If I was going to go on a totally absurd social crusade it would be to end chest waxing. A man’s chest hair is sacred. Leave it alone. It’s…..I’ll whisper this so the children in the room can’t hear me…..SEXY. Yep. Sexy. Few men display the “plumage”–as it’s been called, quite as well as the Great Scott himself–Sean Connery.
The statute of limitations having long ago run out, I can admit freely that I stole this LIFE magazine cover from a local university library’s bound periodicals collection in 1977. It was on my bedroom wall in high school.
Now, Sean did not CAUSE my love of this manly attribute. That was the fictional Rhett Butler’s fault. In the book Rhett is said to have a thick mat of black chest hair. I was in love from then on with the whole idea. Sean Connery was just, well, pretty darned attractive. And the whole torn wet suit thing worked well with the chest hair. So while Rhett’s was my “gateway chest,” Sean set a very high bar for my life long manly chest test. [Note, I realize guys have no control over this. If I like the guy, I like all of him–chest hair or not–this is all in fun.]
This ladies is what “manly” looks like!
Credits
Later in my life–my thirties–I had this poster in my office and then at the end of my hallway at home. Sadly, after my kids arrived Sean was replaced by Puss in Boots from Shrek–you know the one, with the melty kitten eyes? That one.
Some day, in my future home, I will have a true Edwardian morning room with a leather Chesterfield sofa and all the right trimmings. This portrait will have pride of place–Sean Rex Imperator. Edward VII didn’t look to bad in this portrait, but the photo-shopping with Sean really gives it that special something, don’t you think?
This, though, is my all-time favorite. No accident that it comes from a cross-generational romance on film: First Knight, in which Julia Ormand’s character stupidly prefers Richard Geer. Silly girl!
My favorite of his films is the Wind and the Lion with Candice Bergman. It also features Brian Keith as the best-ever Teddy Roosevelt.
Today Sean Connery is over 80. Rumors abound of Alzheimer’s and other indignities of old-age. What we see here is fantasy, not reality. Reality is an actor who is growing old. But Valentine’s Day is a romance novel, it is fantasy. Enjoy.
Hopewell's Public Library of Life 
I’m laughing, imagining me with Charles/Di on my college wall and you with the ripped-off Sean mag cover 🙂 Wonderful collection of pictures for this weekend!
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I also had a poster of the Queen and Prince Philip which I gave to my English politics professor–a staunch Labor man and republican. He gave me the hug of a life-time for it and, back in the pre-social media 1980s, sent a photo of it to the Labor M.P. he had worked with on a Sabbatical year. And I had the Town & Country issue with me at college that featured the UK’s most eligible bachelors. Remember, at the beginning I really, really liked Diana–the whole Cross-Generational Romance thing. It’s been a fun memory-week.
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