BOTD: ultimate dark angel of 1950s pin-up queens, vintage smut icon and perennial hairstyle role model for generations of female rockabillies – #BettiePage (22 April 1923 – 11 Dec 2008)! Frolic in lingerie, teeter around in extreme fetish heels or spank someone with a hairbrush in Page’s memory!
BOTD (21 April 1947): happy 79th birthday to streetwalkin’ cheetah with a heartful of napalm / world’s forgotten boy / chairman of the bored / possessor of the world's most sinewy torso, one of THE greatest live performers EVER – feral godfather of punk, #IggyPop! Portrait by Peter Hujar, 1977.
Precisely 50 years ago today (16 April 1976): unassailable Country & Western diva, bouffant wig enthusiast, force for good and one-woman ray of sunshine Dolly Parton arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport for the 8th International Festival of Country Music at Wembley Arena. #dollyparton #lobotomyroom
Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Pictured: festive “glamour shot” of young Angie Dickinson, 1961. #easter #easter2026 #happyeaster #eastersunday #retroeaster #vintageeaster #easterkitsch #easterbunny #easterbonnet #easterpinup #angiedickinson #lobotomyroom #oldshowbiz #buggsbunny #kitsch #pinup
Is it even Easter until the effervescent Ambassador of Americana Charles Phoenix posts his traditional Easter Meatloaf of Lamb? As featured in Phoenix’s 2019 retro cookbook Holiday Jubilee. #easter #happyeaster #easter2026 #easterkitsch #retroeaster #lobotomyroom #charlesphoenix #vintageeaster
Born on this day: suavely raffish and joli laid musical genius, dissipated 20th century Marquis de Sade of French popular culture once described by Vanity Fair as “the pungent flower of French manhood in all its Gallic glory”- #SergeGainsbourg (né Lucien Ginsburg, 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991)!
To commemorate #TransVisibilityDay (31 March): Andy Warhol’s legendary trio of gender-fluid superstar dolls (as celebrated in the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side”) Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling photographed by Richard Avedon for the June 1972 issue of Vogue magazine. #lgbtqia
Born 65 years ago today: ultra-freaky post-punk drag monster, performance artist, nightclub promoter, fashion designer, artist’s model, muse, musician, Australia’s twisted gift to the world and all-round visionary - Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 - 31 Dec 1994)! #leighbowery #lobotomyroom #freakdiva
BOTD: the incomparably fierce and regal Miss #JoanCrawford (née Lucille LeSueur on 23 March somewhere between 1904 and 1908. The precise year of Crawford’s birth is contested although 1906 seems to be widely accepted). Pictured: portrait of Crawford with her pet poodles in New York, April 1957.
You can only mean "You Only Live Twice" by Nancy Sinatra, clearly x
BOTD: tempestuous maverick “outsider actress” #SusanTyrrell (18 March 1945 – 16 June 2012). When she died, The Guardian’s headline summarized her as “Actor often cast in sleazy, raunchy roles.” Seriously – what higher praise could an actress possibly hope for? Portrait of Tyrrell by Rocky Schenck.
Born on this day: the truly great haunting and transgressive outsider photographer Diane Arbus (14 March 1923 – 26 July 1971). All these decades later, her confrontational portraits continue to fascinate and disturb. Pictured: Female impersonator on bed, NYC, 1961 by Diane Arbus. #dianearbus
Unleashed 44 years ago today (12 March 1982): My First Album, the debut record by everyone’s favourite 300 pound drag monster / hog princess #Divine! Time hasn’t mellowed the sleazy urgency of putrid hi-NRG disco classics like “Shoot Your Shot”, “Jungle Jezebel” and “Native Love”. #lobotomyroom
Happy 80th birthday to tremulous-with-emotion personification of old-school showbiz, triple threat, resilient diva, sequin enthusiast, Oscar winner, Studio 54 habituée and Betty Ford Clinic survivor - Liza “Jazz Hands” Minnelli (born 12 March 1946)! Pic by Mary Ellen Mark, NYC 2001. #lizaminnelli
Art appreciation! La buveuse d’absinthe (1907) by Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946). Don’t you love her haunted thousand-yard stare? In terms of alienation, this is like the female equivalent of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. #theabsinthedrinker #lobotomyroom #hauntedpainting #leonspilliaert
