Sometimes, the city in which a movie is set plays a role more important than that of the main characters and the City of Love, in particular, has long been a favorite of filmmakers. Here are a few films where, even when cast alongside screen legends like Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando, Paris was undoubtedly the star.

Read the full post >

In 1964 when Sharon Bernstein Peyton was 18 years old she worked as a Showroom Bunny at the brand new Baltimore Playboy Club. Join Ultra Swank as we continue our journey into a more stylish, sexy and sophisticated world as we venture behind the curtain with her to mingle with go getters and high rollers.

Read the full post >

Tired of spinning the same old Esquivel and Les Baxter on the hi-fi? First, make sure you’ve given a listen to the fabulous Ultra Swank compilations curated by our own Chris. Then feast your ears on Luxuriamusic.com. And what a feast it is! Luxuria is an audible smorgasbord of tiki, exotica, and lounge music of our favourite era.

Since its humble beginnings in 2000, Luxuria has been, according to their site, a “meticulously curated mixture of musical genres.” This internet radio station streams an eclectic mix of obscure gems and unexpected twists on beloved standards. In the span of an hour, you can hear Astrud Gilberto’s “The Girl From Ipanema,” the Wally Gator theme song, a little Count Basie, a little Baja Marimba Band, and Mongo Santamaria’s spicy rendition of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Wowza!

Read the full post >

In the summer of 1964 when Sharon Bernstein Peyton was 18 years old, she saw an ad for the new Baltimore Playboy Club opening. This stylish, sexy and glamorous world was quite different from the life she had been living. Nevertheless, she applied for a job and before she knew it, she was working among the high rollers and go getters as a Playboy Bunny. Ultra Swank sits down to talk to her about glamour, ambitions, sex and the legend in the silk pajamas.

Read the full post >

Long before chat shows, judges and “tabloid infotainment” cluttered up American television airwaves, game shows dominated daytime programming. Several popular game shows of the 1950s and ’60s featured celebrity panelists—To Tell the Truth, Password, What’s My Line, You Bet Your Life, I’ve Got a Secret and Hollywood Squares. Each show had a rhythm and structure to it while still allowing for a cheeky faux pas from celebs and contestants. But none bordered on the madcap mania that erupted from The Match Game.

The Match Game is best remembered for its recurring celebrity panelists (Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Betty White, and Jack Klugman to name a few) and risqué-sounding questions that encouraged saucy double entendre answers. Take a look at a few clips and you’ll find material that would make today’s censors blush and Marx Brothers-level antics. It ain’t your modern day game show, for sure. And when the series began in 1962, it was quite a different program.

Read the full post >

British supermarket giant Tesco has recreated a 1960s style store for the Goodwood Revival historic motor race meeting, held each September in Essex, not far away from London. Inside the store, customers will be able to walk up and down three different aisles filled with dozens of products from the sixties. Even the check-out assistants will be dressed in vintage uniforms, with hair and make-up styled in the fashion of the area.

The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival for the types of cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit’s original period—1948-1966. It is one of the world’s most popular motor race meetings and the only UK event which recreates the golden era of motor sport from the 1950s and 1960s. (Via)