Paying Respects to the Age of Golden Beauties

Is it true blonds have more fun? Barnaby Conrad III thinks so. The author is following his previous odes to cultural icons, “The Cigar” and “The Martini,” with an homage to golden girls.

“The Blonde” (Chronicle Books, $29.95), due this month, is a lavishly illustrated history of the Gilded Age of Hair Color, which focuses on the decades between World War I and the Vietnam War. During this enlightenment Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Veronica Lake, Grace Kelly, Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe built the blond mystique.

But the fascination with blondness, says Conrad, began with the ancient Greeks, who lightened hair with pollen. In Roman times, blond hair was associated with aristocracy, but curiously, Roman law required prostitutes wear blond wigs to denote their trade, Conrad explains. The origin of the cruel myth of the blond bimbo perhaps?

Combining film stills, fashion photography, vintage ads and literary excerpts, Conrad tries to explain the inexplicable: the fascination with blondness.

Although genetic blondness is a rare commodity in adults, apparent blonds are a dime a dozen. And yet, even the proliferation of fake blonds has not seemed to devalue the coin of the golden-haired realm. As Conrad writes: “Blondness by birth or by choice [offers] possibilities, dreams and expectations.”

Not to mention the chance to be the butt of really bad jokes.