The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Post: My Photo of . . . Pat Cleveland!

I am both honored and pleased to, for once, present a picture that I actually took myself! (As my disclaimer page explains, I specifically state when one of the photographs on this blog is my own.)  And the subject of this photo is a monumental one indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen, my photo of . . . supermodel Pat Cleveland!

How did I swing this? Very easily, it turns out. Pat Cleveland was interviewed for About Face, a documentary about the modeling world. And the movie was recently screened at a film festival in Montclair, New Jersey, near where I live . . . and Pat Cleveland was a special guest at the screening!  I attended the screening and afterwards got several photos of her, including this one. This is my best picture of her.

(Sorry about the chap in the background. Pay no attention to the man behind the Cleveland.)

Oh yes, I met her, too. She's a very sweet and engaging woman. The full story of my encounter with Miss Cleveland, the supermodel's supermodel, is here at this blog's sister blog, Miscellaneous Musings.

I also photographed model Nancy Donahue in New York, but she's actually a friend of mine now thanks to mutual Facebook connections (which is why I don't post pictures of Nancy Donahue here anymore).  I can't say I know Miss Cleveland like I know Nancy Donahue, despite having had a Facebook connection with her as well, so that means I'm free to post photos of Miss Cleveland on this blog going forward (even if the pictures won't be mine) without being in violation of my own rules about posting pictures of women I know personally and have met in person.

But if and when I do have another photo of a well-known woman I've taken myself, and if I can post it without breaking my own criteria for this blog, you can be sure I'll post it here.

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Louise Vyent

I had the pleasure of meeting model-turned-photographer Louise Vyent at a farmer's market in Montclair, New Jersey, where she lives. (I live in a nearby town.) She was there to promote - and recruit subjects for - a photographic project of portraits of people of mixed racial background, which is, as of this writing, still unfinished.

So yes, I met her, but I do not know her. That means I can still post pictures of her and abide by my self-imposed rule of not depicting anyone here that I know personally. That's a good thing, because these pictures are too beautiful not to share!

I don't know of too many models who can look great by wearing a blanket, as Ms. Vyent does in the photo above, taken from a Saks Fifth Avenue ad. She also looks great in the photo below, in a casual-cool magenta ensemble; I think the photo below is from a Dillard's catalog.

And while Ms. Vyent looks absolutely stunning in the photo below, wearing an olive sweater and a bunch of bracelets and necklaces, the picture is from an ad not for clothes or for accessories but for a Clairol hair care product (which should have been obvious!).

I still see her around in Montclair from time to time, and I regret to report that she wears her hair extremely short these days. But she's still beautiful, and not only that, she's returned to modeling even as she continues her career as a professional photographer. 

There are other famous residents of Montclair, New Jersey - including Jonathan Alter and Stephen Colbert - but they're obviously not as pretty. :-D

Originally from the Netherlands, Louise Vyent is part ethnic Dutch and part black Latin American, owing in part to her roots in the former Dutch South American colony of Surinam, which became an independent country in 1975.  Her biracial background is precisely the reason for her current photography project.        

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Catherine Roberts, 1979

Catherine Roberts is another one of those iconic models whose pictures are hard to find these days. But I was able to find this one from a Charles of the Ritz ad, circa 1979 - and I was able to crop out the ad copy successfully! :-D

In addition to her L'Oreal ads from the late seventies and the early eighties, Catherine Roberts was best known at the time for her Charles of the Ritz ads. She remains active as a model today; even though Charles of the Ritz is gone, Catherine Roberts most certainly isn't.

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Wanakee Pugh

Here's model-turned artist Wanakee Pugh apparently standing behind one of her own abstract paintings. No, the black and white photography doesn't do justice to her colorful use of paint in her abstract expressionist works, but the photo is clearly meant to be of Ms. Pugh rather than her painting.  That having been established, it's a stunning picture. :-)

That's why I'm featuring it here.

Wanakee Pugh currently spends a lot of time documenting the rural landscape of southern Illinois in photos of her own. :-) 

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Gail Kendrick

Back in November 2011, I posted a magazine cover depicting black model Gail Kendrick on the cover - the November 1982 cover of Glamour, to be precise - and I expressed regret at the time that I couldn't find another color photo of her, preferably one without copy text all over it. Well, I found just such a picture.

A full-face photo might have been preferable to a profile picture like the one above, but do you think I care? She still looks gorgeous! 

 This is from a liquor ad.

