3.0 out of 5 stars
Connie (Kornacki) Kreski in "The Trackers", June 21, 2011
This review is from: Trackers [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Polish American model and actress, Connie (Kornacki) Kreski, was 25-years-old when she appeared in "The Trackers" (1971). The gorgeous Baltic blond received 4th-billing in this made-for-TV film. Connie was Playboy magazine's Miss January 1968 and the 1969 Playboy Playmate of the Year. She appeared in a limited number of films and television shows between 1969 and 1977. Although Connie has very little screen time or dialogue in this movie, she's absolutely stunning with her long, blond tresses. The bulk of the film centers on Sam Paxton (Ernest Borgnine) and Ezekiel Smith (Sammy Davis) as they search for Paxton's daughter, Becky (Kreski). The movie is typical 1970's television fare with the issue of Davis's character's race playing a prominent part. You'll want to see this film strictly for Connie but don't blink. For a wonderful online video clip of Connie type in "Connie Kreski" at You Tube to see her charming performance as "Gloria" in the "Love and the V.I.P Restaurant" episode (1970) of "Love American Style."
More information on Connie (Kornacki) Kreski:
Many gorgeous women have graced the pages of Playboy magazine over the years, none more so than Miss January 1968, Polish American beauty, Connie Kreski.
Connie was born Constance Joanna Kornacki to Stanley and Sophie (Sacilowski) Kornacki in Wyandotte, Michigan on September 19, 1946. She had two sisters, Margaret and Christine. Connie attended Our Lady of Mt Carmel High School in Wyandotte. She was a cheerleader and also worked as an usherette at the Wyandotte Theatre. After graduation, she enrolled at Mercy College in Detroit in their nursing program.
Connie was discovered by a Playboy staffer while attending a University of Michigan football game.
The blue-eyed, 5'5"" Polish Baltic blonde beauty was twenty-years-old when she was photographed for Playboy by Larry Gordon. The stunning photo layout included ten pictures of Connie. Her pride in her Polish heritage was apparent when she chose "Kreski" as a pseudonym for her pictorial.
In September 1967 Connie left Michigan abruptly after her mother learned of her upcoming Playmate pictorial. A newspaper article at the time revealed Sophie Kornacki took tranquilizers to cope with her daughter's decision to appear nude in Playboy. For Connie, a two week holiday in London turned into a stay of more than a year. While in England she did some modeling, bought two Pekingese, and bumped into producer/director Anthony Newley in the elevator of the London Playboy Club, who immediately arranged for a screen test and signed her to the title role in his 1969 film, "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?" Connie was featured on the cover of the Londoner magazine and was photographed for Vogue by David Bailey.
In tribute to her ingenuous, fresh-faced, nubile beauty, Connie was selected as the Playmate of the Year and featured on the cover and in a pictorial in the June 1969 issue of Playboy, which included seven photos taken by Mario Casilli. As Playmate of the Year, she received a Playmate Pink Shelby GT 500.
Los Angeles Times writer Joyce Haber mentioned Connie in a newspaper column a few days following the sensational murder of Sharon Tate. Connie had been dating Jay Sebring, Tate's former boyfriend (and another victim of the Manson clan), but on the fatal night of August 9, 1969, for some unknown reason, Connie declined to attend the get-together at the Tate-Polanski house.
Connie had several minor television and film roles from 1969 to 1977. Time Magazine mentions her as the girlfriend of actor, James Caan ("Show Business: Gentleman Jimmy," Apr. 07, 1975). The article states they had been in a relationship for three years up until that time and that Caan's nickname for Connie was "Polish."
Connie eventually married Louis Edleman. Their son, Zachary, was born and died in 1987.
Connie met an untimely death at the young age of forty-eight in Beverly Hills, California on March 21, 1995 due to a stroke. Her address at the time of her death was 9031 Phyllis Ave. #4, Los Angeles, CA, 90069.
Connie Kreski was a rare and remarkable beauty and an inspiration to all Polish American adolescent males in the late 1960's.
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Information from Playboy, January 1968:
Moving Up in the World
...our new year's playmate tests her wings from a nest all her own ...
