June Wilkinson        photographed by Russ Meyer

                           Gloria Dawn   photographed by Phil Jacobson

 

Where would glamour photographers be without those beautiful and glamorous models?! On this page, I'll profile a few of the models that I've been lucky enough to have short email correspondences with, along with (hopefully) several other well known models from the 50s and 60s.

 

Where I give links to the models' own websites, it is my wish that you go to their sites and buy an autographed photo (or even two!) to show them your appreciation for their great work in 1950s and 60s glamour! You will then also have some memorabilia from that classic era of glamour photography that you will treasure for years to come!

All photos on this page are reproduced by special permission from the models.

Diane Hunter - the first model I'd like to profile is Playmate Diane Hunter. Of course, this was just the name that Playboy had given her. When she first got into modeling, she went by the name Donna Hunter (her real name is Gale Morin), but when Playboy chose Bruno Bernard's nude pin-up photo of her to appear as Miss Nov. 1954, they had changed her name to Diane Hunter. She later tried to find out why they had changed her name to Diane, but to no avail. As for how she got into glamour/pin-up modeling, she wrote the following:

"I got into modeling by accident. I was approached, given the card for an agent, and being an adventurous person, went to find out. The gentleman looked just like Santa and was just as nice. He gently got me into it and never let me get into trouble. Andy Anderson. I quit shortly after he died."

Diane modeled for a lot of the glamour photographers of the day, including one of the greatest photographers of nudes, Andre de Dienes. In the very first issue of Playboy magazine, a de Dienes photo of her can be seen on the back pages. Photos of Diane can also be seen in a few of de Dienes books, including "The Nude". There are a few different editions of this book and the first edition (1956) has a couple of very nice photos of Diane (including the photo that appeared in that first issue of Playboy), but one of those great images was replaced in a subsequent version of the book. Andre de Dienes books sell at fairly high prices, so try to snatch one up if you ever see them at a more reasonable price.

A few years after Diane was rediscovered in 1997, she met up with Bunny Yeager during a Hollywood Collectors Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Bunny took some photos of her back at Diane's hotel room. Diane wrote of the shoot:  "She is an incredible photographer. We worked for less than an hour after the show, and she took six rolls of film, which nearly all were good to exceptional. I hadn't worked, or modeled in 42 years. She said I was the most natural model she ever worked with and complimented me on being able to fall into poses so naturally. It was a huge success."  

Diane currently lives in Florida.

Update (9-13-19): Gale Morin (Diane Hunter, Playboy's Playmate of the Month for Nov. 1954) passed away on June 3, 2019. She was 84 years old. I was hoping to buy another signed photo from Gale when I learned the sad news of her passing from her daughter.

 

 

Gloria Dawn - It was totally by happenstance that Gloria Dawn got into glamour modeling. In the Fall of 1961, Gloria was taking a creative writing course at Santa Monica City College, and one of her classmates was none other than Alice Gowland, wife and collaborator of the well known glamour photographer, Peter Gowland.  Near the end of the semester, Alice finally mentioned to Gloria that her husband was a famous figure photographer. Gloria was intrigued and asked Alice if she thought she could make it as a figure model. After a Gowland test shoot, the answer was a resounding "yes"! Not long after, Peter photographed Gloria for the July 1962 issue of Cavalier magazine. After acquiring an agent, Gloria went on to model for many of the leading glamour photographers of the day (Ron Vogel, Phil Jacobson, Sam Wu, and Donald Klumpp - the color photo of Gloria above was shot by Mr. Klumpp) and appeared in many of the men's magazines throughout the early 1960s. She was also featured in the Peter Gowland book Peter Gowland Photographs the Figure (1962) and Figure Quarterly, Spring 1965 (The Nudes of Peter Gowland).

It was just a few years ago that Gloria decided to search for as many of her magazine appearances as possible and do some writing about her experiences as a glamour model. Having been born in Canada, Gloria returned there after she retired from modeling.

Gloria has recently been featured in several of Dian Hanson's books about men's magazines and glamour photography, including:

 The History of Men's Magazines, Vol. 4, 2005, pages 63 and 155

 The Big Book of Legs by Dian Hanson, 2008, page 321 (misidentified as “Susan Norman”)

 The Big Butt Book by Dian Hanson, 2010, pages 18, 110, and 128-129, identified as “Gloria Dawn.”

To view her amazing gallery of photos from the early 60s and order an autographed photo from her, please take a little excursion to the following website: http://gloriadawn.wordpress.com/  Once you see her angelic, expressive face and amazing body, I know you'll want to order some of her classic glamour photos.

 

 

June Wilkinson - A beautiful "British import" who came to the attention of the American male in Sept. of 1958, when she was first introduced in Playboy as "The Bosom". She was already a well known glamour model in Britain when she came to the U.S. for a week in hopes of getting noticed. Well, it worked, as she had gained the attention of Hugh Hefner, and the rest, as they say, is history. She would be featured in Playboy several more times between 1958 and 1962, and photos of her are also regularly featured in special anniversary issues of the magazine.

