Pamela Green
Encyclopedia
Pamela Green was an English
glamour model
and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s. She modeled for Zoltán Glass
, Horace Roye
, and John Everard.
while still at art college, Zoltán Glass
and Angus McBean
.
In 1954 Pamela started to supply the bookshops and newsagents of London's Soho with her own postcard sets of glamour photographs, to supplement her work as a photographer's model. In 1955 Luxor Press published a pictorial monograph on Pamela featuring the photographs of George Harrison Marks
, entitled Pamela.
Following her divorce from Guy Hillier, she moved in with Harrison Marks and took his name, but they never actually married. In 1961 their personal relationship ended but she continued to be part of the business. By the mid-sixties Harrison Marks was increasingly preoccupied by film making. Kamera ceased publication in 1968. He always acknowledged his debt to Pamela Green and said in his biography The Naked Truth, "Pam set me up. She started it all."
She starred in Michael Powell
's psychological thriller Peeping Tom
(1960). In 1964 she appeared in an episode of This Week
.
Green continued to model for the photographer Douglas Webb
, her last partner, a former war hero of the Dambusters
raid. She became Webb's camera stills assistant and worked for the major movie companies in London. In 1986, Green and Webb moved to the Isle of Wight
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
glamour model
Glamour photography
Glamour photography is a genre of photography whereby the subjects, usually female, are portrayed in a romantic or sexually alluring way. The subjects may be fully clothed or seminude, but glamour photography stops short of deliberately arousing the viewer and being pornographic photography.Glamour...
and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s. She modeled for Zoltán Glass
Zoltán Glass
Zoltån Glass was an Anglo-Hungarian photographer. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1925 he started working as a cartoonist and retoucher. In 1931 Zoltån moved to Berlin where he established himself as a photographer. A keen motorsport enthusiast, Glass covered most of the big races at the Nürburgring...
, Horace Roye
Horace Roye
Horace Roye was one of the 20th century's pioneering photographers. Roye's photo Tomorrow's Crucifixion, depicting a nude model wearing a gas mask while pinned to a crucifix caused controversy when published in the North London Recorder in August 1938, but is now recognised as one the major...
, and John Everard.
Early life
Born as Phyllis Pamela Green, she started figure modelling to pay for her art school studies and moved on to photographic modelling because it paid more. Early in her career Pamela Green was photographed by Bill BrandtBill Brandt
Bill Brandt was an influential British photographer and photojournalist known for his high-contrast images of British society and his distorted nudes and landscapes.-Career and life:...
while still at art college, Zoltán Glass
Zoltán Glass
Zoltån Glass was an Anglo-Hungarian photographer. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1925 he started working as a cartoonist and retoucher. In 1931 Zoltån moved to Berlin where he established himself as a photographer. A keen motorsport enthusiast, Glass covered most of the big races at the Nürburgring...
and Angus McBean
Angus McBean
Angus McBean , was a Welsh photographer, associated with surrealism.-Biography:Angus McBean was born in South Wales in June 1904. Despite the surname and the family's claim to be head of the sub-clan McBean, they had been Welsh for generations. Clem McBean was a surveyor in the mines and the family...
.
In 1954 Pamela started to supply the bookshops and newsagents of London's Soho with her own postcard sets of glamour photographs, to supplement her work as a photographer's model. In 1955 Luxor Press published a pictorial monograph on Pamela featuring the photographs of George Harrison Marks
Harrison Marks
George Harrison Marks was a British glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films who was active in the fields for several decades.-Kamera and Pamela Green:...
, entitled Pamela.
Career
Her rising profile prompted her to set up Kamera Publications Ltd with George. With Green as Managing Director, they produced several magazines, with Kamera being the most successful. It was the first glamour magazine of any note in the UK, and heralded the top-shelf magazine industry in the country. As their success grew they ventured into 8mm cine film production.Following her divorce from Guy Hillier, she moved in with Harrison Marks and took his name, but they never actually married. In 1961 their personal relationship ended but she continued to be part of the business. By the mid-sixties Harrison Marks was increasingly preoccupied by film making. Kamera ceased publication in 1968. He always acknowledged his debt to Pamela Green and said in his biography The Naked Truth, "Pam set me up. She started it all."
She starred in Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
's psychological thriller Peeping Tom
Peeping Tom (film)
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur...
(1960). In 1964 she appeared in an episode of This Week
This Week (ITV TV series)
This Week was a weekly current affairs series first produced for ITV in January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion , running until 1978, when it was replaced by TV Eye...
.
Green continued to model for the photographer Douglas Webb
Douglas Webb
Douglas Webb DFM, was a British photographer who worked in the film and television industries. He was also a veteran of the Dambusters raid.-Early life:Webb was born in Leytonstone, London...
, her last partner, a former war hero of the Dambusters
Operation Chastise
Operation Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out on 16–17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis...
raid. She became Webb's camera stills assistant and worked for the major movie companies in London. In 1986, Green and Webb moved to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
Filmography
- Peeping TomPeeping Tom (film)Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur...
(1960) - Naked as Nature Intended (1961)
- The Day the Earth Caught FireThe Day the Earth Caught FireThe Day the Earth Caught Fire is a British science fiction disaster film starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. It was directed by Val Guest and released in 1961....
(1961) - The Chimney Sweeps (1963)
- The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1966)
- Legend of the Werewolf (1975) (uncredited)
Further reading
- Sheridan, Simon. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. London: Titan Publishing, 2011.