Last month I wrote about my recent rediscovery of film footage showing Mary’s visit to Harrogate on 29 January 1978 Here. On that chilly winter day, Mary met a huge crowd of fans at the Odeon cinema and signed copies of her 1978 glamour calendar. This was Mary’s debut ‘solo’ calendar (she had previously appeared in the 1977 Playbirds calendar, but only as ‘Miss February’), and it was a huge success. Over 100,000 copies were printed and sold via mail order – and through David Sullivan’s chain of sex shops – for the princely sum of 45p.
What made Mary’s calendar unique is that it opened up into an A4-size magazine, featuring six pages of photos and ‘hitherto unknown facts about Britain’s foremost Beauty Queen’, including the stunningly inaccurate ‘fact’ that Mary was actually ‘born in 1951’ and a list of pets she currently owned (her foul-mouthed Minah bird, Charlie gets a name-check). Additionally there was also the ubiquitous advert for upcoming screenings of Come Play with Me and, bizarrely, an offer to purchase a poster of Farrah Fawcett Majors from Charlie’s Angels! The calendar-magazine could also be unfolded, becoming a gigantic poster showing Mary in a saucy state of undress. ‘”Hi there!” read the rather superfluous strapline beside her head, “my name is Mary.”
I had a terrific response to my blog about Mary’s Harrogate excursion, and I was contacted by somebody who had actually been at the Odeon cinema that day.
Pete from Harrogate vividly recalled meeting Mary and getting a calendar signed, which he has very kindly let me have. It may even be the very same one Mary is seen signing in the film clip…
All words and screen grabs strictly © Simon Sheridan 2013-2014
