A MONTH AFTER GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA, ANOTHER FAMOUS BIKINI GIRL, RAQUEL WELCH, PASSED AWAY.

By 1966, bikini was becoming increasingly popular, especially among young women, in Western countries.  This two-piece bathing suit was not the very minimalist one that had caused a scandal on the almost totally naked body of stripper Micheline Bernardini, in Paris, on July 5, 1946.  This was shortly after the creation of the tiny bikini by the French engineer Louis Réard.

In the early 1950s, only pin-up girls (or a few other women who sometimes received police fines for indecency on public beaches) most of them movie stars, such as Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Esther Williams, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe, dared to appear in this very light outfit.

But for ordinary mortals, to appear in public, with so few clothes, was simply indecent, at least, for the mores of the time.

In the early 1960s, the American actress and signer Annette Funicello (brown hair girl on the photo above) will create the fashion of the Beach Party, in a series of movies around this theme.  Already a recognized artist thanks, among other things, to her roles in Disney studio productions, she is recommended by the producers to wear sober bathing suits, one-pieces, or, at least, not-too-revealing two-pieces that do not show her navel.

Because, for a woman, showing her navel was considered indecent, still, in puritanical America, at that time.

In 1963, from the first of this series of Beach Party films, that will be very popular, young people will imitate this kind of activity in their everyday life, obviously also wearing the famous bikini.

A little while before, in 1962, in a dazzling scene from the movie "Dr No", the famous Bond Girl Ursula Andress (photo), coming out of the sea with her splendid white bikini, had entered history, not only of cinema, but as a beauty icon who greatly contributed to the brand image of the bikini.

In 1966, Raquel Welch did the same by emerging from the water wearing a partially torn bikini, made of animal skin and fur, in the film "One Million Years B.C.".  The movie, almost totally silent, is a failure, and all Raquel Welch hopes is that it quickly sinks into oblivion, so that it does not damage her career, which is still in its infancy.

If this film, in which she says only three lines, is a failure, its promotional posters will be a phenomenal publicity stunt for Raquel Welch.  She appears in the foreground, dressed in her original cave woman bikini.  The sales sucesses of this poster are instant and overwhelming.  They break records and are distributed all over the planet. 

 

Overnight, thanks to this poster that testifies to her extreme beauty, Raquel Welch achieves worldwide fame, and she becomes a sex symbol, of which all moviegoers dream.  Every magazine wants photos of her, and she becomes an actress and a top model much sought after by film directors and fashion designers.  It is a total surprise for this young woman born in 1940, in Chicago, of an American mother, and a father of Bolivian origin.  

In her memoir (Raquel : Beyond the Cleavage, 2010) Welch wrote : "I was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one" (...) "The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding".

Just before One Million Years B.C., Welch had the first success of her career thanks to her role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage.  Previously, she had played small roles (including one, in 1964, in the film Roustabout starring Elvis Presley).  As was the case for Marilyn Monroe and Gina Lollobrigida, film producers confined Raquel Welch to many superficial roles, betting only on the beauty of her body.  Like her two famous colleagues, she will always protest against this categorazation of "woman object". 

 

Curiously, Welch, every man's sexual fantasy,  first owes her breakthrough in the Hollywood film industry (in 1965) to... a woman, the wife of producer Saul David, who, after seeing a magnificent photo of Raquel in Life magazine, sees great potential in her, and points it out to her husband.

David recommended Welch to a contract with 20th Century Fox.  She agreed to a lucrative seven-year contract, for five pictures over the next five years.  Almost forty other films will follow, as well as fifty television shows, making Raquel Welch a legend.

Her curves and beauty captured pop culture attention.  Playboy crowned her the "most desired woman" of the '70s, despite the fact that she never appeared completely naked in the magazine.  In 1995, she was named one of the 100 sexiest stars in film History.  The year after, she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  And in 2013, Welch nabbed the No. 2 spot (behind only Jennifer Aniston) on Men's Health's "Hottest Women of All Time" list.

The film and television industry had finally rewarded her talents as an actress, singer and dancer by awarding her a Golden Globe for her role as Constance Bonacieux in the fil "The Three Musketeers (1973, photo).  She was nominated for this award, in 1988, thanks to her excellent performance in the television film "Right to Die".

Her remarkable career spanned five decades.  Unlike Gina Lollobrigida, who became an actress by chance, to pay for her studies at the School of Fine Arts of Rome (she wanted to become a painter), Raquel Welch became an actress by training.

In 1942, to serve his country's war efforts, her father, an aeronautical engineer, moved his family to La Jolia, California.  Very early, the one who then bears the name of Jo-Raquel Tejada, will want to become an artist of show business.  She took classes un dance, singing and acting.  

Already, at 14 years old, aware of her advantageous physique, she won beauty contests, and she soon landed a few modeling contracts.  Funny enough, after seven years of ballet lessons, seeing how much her feminine attributes have grown, her instructor makes her give up a career in this field, telling her right away that she really does not have the physique of the job !

For posterity, Raquel Welch holds a very high place in the Pantheon of female beauty of all time.  This stunning and breathaking beauty, and her glorious acting and modeling careers will ensure that she will never be forgotten.  Even if she died last Wednesday, at the age of 82, she will remain, in a way, immortal...  And one of the most famous bikini girl of all time !

Here is an audio-visual montage that attests to her legendary iconic beauty.