8
Friday, May 5, 1978
University Daily Kansan
'Playboy' contest seeks girl with wholesome image
Staff Writer
Bv TIMOTHY TANKARD
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — 'Solid stock. Lived on a farm all her life.' That your girl next door? he muses, gaze out over Union Avenue from his executive suite at the Crown Center Hotel.
White walls, golden lamps, white ceiling and gold-shag carpet, Joni Mitchell is softly singing a song about Don Juan's restless daughter through a TV's radio.
"Nervous?"
"Little bit," smiles a girl with a Dutch-boy haircut, French scarf wrapped around her neck, struggling at the dining table to answer the final question on the application she is filling out. "Why would you like to be the 28th anniversary Plamate?"
Like a beer? Sure. Miller Lite. Great.
He kissed her if she brought a swimwear. She shakes, her head, surprised: "I didn't see you."
No, no. he interrupts, this is strictly true. He interrupts what does she have on underneath he asks.
SHE TELLS HIM and he says that will be fine, lusher her into the studio room.
"The poor thing was flustered. I told her over the phone what to bring, but she kept
worrying if she was tall enough," Susan Marquette says, Marquette was hired from Kelly Girl Services, hired to handle appointments for the man in the other room—Jeff Cohen, associate photographic editor for Playboy magazine.
Cohen has been in Kansas City since Monday, casting his nets for the girl who will garnish Playboy's 25th Anniversary issue, January 1979, and collect $25,000.
Five crews of Hefner's chenchens, armed with Polaroids, ample expense accounts and the lure of glamour, have been combing the country for five weeks in search of the Silver
type of woman wanted: down-home, small-town, maybe a farm girl. Or maybe a campus girl, but one who still goes home for Easter and would take a lemonade over a whiskey sour. The east coast, the west coast, the big cities are being left out of this.
"WE WANTED a girl who hasn't been touched by those bright lights," Cohen says. "I was in Baton Rouge last week, and there were gals who can in that had never out of their own state. They called their folks mommy and daddy."
Cohen says the national search will last one more week and then all crews will
gather in Chicago with Hefner and other to begin the tedious process of weeding for a crop.
"You mention on your application that you like to travel," Cohen says in the studio room to a black-haired woman named Rachel, kepuncher operation for Santa Fe Railroad.
Karen tells him she loves to travel. In fact, she and a friend were just down in Port Lauderdale. But she says her job with Santa Barbara is where she works. She doesn't think she is going anywhere.
OUTSIDE AT the dining table, Karen's traveling friend, Ceryse Davis, 21, is coming to enjoy a picnic.
"Beautiful hair," she comments, folding out the page. She just finished posing for him.
"Things like Hollywood or modeling have always sort of been a crazy dream of mine," Ceryse says. "So when Karen called me up at work this morning and played Playboy was in town shooting, and she wanted to go but I didn't. He thought heought why not." She shrubs her shoulders.
Inside the studio room Karen leans against the picture window in a yellow
Prospective Playmates
Jacob Cohen, associate phot editor of Playboy magazine, glances over the Polaroids that will represent Jane Wollol, 19, in the silver
Staff Photo by RANDY OLSON
anniversary platyme competition, Ceryse Davis, 21, another
anniversary platyme competition, thinks it over while waiting for her in
turn of the last.
Ceryse, who works as an instructor at the KCF Fitness Center, says that she had never posed in a bathing suit before except once on the beach for a boyfriend.
"Relax your face, pull up your stomach," Cohen gently holds his hand on Nip, "beautiful." "Snap," she says. "beautiful."
"WHEN HE WAS clicking, my knees were steady, and I felt like I was gonna fall on the floor."
As for the nude shooting, which will be done in Chicago after the 30 or so finalists are chosen from among the expected 10,000 applicants, Caryse langer, "I don't know how I'll do it, if it somehow comes to that. I guess I'll just have to get my act together."
She says that before coming in in practice-posed for her father. He was all for her.
A nimble hand knocks upon the door. Susan from Kelley Girl gets up and lends in a small pony-tailed blonde, Julie Wolf. 19. She is carrying a portfolio, and says she is a free-lance model — Macy's Catalog, a couple of commercial materials, etc. — just started in t last October.
I saw the ad in the paper and figured this one adds a whole new dimension to my career.
COHEN SAYS the media has been very helpful in spreading the word that he is in
"She put on a bikini just like any of the other girls," Cohen says, "or wait, it was or one-piece actually, no wait, it was a bikini whatever."
"The point is, I can get this coverage because Playboy has become an accepted piece of journalism. It's perfectly acceptable for a family man with two kids and a wife to have a Playboy laying on his coffee table."
Cohen said that he selidon does any bunny-hunting on the street.
"I can't just walk up to some attractive young lady and say 'hi', I'm from Playboy magazine, would you like to take off your clothes?" Cohen, who has a bachelor's degree in economics, explains. "I might find myself being slapped."