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Nancy Dutiel, In Lavender

I thought I was done. I thought I had found every picture of Nancy Dutiel from her stint as Lancôme's U.S. spokesmodel that possibly existed. But I found yet another one. I may yet find more. :-)

For those who forgot . . . Nancy Dutiel was the Lancôme model for the American market from 1977 to 1982, and she was replaced by Isabella Rossellini - possibly the last person you want replacing you, as a woman like Isabella Rossellini almost makes people forget anyone else. But I, for one, never forgot Nancy Dutiel.

And how can you forget someone who looks so beautiful in this lavender outfit?

Note that the copy from the original  Lancôme ad is in this picture.  Yeah, sorry about that . . . I didn't think I could crop it out this time.  I was afraid the resulting image wouldn't look so good, what with the fact that I would have had to crop out her shoulders, torso, and neck but still have her hands.      

The Beauty of Retrospect, May Model Edition: Alva Chinn

Alva Chinn is still one of the most beautiful women in the modeling trade, as evidenced by this early picture of her from a catalog . . .

. . . as well as this more recent one.

She remains a legend after participating in a major 1973 fashion show in France, in which American models of color ruled the catwalk in a big way.

 Oh yeah, Alva Chinn recently celebrated a birthday. Never mind which birthday it was. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Post: Two Modeling Legends in One Photo!

Think of the first two fashion models you ever saw that made a huge impression on you. Think of how euphoric you felt, being an adolescent male discovering the opposite sex for the first time. Now, imagine these same two beautiful women in one photograph! :-D

I, for one, don't have to merely imagine it.

Yes, this is American fashion and cosmetics model Karen Graham (left) with German model Margrit Ramme, my first two cover girl crushes, together in the same photo, taken by Ed Pfizenmaier.  I found this photo on Flickr.

I had no idea that these two modeling icons - both still favorites of mine - ever worked together before, and I found this photo more by accident than anything else.  It's a wonderfully astonishing picture, and it goes without saying that I'm happy to feature it here. 

And thanks to Ed Pfizenmaier for being inspired enough to pair these extraordinarily beautiful women together. :-)      

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Post: Janice O'Reilly

I'm presenting eighties model Janice O'Reilly again, and the reason it's a special post - apart from the fact that it doesn't conform to any kind of alphabetical order - is because it has some additional information about Janice O'Reilly, provided by . . . Janice O'Reilly herself! :-D

Ms. O'Reilly found my original post depicting a closeup picture of her from July 2011, and she was actually quite pleased that I featured her . She left a comment on that post, saying that she had been at she had been represented by modeling agencies other than HV, and that she is currently living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania - wow, I used to live there when I was a kid, and I still visit there! - working as a photographer and having held many shows of her work. 

Thus, Janice O'Reilly joins a list of models who have since become artists and designers that includes Anne Bezamat, Claudia Cron, Caroline Ellen, Wanakee Pugh, and Louise Vyent - all of whom have been featured here. :-)

The picture of Ms. O'Reilly above is from 1987.

For more information on her photography, go to her Web site.

The Latest Numbers (And Some Statistics!)

I have, up to now, posted pictures of 572 different women on this blog.  And that's not all I have to share with you today.

Since I started the A-Z round of new subjects that I just completed, Blogger.com has been upgraded and redesigned, allowing me to see not only how many people have visited this blog, but what the most popular posts are.  Here's the big number: My blog has been viewed 610,979 times in the past four years (May 2008 to May 2012), which is as far back as available statistics go.  This means that this blog has been viewed 27 times for every one time my writing blog, Miscellaneous Musings, has been viewed in the same period!

What was more surprising is which of my entries on the blog you're looking at right now were the most popular.

Here are the ten most viewed entries on my blog in the past four years from 9:15 PM today, May 12, 2012:

Excuse me if the print is a little too hard to read.  You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

The results of these statistics were quite illuminating.  The most popular post by a wide margin is my post showing pictures of model/actress Joan Severance, while my original post devoted to eighties model Sheila Johnson was a respectable second.  Now, Joan Severance is certainly gorgeous, and  she hasn't done too badly as an actress despite her inability to get on the Hollywood "A" list (which I don't believe is her fault, since she got good notices for her role in the TV series "Wiseguy").  But I didn't think she was as big a name as some of the other high-profile fashion models from the 1980s.  Likewise, Sheila Johnson was rather ubiquitous in that period, but her face was more recognizable than her name.  Which makes sense, considering - as I've noted before - that she was routinely credited in Avon catalogs as "Our model."

