Patti McGuire, Playmate of the Month November 1976, and Hope Olson, Playmate of the Month October 1976, pictured in Special Collector’s Edition Sporty Girls, October 2014
Tag: Playmate
Janet Quist, Playmate of the Month December 1978, pictured in Special Collector’s Edition Sporty Girls, October 2014
Elaine Morton, Playmate of the Month June 1970, pictured in Playmate of the Month pictorial, Tuned-In Dropout. The text accompanying the photos read:
Tuned-in Dropout
Our June Playmate is a fair lass who likes life laissez-faire
People would profit from a bit more “live-and-let-live” logic, says blonde Elaine Morton, who wishes that “everybody would just butt out of everybody else’s business – as long as that business isn’t harming anyone.” Following her own recommendation, our June Playmate recently abandoned the comfortable confines of the family home in Burbank, California, and moved into her own bachelorette apartment across town. Just a year ago, she was working part time as a salesgirl in a Glendale flower shop and full time as a home-economics major at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. “I was all hung up in establishment modes of living,” she says. “Then I decided to stop striving for those goals
and find my own.” Since that decision, Miss June has dropped out of Southern California’s “straight” life and, with her boyfriend’s help, converted a milk truck into a mobile pad and made the west coast of Baja California her home away from home. Traveling on her savings, she simply drives onto any unoccupied stretch of Baja beach facing the Pacific Ocean and camps there until the scenery gets “predictable,” then drives on to a new location. “On an average day down there,” Elaine says, “I wake up at dawn, go surfing or swimming, cook breakfast, sun-bathe, go horseback riding, eat dinner and watch the sunset. Who needs more than that?” Obviously not the intrepid Miss Morton, who lives her liberated life style to the hilt.
Carol Imhof, Playmate of the Month December 1970, pictured in digital images from the pictorial, Bunny of the Year, March 1970
Lenna Sjööblom, Playmate of the Month November 1972, (top right) pictured in Japanese NSS Playmates 312, 1980
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Daina in NSS Wet & Wild Women
Daina House, Playmate of the Month January 1976, (bottom left) pictured in NSS Wet & Wild Women, 1987
Hope Olson, Playmate of the Month October 1976, pictured in NSS Celebrating Centerfolds Vol. 2, 1999
Vicki Witt, Playmate of the Month August 1978, pictured in Playmate of the Month pictorial, A New Leaf. The text accompanying the photos read:
A New Leaf
Playmate Vicki Witt knows where she’s at, but she won’t be there for long
One day not too long ago, Vicki Witt put her childhood behind her. It was time. Vicki had grown up in a family of seven children in and around Lansing, Michigan. She had never traveled. Her education was spotty, grabbed on the run as her family moved from one city in Michigan to another. She learned early to look out for herself, as people in large families do. She learned about relationships quickly, too. “I’ve got the boy-girl thing down,” she says with assurance. The fact is, she has more than that: She has Vicki down, which is more than some people can say at 90, much less at 19.
We first heard about Vicki when photographer David Chan spotted her at Michigan State while doing last year’s Girls of the Big Ten pictorial. Among the things that attracted us to her was her easygoing style, seasoned with an uncommon amount of common sense. Actually, easygoing is something of an understatement. Vicki could read a book in a burning house. She views life with a cool imperturbability born of an acute sense of her own identity. She knows where she is, adapts to new situations easily and blows you away with her candor. She could also blow you away on a baseball diamond or on a disco floor. Her 5’7″ frame is almost pure energy; she’s a tomboy, strong and resilient, with a love of sports, from hockey to horseback riding, and she likes nothing better than to dance all night. In the meantime, she puts away enough food to fuel someone twice her size. How she’ll eventually use all that energy is still up in the air. Her present plan calls for voice training for a singing career. But she has the looks and personality for the screen, too. Whatever she does, Vicki is ready. “This is the happiest period of my life. I have a feeling something good is going to happen. The people I’m meeting are exciting and I’m starting to do all the things I’ve always wanted to.” All of which signals to the girl from Lansing that it’s time for her life to begin in earnest.
Nancy Cameron, Playmate of the Month January 1974, pictured in Playmate of the Month pictorial, O Lucky Girl!, January 1974. The text accompanying the photos read:
O Lucky Girl!