Born on this day: the fiercely sensual, temperamental and magnetic earth mother of Italian cinema and paragon of Mediterranean womanhood, Anna Magnani (7 March 1908 - 26 September 1973). Portrait of Magnani by Yousuf Karsh, 1958. #lobotomyroom #annamagnani #shewolf #earthmother #italiancinema #kween
Born on this day 115 years ago: Depression-era platinum blonde sex goddess #JeanHarlow (née Harlean Carpenter, 3 March 1911 – 7 June 1937). I particularly love Harlow’s performances in Dinner at Eight (1933), Red Dust (1932) and especially outrageous pre-Code comedy Red-Headed Woman (1932). #badgirl
Born 94 years ago today: child actress turned volatile, hedonistic screen diva, AIDS activist, perfume brand magnate and definition of “movie star”, #ElizabethTaylor (Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, 27 February 1932 – 23 March 2011). Pic: Taylor in 1956 by Mark Shaw. #lobotomyroom #liztaylor #kween
Born on this day 112 years ago: actress Carroll Borland (25 February 1914 – 3 February 1994) who played Luna Mora, eerily silent vampire daughter of Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) in 1935 Universal horror movie classic Mark of The Vampire. #carrollborland #lunamora #markofthevampire #lobotomyroom #horror
Received a borderline spam email earlier from my pet insurance company notifying me that today (20 February) represents National Love Your Pet Day – an excuse to post a moody glamour shot of my intense and wilful fur princess, Eartha Kitten (aka That Bad Eartha). #earthakitten #britishbluecat #diva
Read my 1990 interview with Ivy here: tinyurl.com/n3v7bewk #thecramps #poisonivyrorschach #luxinterior #lobotomyroom #garagepunk #addamsfamilyofpunk #voodoobilly #punkabilly #psychobilly #rockabilly #rocknroll #rockabillypsychosis #badgirl #punk #punkrock #punkicon #punkpinup #filthelder #rolemodel
Happy 73rd birthday to #TheCramps’ fierce voodoobilly bad girl-guitarist extraordinaire-inscrutable dominatrix Poison Ivy Rorschach (née Kristy Marlana Wallace, 20 February 1953)! ). Pictured: portrait of Poison Ivy by Renaud Monfourny, 1990. Read my interview with Ivy here: tinyurl.com/n3v7bewk
Happy Pink Halloween! I mean happy #ValentinesDay! Why not extend the swooning romantic vibes until Thurs 19 Feb and join us at Fontaine’s in Dalston when the FREE monthly #LobotomyRoom film club presents Morocco (1930)? Starring #MarleneDietrich and Gary Cooper! Info: tinyurl.com/3k8r8he9 #precode
Happy 65th birthday to scowling, ultra-intense American hardcore punk Renaissance man (and tattooed muscle daddy icon!) #HenryRollins (b. 13 February 1961)! I’d argue Rollins is at his ferocious howl-of-alienation best on Hot Animal Machine (1987). Pic: Rollins photographed by Rick McGinnis, 1988.
Happy 93rd birthday to glorious mid-twentieth century screen goddess, “lavender blonde” and Candy Darling’s favourite actress - Kim Novak (née Marilyn Pauline Novak, 13 February 1933)! I love Novak best in Vertigo (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). #kimnovak
Died 65 years ago today: trailblazing Chinese American screen diva of the twenties and thirties, stage and television actress and cabaret star #AnnaMayWong (née Wong Liu Tsong, 3 January 1905 – 10 February 1961. It’s somehow perfect that her Chinese name translates as “Yellow Frosted Willow”).
Released on this day (9 February 1980) by ZE Records: stark, eerie death jazz masterpiece Queen of Siam, the debut solo album by luscious No Wave death kitten #LydiaLunch, described by AllMusic guide as “a putrid classic of style and substance.” Pic: portrait of Lunch by Ebet Roberts, 1980. #nowave
Born 105 years ago today: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). Pictured: Turner as pagan priestess Samarra in 1955 MGM biblical epic The Prodigal. #lanaturner #lobotomyroom #biblicalepic #exotica #kitsch
Born 95 years ago today: cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, #JamesDean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pic: Dean during production of his final film Giant (1956).
Born 99 years ago today: ultimate black-clad, throaty-voiced, morbidly beautiful French beatnik chanteuse, actress, eyeliner role model, proto-goth and Morticia Addams lookalike Juliette Gréco (7 Feb 1927 - 23 Sept 2020). Pic: Gréco at the Bobino music hall in Paris in November 1951. #juliettegreco