Before They Were Stars

The cover states 'Lilliput is a man's magazine' - and it certainly is.

There's nothing within the pages that could possibly interest the woman of 1956 - and pictorially little that would interest the man of 2007.

Founded in 1937, the British magazine at this time featured a single two page photo spread of its featured starlet, cover girl Jill Ireland, and but two other exceedingly demure photos of attractive up and comers in the film world.

Ms Ireland went on to a successful acting career in film and television and married actor David McCallum the year after this magazine was published. They were divorced in 1967 and she wed actor Charles Bronson the following year. The Internet Movie Database reports that McCallum had introduced his wife to Bronson when the two men were co-starring in 1963's The Great Escape.

Ireland died in 1990 of breast cancer, having undergone a mastectomy in 1984. Her death left husband Bronson bereft and he did not remarry for eight years, an eternity in Hollywood terms. Bronson passed away in 2003.

Whether Lilliput generally had the inside dope on just who was going 'to make it' amongst the filmland hopefuls they featured is unknown but they certainly scored a hat-trick with this edition.

Judi Boutin was a young Ice Follies star who turned to acting after a series of accidents - including breaking her back - forced her out of skating. She went on to success on a series of TV shows under the name Judi Meredith. She's still alive but her last acting role appears to have been in 1973.

Sara Shane was hardly a young starlet in 1956 - she was already 30 and had bit parts in Easter Parade (1948), Neptune's Daughter (1949), Sign of the Pagan (1954) and Magnificent Obsession (1954). When featured in Lillput, she was working on The King and Four Queens with Clark Gable and her film career peaked with the Jane-like role opposite Gordon Scott in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959). She moved into TV after that but retired from acting in her late 30s. IMDB reports:

She turned to writing and began to devote herself to the study of pharmaceuticals. She wrote two books "Zulma" and "Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry," the first one a work of fiction and the second a book promoting healthy living. She eventually moved to Australia to avoid the Los Angeles pollution and, at age 80, still lives happily...and healthily...on her 5 acres of land.

The rest of the magazine devotes itself to such men's issues as
'Improve Your Control' with hints on dribbling and ball handling but not in the realm one might expect from later titles - it's a pictorial 'how to' on soccer featuring Fulham FC Captain and England international star Johnny Haynes.

Otherwise, the magazine is repleat with war and adventure stories, articles on the right raincoat to wear to the races and ads for cigarettes, electric shavers and such indispensible after-market auto accessories as Smith's Car Heaters.

Wikipedia notes that Lilliput was merged in August 1960 with Men Only magazine 'which only later became pornographic'. Certainly in 1956, the Jill Ireland centrespread contains nothing to offend anyone but ones prudish maiden aunt and the hint of negligee in the picture of Judi Boutin is offset by the friendly domesticity of her expression - more the young wife suggesting hubby stop reading 'The Blag At The Bailey' and come to the marital bed than the hussy revving up for a romp. Indeed, the only place you'll see a bare breast or bottom is in the cartoons.

Nonetheless, it's a fair bet a chap didn't read Lilliput outside the privacy of his own home or perhaps down the shed.

A mere 14 years later, in 1970, the first topless 'Page 3 Girl' (Wikipedia entry) appeared in British newspaper The Sun and within a few years were openly ogled on the buses.

-- Nick