We solemnly swear (or affirm) that Playboy is one magazine that is not going to make cute references to smorgasbord, Swedish massage, Swedish meatballs, or suchlike similes in connection with the Swedish amazon, Anita Ekberg.
Nor are we going to drag in Greta Garbo, Ingrid bergman, and other radiant but irrelevant Swedish exports. All we want to talk about is Anita.
For one thing, she's a big girl: five-feet-seven, 120 pounds, measuring 39"-22"-37" from north to south, according to her press agent. All very nice, if you like 'em large. We like 'em any size.
Ekberg is what is known as a Svenska flicka. Literally translated, that means nothing more than "Swedish girl," but to get the real meaning, you must hear the phrase spoken by a young and virile Swedish male: thus rendered, it will take on the full-bodied carnality of the bona fide leer, packed with all kinds of pleasant and improper implications.
If you're still with us, and your eye isn't roving to the pictorial matter, you may be interested in a small amount of reportage: Anita is twenty-four, was born in Malmo, Sweden, won a beauty contest in Stockholm in 1951, often went swimming without benefit of halter in the Old country (a not uncommon practice in Sweden, we're told). This last habit, for some reason, brought her to the attention of certain hollywood promoters, who felt that her flicka had just the Svenska they were looking for. These nature loving gentlemen brought her to the United States and promptly featured her in a cinematic epic called Abbott and Costello go To Mars. Soon after, she appeared in a charming thing titled Blood Alley. Neither of these celluloid masterpieces utilized Anita's attributes to best advantage, but if titles are any indication, her newest film, Artists and Models, should do better.
Though her rise in hollywood has been spectacular, it was just last summer that she received the final stamp of approval that marked her as an authentic celebrity: she was labelled an iceberg by Confidential. (Though nearly everyone who is anyone is doing it this season, she apparently doesn't plan on suing.)
The only dark cloud in this sunny saga is the fact that Anita no longer goes swimming minus halter. Some low-down, no-good do-gooder must have told her it just isn't being done in this country. If we ever find out who the big mouth was, we'll let you know. You can bring the tar and we'll get the feathers.
Ekberg displays some of the same Scandinavian charm that made this year's Swedish entry a unanimous winner in the Miss Universe contest. If these are a sample of that country's females, we understand why "sin" in Sweden has created such a sensation the past few months.
A hell-bent Ekberg reigned in devilish raiments as queen of the 1955 Art Students' Ball.
