The Tennis Girl
If a single picture ever conveyed the sexual liberation, permissive society and hostility towards norms and authorities of the 1970s, it would be the iconic poster of “The Tennis Girl”. Taken at the end of the long hot summer in September 1976, the photo was not an accidental shot. Martin Elliot, then a photography student in Birmingham, asked his then girlfriend, 18-year old Fiona Butler to borrow a tennis dress, a racket and balls and to pose for him.
Martin’s photo of Fiona lifting her dress and revealing that she was not wearing underwear is perhaps tame by today’s standards, but when he sold it to poster chain Athena, which published as part of the calendar for the Queen’s 1977 Silver Jubilee, it caused a sensation. Critics dismissed it a “schoolboy’s fantasy”, while Elliott himself said, “it is not a picture I would buy”, for it had only the appeal of a voyeuristic postcard. But it didn’t deter hundreds of thousands of schoolboys to grace their bedroom walls with it. It sold 2 million copies.
It was parodied in advertisements, served as the background of Spitting Image and various celebrities (including Alan Carr and Kylie Minogue) reenacted it. Martin Elliott who died last week at the age of 63 made a fortune out of the poster, but it hindered his career: no one would commission him as they feared he would be too expensive. Fiona Butler was never paid a penny, she eventually married a millionaire and said that she was not embarrassed about posing nor bitter that she didn’t receive any royalties from the photo.
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Waiting for Film Processing
May 21, 2010 at 10:07 am
“September 1976″
I was born a few months before this, and the photograph has come to symbolise the 1970s for me as well, but in a negative way; the colours have a very 70s washed-out pastel quality and the whole ambiance just feels naff and suburban. It gives me a mental picture of the posh couple from The Good Life, or the family from Abigail’s Party. People who aspired to owning naff things. Orange and mustard-coloured carpets.
While I’m in a crumpy mood, I’ve always thought that the tennis dress makes the model look shapeless. It obscures her hips.
Carry on, anyway. Your blog is great. It gets mostly rubbish comments and you must feel incredibly disappointed, but it’s really good.
Ashley Pomeroy
August 10, 2010 at 5:20 pm
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The Best Blog I Have Ever Seen « F I S H I N G
August 17, 2010 at 9:01 am
Ooops.
I see my own blog gets mentioned here because of a post I wrote that includes your list of “Top Posts” (which, by the way, is not representative of your work, nor of your blog … which should maybe be corrected…)
I did not know that publishing your top list on a post of mine would put my blog on your posts. I am sorry.
I am going to leave the list on my post, but without links.
cantueso
August 18, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I’m sorry, but this IS Kylie Minogue.
If you Google ‘Kylie tennis GQ’ you’ll find the whole set.
And that’s the least sorriest sorry I’ve ever been.
Well, then
September 9, 2010 at 4:27 pm
hot girl
majed
September 26, 2010 at 3:41 pm
hooooot
http://www.fiunh.net/
m
September 26, 2010 at 3:42 pm