Small-town miss Nancy Cameron took a chance on the big city – and it’s worked out just fine, thank you
January Playmate Nancy Cameron isn’t the introspective sort, but on the eve of her 20th birthday – which just happens to coincide with ours – we caught her in a reflective mood. “I’ve been thinking what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten away from home.” Home for Nancy was Arnold, Pennsylvania, a small town about 20 miles outside Pittsburgh. “I’d probably have gotten married – to my very old-fashioned high school sweetheart – and most likely have settled for a career as a dental assistant.” Nancy makes a face. “And I’d never have gotten to meet Alice Cooper.” We should explain that Miss January works for her boyfriend, Paul St. John, a rock-concert producer in Pittsburgh. Nancy books hotel reservations for incoming groups, ensures that rooms are supplied with ample provisions of food and drink and arranges press parties, limousine service and the like. “Somebody was throwing a party for Alice after the concert and Paul wanted me to go,” says Nancy. ‘But I told him I was tired and we argued about it. So I’m sitting home alone when the phone rings and there’s a man on the other end of the line saying, ‘Hello, Nancy. This is Alice.’ And I hear Paul laughing on the line like it was some big joke. But Alice was really quite nice. He straightened everything out between us.“ Nancy pauses, then says, “Now, I don’t mean to give the impression that I’m a close friend of every rock star who passes through Pittsburgh. I don’t even like to show up at the concerts. But if I hadn’t met Paul, I never would have had the opportunity to go in the first place.” In fact, says Nancy, it was Paul who encouraged her to go to Pittsburgh. “I had been working as a dental assistant for several months – in Arnold. That was a drag. I had been modeling, too, just for the sake of doing something different. I model two or three times a week; there’s not a whole lot of that kind of work in Pittsburgh. Anyway, one day I was on a job at a shopping center, promoting a modeling agency; Paul passed by, and we met. Since then, I’ve done things I’d never thought I’d ever be doing, met people I’d never thought I’d meet, had experiences I’d never thought I’d have.” At the time she took off for Pittsburgh, Nancy was just a few months out of high school. “I had been very popular,” she recalls, “secretary of my junior and senior classes, drum majorette, principal’s pet and all the rest. But I knew nothing of Rolls-Royces, rock stars, fine restaurants or big cities. The only time I’d ever gotten out of Arnold to any major new place was to Chicago, where I competed in a national gymnastic meet. [Nancy placed second in overall competition, which included turns on the uneven parallel bars, horse, rings and free exercise.] But then I had to go back to my job as a dental assistant. Eventually, when more modeling assignments started to come my way, I quit dentistry and worked nights as a receptionist at a country club. Which was OK, except with modeling during the day and working at night, my life consisted of not much more than work and sleep. That is, until Paul came along.” Nancy hasn’t abandoned her old life entirely, though. She still finds time for exercise with her sisters, who belong to Sokol, an Arnold gymnastic group. “I’ve been a gymnast my whole life, as have my parents and their parents before them. We’re all Slovak, and it would be hard to find a people crazier than the Slovaks. Since my mother is an instructor and my sisters still compete, I guess we can match any family as gymnast fanatics.” For the moment, however, Nancy says she can’t foresee a time when her passion for the sport would evolve into anything serious enough to give her Olympic aspirations. “I’m OK on the uneven bars, especially when I put my mind to it. But I’m terribly inconsistent, and I freeze under pressure. During one meet a while ago, I was doing a required routine on the rings. Suddenly I caught the judge’s eye and got so scared that I forgot an entire sequence. My mind went blank and by the time I came out of it, I was just hanging there improvising tricks I’d never done before.” When she’s not working out, Nancy divides her hours about equally between modeling assignments and concert production work. “Frankly,” she says, “I’d rather spend more of my time modeling, but I enjoy meeting the groups and helping them.” All the same, if she were asked to trade her present life for the one that would have awaited her had she remained in Arnold, we’re absolutely certain which one Nancy would choose. “But I’ve already made that choice,” she says. “I’m here with you now, aren’t I?” And how.
Crystal Smith, Playmate of the Month September 1971, pictured in Playmate of the Month pictorial, Sparkling Crystal. The text accompanying the photos read:
Sparkling Crystal
Busy making her mark in academe, Playmate Crystal Smith has her eye on postgrad goals
Puzzled as she may appear on our cover, Crystal Smith is way ahead of the game when it comes to putting her life together. A 20-year-old senior at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Crystal has definitely decided where she wants her College Radio / TV major to take her – straight into the entertainment media. Since her sophomore year, Crystal, a native Kansan, has geared her college work and extracurricular activities toward that goal. “As a freshman,” she admits, “I was really involved in campus social life – the whole pompon girl, sorority-fraternity party scene. But then I took stock and realized I was here to get a useful degree.” To break into films, TV or the theater, she says, “you can’t be a unitalent anymore. You have to be able to do everything – dance, sing and play musical instruments. Right now, I’m concentrating on my voice and opera classes. The dancing I’ve been doing all along. Two summers ago, I was a Rockette in Radio City Music Hall and now, during the school year, I’m operating a dance studio for girls at the U.S. Army Special Services Youth Activities Center outside Manhattan. Not only do the classes make me practice my dancing but teaching those little kids is really fun. Plus, the lessons have helped pay my college tuition.” Crystal also taught classes this summer, driving more than 100 miles to Manhattan from Kansas City on her one day off from modeling assignments and her job as a Playboy Club Bunny. (She appeared in our Bunnies of 1971 feature last month.) “It was a hectic schedule,” she says, “but I’ve always been happiest doing several things at once.” If all goes well, Crystal’s postgraduation days will be as busy as her college ones. “I’m planning to move to Los Angeles, where I hope to land singing and dancing work in films or television,” she says. “And, if I’m lucky, maybe someday I’ll have my own TV special!” Whether or not she gets her big break, we think Crystal is already special.
Pipe and PJs: The Seventies 