Pink Lady of Malibu

December 1, 2009 7:47 PM

The Pink Lady of Malibu "One Saturday morning, on October 29, 1966, a massive 60-foot-tall painting of a nude pink lady holding flowers suddenly appeared as you headed into the tunnel on Malibu Canyon Road." Yep, that could be a bit distracting..

posted by HuronBob (17 comments total)

This is what it looks like now - seems like the vegetation has grown up so you really can't even see where the painting may have been..
posted by davey_darling at 8:01 PM on December 1, 2009

Last year and 3 years ago.
posted by tellurian at 8:16 PM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

The artist, if still living, would be 73 or 74 now. There are always a few cool people, no matter what era or place. Cheers to her!
posted by Daddy-O at 8:19 PM on December 1, 2009

Unfortunately, Seemayer was hounded by crank callers and received hate mail for months afterward, and ended up losing her job.
posted by effbot at 8:30 PM on December 1, 2009

On Thursday, November 3, workers covered the painting with 14 gallons of brown paint.

Because I'm sure that looked sooooo much better than the painting. Why didn't they just paint pasties over her dirty, evil nipples? Douchebags.
posted by MikeMc at 8:41 PM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

Has use of the d-word jumped the shark yet?
posted by intermod at 8:51 PM on December 1, 2009

Cool post, HuronBob. I'd never before heard of the Pink Lady of Malibu. But learning that this happened has improved my day and also makes me feel proud of women like Lynne Seemayer/Westmore.
posted by applemeat at 9:01 PM on December 1, 2009

I'm more impressed she spent 10 months of moonlight removing graffiti hanging by a thread for her life.
posted by stbalbach at 9:31 PM on December 1, 2009 [2 favorites]

Next: Prudish officials paint over the Cerne Abbas giant.
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:41 PM on December 1, 2009

snopes:

She received pictures of men masturbating. An arts group asked her to judge pictures that apes had painted.

"It was too crazy," she said. "One woman accused me of all the rapes that had been committed, that the Pink Lady brought out the lust in men."

Westmore changed her telephone number, but the calls kept coming.

The more things change...
posted by taz at 11:17 PM on December 1, 2009

Google Street of the site.

I can tell I'm a product of the 70s as I can't think of those canyon roads there without picturing some scene from Emergency! or CHiPs.
posted by crapmatic at 11:17 PM on December 1, 2009

You know, I think Malibu is even more prudish now.

Plus ça change ...
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:24 AM on December 2, 2009

Well, thank the deity of your choice that it wasn't Angelyne.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on December 2, 2009

Huh. 'bout 30 years ago som Christian nut blasted off some petroglyphs in Arches national park; however, the underlying rock still has traces that can be seen using infrared devices (film, modified digital camera). I wonder if the same would work in this situation. Might have to find out, next time (?) i"m in Mailbu...
posted by notsnot at 7:15 AM on December 2, 2009

This combined with N.Y.'s failure @ gay marriage just serves as part of the constant reminder that the narrow minded are still in control.
posted by notreally at 1:13 PM on December 2, 2009

And now the only pink lady left to Malibu is Angelyne.

I would hope the city's paint would wear off and leave the original artwork.

And to all those prudes, remember, under your clothes, you're completely naked too!
posted by Jinx of the 2nd Law at 8:32 PM on December 2, 2009

Had no idea. I drive through that tunnel a few times a year.
Maybe we will be enlightened enough one day to allow a painting of a nude woman to grace our canyon walls in view from our highways. I mean, we allow such paintings in art galleries for all to see with little fuss so... maybe someday.
posted by Rashomon at 2:05 PM on December 3, 2009