Julie Krone's Back, Audrey Hepburn's Neck, North By Northwest

Julie Krone: Strength and balance.

Julie Krone became the first woman jockey ever to win a Triple Crown race in 1993, and she was the first in Racing's Hall of Fame.  This year Rosie Napravnik has a good chance on a colt named Mark Valeski, now on track for the Belmont Stakes. Both women have ranked with the best of their contemporaries, and both happen to be highly attractive.

Julie Krone's neck

Audrey Hepburn

I recall the outcry, back in 1990, when Julie Krone's bare back was featured on the newspaper, Racing Action, along with a headline story announcing her return to riding after a layoff due to injuries.  Not a good example for the children, letters said.  Relax, others said--you'll see more skin any day at the beach.   

Robyn Smith Astaire

Actually, there's no good reason why a woman jockey can't also have a career as a model.  Robyn Smith Astaire, actor Fred Astaire's widow, held down both careers successfully for many years.

Julie Krone's neck, in the picture, seems as photogenic as Audrey Hepburn's famously elegant neck, to which the title of Alan Brown's novel at right refers.  The novel generally concerns the Japanese fascination with American film stars.

Of course, I like Audrey Hepburn's neck too, but if we had to pick just one necking scene, it would be the train scene with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in North By Northwest.  

The tension of this scene is increased by the punctuation of dialog in the form of witty innuendo, between kisses:

Tell me, why are you so good to me?

Kendall: Shall I climb up and tell you why? I've been thinking...it's not safe for you to roam Chicago
looking for this George Kaplan you've been telling me about. You'll be picked up by the police the moment you show your face. It's such a nice face, too.
Don't you think it'd be a better idea if you stayed in my hotel room while I located him for you and brought him to you?

Thornhill: I can't let you get involved. It's too dangerous.

Kendall: I'm a big girl.

Thornhill: Yeah, and in all the right places, too.

Kendall: You know, this is ridiculous.  You know that, don't you?

Thornhill: Yes.

Kendall: I mean, we've hardly met.

Thornhill: That's right.

Kendall: How do I know you aren't a murderer?

Thornhill: You don't.

Kendall: Maybe you're planning to murder me, right here, tonight.

Thornhill: Shall l?

Kendall: Please do.

Thornhill: Beats flying, doesn't it?

Kendall: We should stop.

Thornhill: Immediately.

Kendall: I ought to know more about you.

Thornhill: What more could you know?

Kendall: You're an advertising man, that's all I know.

Thornhill: That's right. What else do you know?

Kendall: You've got taste in clothes, taste in food....

Thornhill: And taste in women. I like your flavor.

Kendall: You're very clever with words. 

Kendall: You can probably make them do anything for you. Sell people things they don't need, make women who don't know you
fall in love with you.

Thornhill: I'm beginning to think I'm underpaid.