Connie Kreski has patterned her life style on the maxim carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero -- enjoy today, trust little to tomorrow. Miss January, who doesn't claim to be a Latin scholar, interprets this as a call to the active pursuit of pleasure. "I want to get out into the world and see and do everything I possibly can," she says. When she was accepted as a Playmate, therefore, 20-year-old Connie acted on two of her immediate priorities: She moved into her own pad in suburban Detroit (her home town) and then flew off to London for two weeks. "London swings just as much as I heard it did -- maybe even more," Miss January reports. "Just shopping for clothes could have taken up all my time if I'd let it -- the Mod shops in Knightsbridge sell the wildest outfits I've ever seen." Now the possessor of a half-dozen new microskirts, Connie is one member of the young generation who doesn't believe in never trusting anyone over 30: "Men that age usually have resolved their hang-ups and are confident enough to be themselves. And that's fine with me, for it allows me to be myself." And what is that self? Says the 5'5" beautiful blonde, "Just a girl who wants to live life to the hilt for the next ten years or so and afterward settle down to raise a family.
Miss January 1968, Connie Kreski
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
35-23-36
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 118
Birthplace: Wyandotte, USA
Interview
AMBITIONS
Complete my nursing studies, and then . . .?
TURN-ONS
Bikinis and the beach.
TURNOFFS
Fake people.
MY IDEAL EVENING
A small party with fun people.
FAVORITE PERFORMER
Frank Sinatra.
HIGHER EDUCATION
I'm enrolled at the Mercy School of Nursing in Detroit.
MY FRIENDS KNOW
Many people seem to think I'm a dumb blonde, but I'm smarter than most of the people who talk down to me.
IN MY FUTURE
I'd love to travel more and get married (maybe when I'm 30).
Text accompanying the photos:
*This sporting life: "I'm an outdoor girl and I intend to always stay that way," says Connie Kreski, who exercises often for the sheer joy of it - and her fine form. "When I was in grammar school, I played basketball and softball, went horseback riding and hiking," Miss January recalls. "I still like to try new sports. Last summer I swam quite a bit at Blind Lake - out beyond Ann Arbor - where I learned how to scuba dive."
*When Playmate Connie Kreski leased her own apartment on the outskirts of Detroit, she and her girlfriend Mimi and their escorts for the day rented a truck and proceeded to make the big move. After a few hours of packing, Connie said, "I hadn't realized just how much stuff I managed to accumulate over the years until I tried getting it all together." When Connie arrives at her new address, date Larry gives her a helping hand with housewares, before he and Paul begin hauling in more formidable furnishings. "My friends couldn't have been more helpful," says Connie. They worked from noon until after dark, not stopping till everything I brought was put away."
*Connie's companions decide that Miss January's official entry into her new apartment should be an auspicious occasion: Couched on her own couch, above, she is about to be grandly carried across the threshold. When all her paraphernalia has finally been unpacked and is more or less in order, Connie changes into a football jersey she received when she was a high school cheerleader; then Miss Kreski and her friends relax after the rigors of moving day with an impromptu party.
*One of Connie's housewarming gifts from the group is the Twister party game; above, she and Larry are competing contortionists, as Paul and Mimi watch the acrobatic action from a safe distance. After the boys leave, Mimi (who's accepted an invitation to sleep over) and Connie ignore the TV in favor of a serious chat, before bedding down after a hard day's night.
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Information from Playboy, June 1969:
Playmate of the Year
January's Curvaceous Connie Kreski, Well On Her Way To Cinematic Stardom, Now Reigns As The Premier Gatefold Girl Of The Past Twelvemonth
Beauty and talent, particularly of the cinematic variety, abounded among 1968's delightful dozen Playmates. But editors unanimously concurred that our first was also foremost and hailed January's Connie Kreski as undisputed Playmate of the Year. Her ingenuous freshness and femininity, so apparaent in Playboy's photographic uncoverage, was immediately recognized by England's Anthony Newley as well. The actor-author-producer-director literally bumped into her in the elevator of our London Club a little more than a year ago: he screen-tested her the next day and signed her within the week for a title role in "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?" - the Freud- and fun-filled fantasy previewed in Playboy last March. Connie remained in London after her debut before the camera on the island of Malta. "I should have been born in London," says 1968's choicest centerfold. "I love the people and especially the feeling...
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