One of publisher David Sullivan’s lesser-known magazine titles of the Seventies was New Blue Exciting Cinema, launched in March 1977. Ostensibly created as another platform on which to promote Mary’s new film Come Play with Me (released in London on 28 April 1977), Exciting Cinema also contained ‘reviews’ of fictitious X-rated movies. Issue #1 reviewed such ‘classics’ as Serge Jacquette’s The Dirty Dustman and Miroslav Ondracec’s Housewife Hooker. The ‘Continental’-sounding names of the directors and starlets fooled readers into thinking they were looking at stills from mucky imported Euro-porn; they weren’t. Any punter looking for late-night screenings of The Dirty Dustman in the fleapits of Soho would be left sorely disappointed.
Mary first featured on the cover of Exciting Cinema for issue #7 (September 1977) and then made a return appearance for issue #12. This latter issue, dating from February 1978, is interesting since it shows Mary posing topless next to her beloved motor – a silver 1973 Mercedes-Benz 350SL with blue leather interior. Mary loved her top-of-the-range cars (she also owned a yellow Triumph Stag) and her Merc was emblazoned with a personalised number-plate ‘5727 MM’.
A picture of Mary and her Merc (from the same photo-shoot, taken in the summer of 1977 in Mid Holmwood, Surrey) also appeared on the cover of Continental Film Review (coincidentally a ‘real’ movie magazine) in July 1978. The much-loved Mercedes was wrecked one evening after Mary’s husband, Bob, crashed it into a wall whilst blind drunk, after a night out in Dorking. Mary was absolutely furious, but paid for the car to be repaired. The car’s number-plate changed hands after Mary’s death, and is now registered to a green Range Rover Discovery, but the Merc is still out there somewhere, being driven by somebody who probably has little knowledge of its once-famous owner.
All words © Simon Sheridan 2012-2015
