness. I had titled all the posts “The 10 Most Beautiful”, I realized later that wasn’t it at all. What I had chosen were the women I considered the sexiest or the nicest. That’s a little more abstract than the “most beautiful”.

Then I started thinking of some of the others. My memory goes back to the late sixties on this. A friend and I were quite taken with his dad’s poster of Raquel Welch in a fur bikini from 1,000,000 Years B.C.! We weren’t real sure why we liked her, we just did. Then there was Loni Anderson, Suzanne Sommers, and others. Ones I found out later were popular with some guys that left me scratching my head like Karen Valentine. Tina Louise was another one. Donna Douglas. The hillbilly version of Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw, had some very beautiful women.

Going back a few years before that era were a bunch that left me going, “What?” Audrey Hepburn, Kim Novak, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, they had all the right parts in all the right places, there was just something else missing. A lot of it was you knew you were being manipulated by the studios. They held their contracts so it was in their interest to create this aura of attractiveness, whether it was really there or not. Another one from more modern times that was just huge, was Vanna White. Looking back on it now you’re going what was that all about? I can’t explain it, but I know it happened.

[Case in point: 5 time Playboy model Carmen Electra. Absolutely no sex appeal. Then it hit me, I’ve never known of a Playboy model who was.]

Barbi Benton

Loni Anderson

Suzanne Somers

Tina Louise

Maureen McCormick

Karen Valentine

For real fun, try to picture the one that rolls out of bed looking like a million bucks? Without the makeup, the lighting or the wardrobe.