How do I explain the popularity of these two posts? Here's my guess: In a decade best remembered by model fans for Kim, Christie, Carol and Kelly (if you're a fortysomething chap like I am, you know whom I'm talking about), fans who overlooked Joan and Sheila - or fans who remember these two women but didn't see enough of them - are taking advantage of the opportunity for another look.  And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. :-)

The other results have led me to various conclusions, a few of which I'll share here.  There's obviously a great well of respect and reverence  for eighties TV star Erin Gray, as affirmed by the 1,770 people who stopped by to look at that post.  Kaley Cuoco and Piper Perabo are obviously bringing  in the younger generation.  And the 2,316 pageviews of of my post devoted to Crystal Egger only confirmed what I suspected: She's The Weather Channel's new movie-star personality!

But the biggest - and happiest - surprise was finding my post on Bonnie Bedelia - currently playing the family matriarch Camille Braverman on NBC's "Parenthood" - at number ten.  Despite the fact that I included all of the younger actresses on "Parenthood" who play Camille's daughters and daughters-in-law - including Lauren Graham and Monica Potter - my audience clearly prefers a woman of maturity. :-)

So long as she's an American.  For some reason, my posts of pictures of veteran European actresses from the past four years, such as Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren, didn't get on this chart.

But it's quite a revealing chart. :-)

I'm going to spend the rest of the month posting pictures of fashion models who have already been featured here.  I have more pictures of them in my files, and I have to clean house again before I can continue with new subjects.  I hope they include your favorites, just as they include mine. :-) 

Model Carolina White

The fresh face below belongs to Carolina White, a model who was primarily active in the late 1970s.

She was represented by the Models1 agency in London.

Seventies fashion model Pam Suthern

And now, a Suthern girl!

Ha ha! Pam Suthern, the lovely blonde you see here, was one of the most sought-after fashion models in the 1970s.  She constantly appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar at the height of her career.  She also did ads for clients such as Charles of the Ritz. 

Performance artist Sharece M. Sellem

I've asked this question elsewhere, but it's worth repeating: Can someone tell me why female mimes . . .

. . . always turn out to be beautiful women . . .

. . . when the makeup comes off? :-D

This lovely young woman is Sharece M. Sellem, a mime artist and actress based in New Haven, Connecticut.  She runs Artistic Xpressions, a drama workshop ensemble that teaches theater arts to children and young adults and encourages them to develop an interest in the performing arts in general.

Ms. Sellem found a national audience for herself in the most unexpected way: She performed a mime piece for R&B singer Faith Evans in her promotional video for her 2010 single "Gone Already."

Ms. Sellem remains one of the most active performance artists in Connecticut.  And while she may not be well-known outside her home state beyond the Evans music video, I found her and her story to be so captivating that I felt it made perfect sense to include her on this blog.  

Model Amy Rust

Amy Rust is a model from the early 1980s who worked in Germany.

She was represented by the Talents/Heide Themlitz agency in Munich.

Actress Jessica Paré

Do you, ehh, zou bisou bisou? :-D

Jessica Paré is the breakout sensation of AMC's hit series "Mad Men." The French-Canadian actress, who plays Don Draper's French-Canadian second wife, Megan (not exactly casting against type there, but who cares?), was introduced to "Mad Men" viewers in the fourth season . . . and stole the show in the Season 5 premiere.  As ad copy writer Megan Draper, she sang a very sexy French-language song from 1960, "Zou Bisou Bisou" ("bisou" is the French word for "kiss"), for her husband as his surprise birthday party, much to his obvious (but inexplicable) discomfort.

Megan and Don have a complicated relationship - they can't take each other's intensity - but they somehow manage to keep coming back from the brink.  We're likely to find out more about their relationship as the series goes on.  

Oh yeah, about the artist currently known as Megan . . ..  Jessica Paré has been in movies and television since 1999.  One of her earliest movies, Lost and Delirious, is a Canadian indie drama about a boarding school.  She also starred in the 2000 movie Stardom, about a young girl who's discovered by a modeling agent and becomes an overnight sensation, and the 2004 romantic mystery Wicker Park, among other films.

The province of Quebec once went by the following tourism slogan: "It's warmer up north." We now know that it's actually hotter up north. :-D    

Stage actress Tina Ou

Tina Ou has a theater credit list seemingly as long as the Great White Way itself.

A versatile actress, she has appeared in Broadway productions of The King and I, Once Upon a Mattress, and The Music Man, as well as several productions in Off Broadway and regional theater. 

Model Terri May

May Day!  May Day!

Ha ha! As this is the first day of May, I'd like to mark that occasion with a few pictures of May - Terry May, to be exact, a top fashion model from the late seventies and early eighties.

She was primarily a client for Elite in New York and Los Angeles, but she also modeled through New York's Ellen Harth agency and Collections in Paris.

She appeared in numerous catalogs and advertisements. She wasn't a big name outside the modeling trade, but she was very much in demand as a model. So you've probably seen her several times before, even if you didn't know her name. :-)