AT THE END of the week Cohen hopes to
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May 5th, 6th & 7th
Sponsored by the KU Student Senate and the KU Ballooning Association
Launch times and sites:
COME FLY WITH US
Friday, 5th 5:00 p.m. Centennial Park
Saturday, 6th 6:30 a.m. 23rd & Iowa 5:00 p.m. Centennial Park
leave town with about 100 applications in his suitcase.
"I guess they have to ask their boyfriend or somebody first," she laughs. "Cause we've even had a couple guys call in and want to know what's going on here."
Susan from Kelly Girl says the phone has been getting busy every minute. Many call the first time to ask us questions she says, and they call later to make the appointment.
Sunday, 7th 6:30 a.m. 23rd & Iowa
Each interview lasts about 20 minutes. They give you a table to fill out an application, chats a little and polishes Polarioi bikini shots. Then it's thank you for coming, the invites to Chicago should be ready.
"for instance, if she's a small town girl, we take her back to her small town and get her in that environment. If she's a coed we show her on campus.
Susan herself plans on posing at the end of her week, if she can clear it with her baby for dinner.
"I don't plan on being chosen anyway," she explains. "I just want to see how I look."
"If she needs a little more sun to look better, we allow for that. A centerfold alone can take one to two weeks, and this one will take longer to take lunger because it's gonne be surprised."
COHEN SAID that it took at least a month to shoot a platymate spread.
"It's a production," he says, "Like filming a movie.
Playboy is even offering a bounty, a $2,500
Finder's fee," to anyone who can bring in
their own photos.
"If it gets down to where we have four terrific-looking girls," Cohen says, "and all equally good-looking, but one has a more horrible look." There is a chance that she might get selected.
But Playboy is looking for more than just a pretty package of flesh.
Cohen says that the quotes and bad language that accompany Plaintiff picture are not in plain sight.
"WHEN IT SAYS her name is Susy Jones and she's a kindergarten teacher in Memphis, that's what she really is. We don't need her and make her into a nuclear physicist.
"Cliche as it sounds, Mr. Hefer has defined the terms of what a playmate should really be, that is, she should be real, she should be that girl next door.
"That's why we're traveling all over this country, we're looking for that reality."
And Hefner of course, will make the final judgment.
There is another knocking at the hotel door.
"Porter here." A red-suited, poker-faced young man brings in a tray of cold sandwiches, glass of milk and cigarettes. He gets his tip signed onto the check.
Cohen says he's been so busy between
press engagements and photo sessions that he hasn't had much time to eat. This evening he is booked solid from four to seven.
HE SAYS he haven't even had a chance to visit any local clubs or restaurants. He asks if it was too much.
He says he likes what he has seen so far of Kansas City women. Well-dressed and with good presence. The response has been much better here than in Baton Rouge.
"But here in the Midwest the girls are more open with you, more naive and less cunning," she said.
Somebody knocks at the door and then a face peers in hesitantly before Susan can
"Kansas City girls are, of course, not as slick as the types you find on the west coast," he notes. "Out on the west coast a beautiful girl can't make it past age 15 before some agent or photographer snaps her up.
"Ideally it would be perfect," Cohen snaps his fingers and goes over to the window. "And who knows, she's out there somewhere."
Cohen gives them the applications to fill out and finish his lunch. The phone is ringing with more and more frequence, Ellon John is on the TV's radio and outside the greying white sky looks a lot more like November than May.
"Is this the Playboy thing?" the face giggles, Coha assures her that it is, and she comes in followed by a friend. They each didn't have enough nerves to go alone.
Last year Time magazine had an average circulation of 4.4 million. Playboy had six million. Playboy sells around the world, even putting out a Bräute edition.
Cohen says that the upcoming silver anniversary edition will be a very special tribute to the empire hefli built from scratch. He says it will be a collector's item.
And he says it will probably cost $3.50.
V.P. says U.S.
to honor treaty
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)—Vice President President Walter F. Mondale reaffirmed that Thai leaders yesterday that the United States would honor treaty commitments to defend Southeast Asia against Communist aggression and said America would accept 25,000 more Innes refugees a year for an indefinite period.
MONDALE, arriving here from the Philippines on the second leg of a five-nation Far East tour, met for two hours with Thai Prime Minister Kriangsak Chomanan.
Don't Miss This One
The Lawrence Opera House Gen. Adm.- $2.00
Sat., May 6 MORNINGSTAR
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Fri. & Sat., after Midnight in the Balcony Bowman, Snodgrass, Embrey Jazz Trio
Next Week
Next week:
Mon.—Sister Katie Benefit
Tues.—Rock & Roll Triple Feature
Wed.—Shooting Stars and the Symptoms
Thurs.—Ladies nite with Highball
Fat & Sat.—Fast Break & Dry Jack