Is a ‘desert island pin-up’ a thing? In 1983, the Observer decided it was, and quizzed a variety of celebrity castaways on who would keep them cheerful pinned to the wall of their huts as they awaited rescue.
Most chose classic beauties who would provide plentiful erotic daydreaming material for long, dehydrated, sunburnt days and mosquito-tormented nights. For Clive James, that was Rita Hayworth and his tribute to her was poetic: ‘Only energy can have such an outline,’ he wrote. ‘She danced beside Fred Astaire as if he had thought of her.’ Taki, described as ‘high-lifer and Spectator columnist’, plumped for Ava Gardner, praising her ‘mystery and delicacy’, while Kingsley Amis went for Faye Dunaway: ‘All you’ve ever wanted and ought not to have even if you could get it.’
Columnist Sue Arnold chose the stone-cold renard Alain Delon: ‘Extremely sexy, a little shady… Whenever I was at a loose end, I could imagine him singing me some of those divine Georges Brassens songs.’ Libby Purves was drawn to Terry Jones’s ‘twisted grin’ and actor Gayle Hunnicutt thought Dustin Hoffman would ‘remind me that life is very funny even when it’s difficult’.
Things got interesting when the pin-up was more surprising. Bewilderingly, there are two votes (Anna Ford and actor Sheila Steafel) for twinkly raconteur and broadcaster Arthur Marshall, then aged 73, and pictured in a flat cap and owlishly large glasses. ‘His sweet expression would remind me of everything that’s naughty and irreverent,’ said Ford, who claimed she always carried a large photo of Marshall with her.
The absolute highlight, unsurprisingly, was Dame Edna Everage. After a hat-tip to hubby Norm, Barry Humphries’ alter ego chose the etiolated Bloomsbury aesthete Lytton Strachey. ‘I think snake-hips Strachey is a raunchy old spunk from way back, and he could leave his carpet slippers under my bed any time he likes.’
