Customer Reviews

Not Just Another Pretty Face

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This was published when male models looked like they were going to become outright celebrities in the early 80's. And then they didn't quite make it. It's a slight book, of course. Each model has filled out a PLAYBOY Playmate type questionaire. But I loved it soley because the book includes among the male models ANDY WARHOL!!!!!!! Isn't that great????? Warhol became a fashion model in his last years becaue "it was the thing to do." His manager was furious, since Warhol was being paid an hourly modeling rate to appear in ads, when he could have gotten a much bigger endorsement rate. But Andy was having fun. Anyone who remembers flipping through GQ and ESQUIRE in Andy's last years will remember seeing him in fashion ads. That Andy was included in this book shows the author/publisher had a sense of humor. Warhol himself once said a clerk in a shop looked like he recognized Warhol. And Warhol thought, "Oh, he recognizes me as an artist." Then the clerk said, "Weren't you the model in that Barney's ad?" Warhol said that "it made my day. It made my month. It made my year!"

The text here is little more than a combination of press release and fan magazine journalism but it's quite readable and not without interest. Far better are the many glossy photographs, both b&w and color, which constitute a vertiable orgy of high cheekbones, sculpted torsos, artfully-arranged chest hair, and -- in Jim Palmer's case -- the perfectly-rounded bulge in a pair of Jockey-brand briefs. (This gives new meaning to the term: "pitcher's mound.") There is no nudity. Curiously, of the 20 models profiled here, only two were well-known at the time: Jim Palmer and Andy Warhol. After more than 20 years, these are still the only two "names" on the list. Perhaps each of the others was, despite the title, just another pretty face.

...and remember when it had models on the cover, then this book is nice guilty pleasure. Even if you don't remember their names, you'll definitely remember their faces.

If you are interested in male models of the early 80s, you will love this book.

A curious omission, in the light of later developments, is Scott Brown, our august Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.