Visible Export

Diana Dors is the kind of girl that can happen anywhere--and sometimes does. What Marilyn Monroe is to the U.S., what Gina Lollobrigida is to Italy, what Martine Carol is to France, shapely, blue-eyed Diana Dors, 24, is to Great Britain. Diana is a platinum blonde whose indefinable chemistry and heady allure have been greeted with international enthusiasm. The blase French have called her "ravis-sante." The Italians have sighed "Mama mia!" Even the British, ever fond of understatement, have referred to her as "Britain's best visible export." Not one to belittle herself, Diana, once carried away by the symmetry of her own 35-23-35 figure, cried: "What merchandise! And boy, how it sells!"

Libidinous Lip. Diana sells so well that she has become 1) England's highest paid vaudeville entertainer at -L-1,000 ($2,800) a week, and 2) the nation's second highest paid film star* at a closely guarded salary. J. Arthur Rank has signed her to a new long-term contract, and experts say that he has acquired in one stroke "the most valuable property in British films today" and the girl with "the most libidinous lower lip in the business."

She was born Diana Fluck in grimy Swindon, in the industrial Midlands, and got started young. At 13, wearing a tight bathing suit, she passed for 17 ("I was very advanced") and won a beauty contest. At 15, she had played in four movies, but at 17, she was a has-been, the victim of a passing movie crisis.

At 19, she married Dennis Hamilton Gittins, an engineer, and bought a secondhand Rolls Royce ("A Rolls gives a girl such confidence"). She also began showing a remarkable talent for grabbing publicity. When she was hauled into court for nonpayment of rent, the judge noted that she was a minor and ruled: "It is the duty of the court to protect infants." A big-circulation Sunday paper printed a huge picture of Diana in scanties, headlined: JUDGE SAYS THIS BABY NEEDS PROTECTION.

To take care of her professional commitments and a profitable real-estate sideline, Diana and her husband formed Diana Dors Ltd. Soon, because she drew -L-60 weekly for tax-free "business expenses," Diana became an issue in Commons. Conservative M.P. Henry Price gravely asked, "Do you not feel that figures of that kind should be closely scrutinized?"

Blue for Blondes. Diana is tireless at publicizing Diana. She posed almost nude for a bestselling booklet called Diana Dors in Three D. Clad in a mink bikini, she skimmed down Venice's Grand Canal on the prow of a gondola. Meanwhile, she worked hard to prove herself an expert mimic. She can skillfully play Cockneys, Scotsmen, Irishmen and Americans. Critics like her ("Her main gift is impertinence. Not only does she stimulate the libido, she also transmits charm . . . and is about as neurotic as an ice-cream cornet*"). The public takes to her, too.

Diana's success has brought her a lavish villa on the Thames (private cinema room with leopardskin chairs, floodlit tennis court, aviary), a powder blue Cadillac ("Blue is a wonderful color for blondes; even our lawn mower is blue"), a 50-ft. launch (for moonlight glides up the river), and a monoplane for longer trips.

Last week Diana was learning lines for her next movie role -- the condemned murderess in the film version of Yield to the Night (TIME, Sept. 20, 1954). She feels that English directors are wary of sex ("I don't think they know quite what to do with it"), says that after playing in a death cell, she will be happy to get back into a boudoir: "I might as well cash in on my sex now while I've got it. It can't last forever, can it?"

* Highest: Vivien Leigh, at -L-50,000 ($140,000) a film.

* Cone.

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