Honor Blackman is mainly known for her roles on The Avengers and the Bond films where she regularly put the beat down on goons and thugs. But I'm not going to dwell on her illustrious career as a Chuck Norris with boobs. Instead, I want to just want to look at one of her books. Her bio can be found all over the internets, but I haven't seen much on her amazing martial arts book. So, to fill that void, here goes.
Honor Blackman's Book of Self Defense was published in 1965. It was made with Joe Robinson and his brother Doug, a judo champion and black belt in karate. Joe was a British wrestler (didn't think there was such a thing, did you) and made a name for himself arranging stunts on the Bond films and the occasional acting gig.
It's a weird book, really. It outlines some moves (yawn) and some reasons why women need it, and there's a shitload of pictures of Blackman putting the smack down on various unlucky blokes. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for the book to fade into the mists of time, forgotten completely. It wasn't re-issued, and all that remains are a few old copies, an old interview where she mentions it, and.... well, this post.
Here's some of the pictures. Click to enlarge. Enjoy.
It's become kind of the proverbial image of the pre-liberated workplace - the lecherous boss and his sexy secretary. The movie 9 to 5 mocked the stereotype, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy did an excellent job at poking fun at 70's workplace sexism. Of course, we're being a bit naive if we think this sort of thing still doesn't go on, but I don't think it's anything close to what it was.
I've shown the next ad before on Retrospace. The "LSD" acronym on the picket sign rocks my world - a reference to acid in a copy machine ad? That's pretty amazing.
Reservations and billing all done on a typewriter... I can barely remember the days before computers were everywhere. Remember that nasty carbon paper, the annoying typewriter ribbon, when a single typo could mean you'd have to retype the whole damn page, and having to look how to spell stuff in the dictionary? Seems so archaic now - as if I'm describing life in the Depression era.
One of my favorite pictures, I've used this next one a couple times here at Retrospace. I don't know what it is about it I like - it just oozes "retroness" from every pixel.
.... and last but not least, a couple screen shots of Linda Thorson in The Avengers (1968). In this episode she's posing as a secretary who gets frozen in place by trance-inducing criminals disguised as Classy Glass Cleaning Co. Ltd. workers in order to swipe Cypher HQ secrets from the Ministry Of Top-Secret Codes.... nevermind, it's complicated.
Imagine how Jenilee Harrison must have felt being the replacement for Suzanne Somers on Three’s Company. I’m sure it was a combination of joy and extreme pressure. It was a great honor, but these were some pretty big shoes to fill. The same can be said of Linda Thorson who replaced Diana Rigg (a replacement herself) on The Avengers in season 6. It would prove to be the show’s last season.
To be fair, the show was slipping and I’m not sure who could’ve replaced Rigg and saved it. Linda was roundly thrashed by the press as being a poor substitute – all looks and no brains, a damsel in distress rather than a strong heroine.
True, some of it was well-founded – Linda was very inexperienced as an actress and she got the part because she was the girlfriend of then-producer John Bryce. But I still say that Tara King (Thorson) was every bit as good a character as Emma Peel (Rigg). Perhaps, even better… yeah, you read it right. Take a look at some these facts before you…
1. The show failed because it became dependent on US audiences, and it was lined up against Laugh-In (a show which also killed Star Trek).
2. Season 6 was actually an IMPROVEMENT over the previous season. Few will argue that Peel’s last season was lame – it was becoming a spoof like Batman. In the last season, things started to get back to being serious.
3. The character of Tara King started to show some real promising signs towards the end of the season – she became more intelligent, less reliant on Steed, and more of a badass. Quite often, Tara could open up a can of whoop-ass that Emma Peel could have only dreamed of. Check out Tara beating the hell out of some bad guys in this YouTube clip:
4. The British reaction was unfavorable, but Thorson didn’t face the same sort of ridicule abroad. US audiences were somewhat ambivalent, and Thorson was much more popular in France than Rigg ever was.
It’s the ol’ Ted McGinley syndrome, where a last minute replacement gets the blame for the demise of an already floundering show. Before the show's cancellation, Linda Thorson was riding high – she was dating Frank Sinatra (who became her son’s godfather), and even had a musical career. (Listen to her single “Here I Am” which came out right around the time of her role on TheAvengers).
Sadly, after the cancellation, Linda removed herself from the limelight and concentrated on venues with lower visibility. Perhaps today she views her stint on The Avengers as more of a curse than a blessing. It's always hard replacing someone that's so well loved.... just ask Sammy Hagar.