June became a model who was much in demand for a great many glamour photographers profiled on this site. She was captured by the likes of Andre de Dienes, Sam Wu, Russ Meyer, and Earl Leaf and appeared in many mens magazines throughout the late 50s and early to mid 60s, as well as in some of the books that her photographers authored. You can find several of June's photos in  Sam Wu's Photo Study Techniques (1960) and Andre de Dienes'  Figure Photo Techniques (1963) and Famous Figure Photos (1966).  While Sam Wu tended to highlight her buxom figure in his photos, Andre de Dienes seemed to downplay it and focused more on her beautiful smile and general playfulness. I have to say that my favorite photos of June are when she's sporting that gorgeous smile!

June took her glamour fame and quickly parlayed it into a motion picture career, appearing in the 1959 film Career Girl, 1960's Macumba Love and 1961's Twist All Night. With show business in her blood, June kept busy throughout the 60s and 70s appearing in plays, dinner theater and nightclubs. In Jan. of 1968, she appeared in the Batman episode Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club, as the beautiful henchwoman Evelina.

In more recent years, June has hosted the Encore cable show The Directors in which she interviewed filmmakers.

To read more about June and what she's up to these days, have a look at her impressive website www.junewilkinson.com and order a photograph or two from her. You might also like to read an interesting 2004 interview with June that was conducted by... Java's Bachelor Pad

 

 

Reagan Wilson - Playboy's Miss October 1967, Reagan Wilson, grew up in Missoula Montana and while spending a summer in Los Angeles she was discovered by an agent. She was soon busy working as an actress and model and enjoying the exciting night life of the big city. Reagan's striking good looks and amazingly voluptuous body made her a natural candidate to become a Playboy Playmate of the Month. 

Glamour photographer Ron Vogel photographed Reagan in and around his home, at her job at a public relations firm and also on the set of the popular TV western The Big Valley, where she was portraying a dance-hall girl in the second season episode "The Lady from Mesa", (original airdate: April 3, 1967). The pictorial that Vogel shot was selected to appear in the October 1967 issue of Playboy, which introduced Reagan to a worldwide audience.

Not too long after appearing in Playboy, Reagan modeled for Peter and Alice Gowland and seven photos of her were published in Peter Gowland's Famous Figure Photos (1969) and one color image was included in Gowland's Guide to Glamour Photography (1972). Of her experiences working with Peter and Alice, Reagan says: "Peter was a polite, pleasant and methodical man who really made the model feel relaxed, which, along with his technical expertise, made his work so great. He and Alice were so close and lived in a lovely home in Pacific Palisades with a garden overgrown with plants and flowers. I loved going there. He wasn't an ego driven person like so many photographers. He was all about the art of his work."

On a historic note, one of Reagan's Playboy photos went to the moon in November of 1969. As a joke, NASA ground staff hid a small nude photo of her (along with fellow playmates Angela Dorian, Cynthia Myers and Leslie Bianchini) inside the schedule of Apollo 12's mission commander, Pete Conrad. In the mid 90s, Reagan finally got to meet Pete Conrad in person and presented him with a larger signed copy of the photo that had been to the moon.

Along with other Playmates of the 1960s, Reagan was a popular pin-up girl for the boys in Vietnam and she had the opportunity to visit with many wounded soldiers while on Playmate promotional tours. Below: An excerpt from E!'s Playmates of the 1960s which features Reagan Wilson.

Reagan has attended several Glamourcons, and if you're like me and can't afford to travel halfway across the country to a Glamourcon to buy an autographed photo from her, you can save your travel expenses and order a photo by simply visiting her website at www.reaganwilson.com

Update: Reagan's website is no longer active, but you can keep up-to-date on Reagan's activities by viewing her Facebook page here.











Peter Gowland photo of Brooke Mills reproduced with special permission from the Gowland Estate. Thanks Lauren Kahler!












Brooke Mills - Brooke Mills was one of Peter and Alice Gowland's favorite models and in July of 2020 I contacted her by letter, hoping to get some information for this website, and she very graciously responded. Brooke actually worked with four of the photographers profiled on this site: The Gowlands, Bruno Bernard, Frank Bez and Larry Caye and she wrote about her memories of working with each one.

Brooke Mills attended high school in Colorado Springs, CO where she was very active in the performing arts (dancing and singing). At this same time, she also performed as the female lead with the Rocky Mountain National Ballet Company in Colorado Springs.

After graduating from high school, Brooke was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to study with the San Francisco Ballet Company and she soon put her dancing and singing talents to work as the lead dancer in the national touring company of the musical "Hello, Dolly!" (starring Carol Channing) from Sept. 7, 1965 to June 11, 1967. It was the director and choreographer of "Hello, Dolly!", Gower Champion, who advised Brooke to try her hand at acting. 

By the late 60s, Brooke had moved to Los Angeles, where in the next decade she would appear in numerous television series, commercials and motion pictures. A few of her commercials were for Standard Oil, Breck Shampoo, For Brunettes Only hair color and Skittle Poker (a game by Aurora). Some of the TV series in which she appeared included: Mod Squad, Bracken's World, Mission: Impossible, The F.B.I., Marcus Welby, M.D., and Police Story.





