Some of you may well be wondering what exactly a ’Peek-a-boo Bang’ is!
Let’s start with the basics.
Peek-a-boo Bang was the term coined for a hair style where one eye is obscured by the hanging of a long ’bang’ of hair drifting down one side of the face.
In the case of a young Connie Keane this was a natural feature of her hair when she grown out long.. a feature that the hair and makeup artists of the 40’s extenuated into her signature look.
She says of it in her autobiography that during an early audition her hair kept flopping over her eye as she attempted to act (never having acted before in her life) and became frustrated to tears as she flicked it back again and again. Something the director picked up on and was to become her trademark and a feature that’s copied in film and advertising even today.
The look was subtle at first as seen in her break out role in I Wanted Wings (1941). The soft curls of her long hair barely brush her eye but it was enough to start a craze for a new hairstyle.
Such was the power of the look.. women everywhere wanted to copy that film star look. Of course this was right smack during the second World War and it was widely reported that women working in the munitions factories were discouraged from obscuring their vision by government sponsored advertisements that were created with the help of Ms Lake herself. She appeared in full page articles and news reels with her hair dramatically entangled with drilling machines.
Some of these continuing influences can be seen in the inspiration section and also in this this page reviewing her hair styles