Brooke Mills in the first of her two appearances on Mod Squad. The episode was entitled "A Bummer for R.J." and aired on January 19, 1971.





A few of Brooke's big screen credits included "The Student Teachers" (1973), "Walking Tall, Part Two" (1975) and the Disney film "Freaky Friday" (1976).

It was roughly during this same time period that Brooke posed for a few of the most renowned glamour photographers of the era, including Peter Gowland, Bruno Bernard and Frank Bez. Of working with Peter and Alice Gowland, she wrote: "When I first met Peter and Alice I was very young and did not realize I was in the presence of Photo Royalty. They were so relaxed and friendly, that working for them never felt like work. I never saw Peter or Alice in anything other than shorts, tee shirt and flip flops. The atmosphere was incredibly relaxed. I remember they had a Dachshund and a turtle that would walk in the middle of the shoot. Peter would stop and talk to them so sweetly before removing them from the set. I worked eleven years for them and I can honestly say that they were my favorite photographers. I was always on time, prepared, and was a dancer. They really liked working with someone that was at ease with movement."

Brooke continued: "I also worked with Frank Bez. Frank was the polar opposite of Peter. He was so uptight he reminded me of a Harvard graduate that became a photographer. He was pleasant but I was aware of every slowly ticking minute I worked for him. I worked seven years for him and can't say I knew him at all."

Of working with Bruno Bernard, Brooke wrote: "Bruno Bernard was another fabulous photographer that I worked for. He was a European gentleman who was lovely to work for. He lived in Majorca so he came once a year to L.A. and I worked several years with him. He was also brilliant but would not feed me or offer any water when we were working. He would have lunch but never offered me any. So I was starving at the end of the shoot..."

Brooke came to work with Larry Caye in 1970 due to a TV role that she had. "I was cast as a high fashion model on Mod Squad and he was hired to do my pictures that lined the walls of the set. He managed to make me look really tall which was quite an accomplishment since I am only five foot four. His pictures were beautiful. I only remember that he was very young to be so accomplished."













A photo of Brooke Mills that was shot by Larry Caye in 1970 for an episode of the TV series Mod Squad.









Brooke concluded her letter with these comments: "I hope I added something to your research. Thank you for reaching out to me. Peter and Alice stand alone with pictures and their beautiful spirit."

Brooke Mills currently resides in Texas.





Doris Gohlke - Doris Gohlke was possibly the most photographed glamour model of 1959 and was captured on film by many of the photographers profiled on this website. Some of her photographers included Peter Gowland (photo above left), Ron Vogel (photo above right), Bruno Bernard, Kurt Reichert, Peter James Samerjan, Ken Parker, Donald Klumpp, Edmund Leja, Earl Leaf, Russ Meyer, George Gowland, Keith Bernard, Anthony DiMarco and Mario Casilli.

Doris was born in Berlin, Germany in January of 1941, but it wasn't until the age of three that she and her family felt the consequences of WWII when their home was bombed by the Allied Forces. Several years after the war, as a fan of American movies and movie stars, her biggest dream was to come to America. In 1957, Doris and her mother and two sisters moved to Montreal, Canada but it wasn't until late 1958 that her family was sponsored to come to the United States (and Los Angeles in particular). When she arrived, she immediately started getting modeling jobs and even appeared in a live TV commercial in LA.

After turning eighteen in January 1959, Doris Gohlke was searching the LA Times for modeling work when she came upon an ad for figure models. Since she didn't know the English language that well, she assumed it was for modeling bathing suits or underwear. When she showed up at the studio of Aaron Scotty Spears, she found out that the job was for nude modeling. After talking with the photographer for most of the day, she consented to having some pinup shots taken, and then some nudes. She agreed to have the photos published, signed a release and was paid well. 

Scotty Spears soon introduced Doris to other photographers, the first one being Ron Vogel. Most of the photos from Vogel's first session with her sold immediately to various men's magazines. She would go on to work with some of the best glamour photographers in Los Angeles and be featured in Modern Man, Candid, Ace, Frolic, Hi-Life, Venus, Adam, Sir Knight and many other publications.

Doris Gohlke on the cover of the December 1959 issue of Ace magazine.
The cover of the February 1961 issue of Modern Man. Doris Gohlke photographed by Kurt Reichert.

At the height of her modeling success in 1959, Scotty Spears told Doris that she should start thinking about her future and suggested stripping or burlesque. He then took her to The Club Largo to see Candy Barr and then later, Tempest Storm. What Tempest did on stage interested Doris and she became more enthusiastic about entering the world of burlesque. Once she had overcome her stage fright, she began to work in some small supper clubs. Soon after, in the summer of 1959, she got her first good job as a stripper at the El Rancho in Los Angeles. Needing a new name for her stripping career, she eventually came up with Delilah Jones. In early 1960, at age nineteen, one of her biggest dreams came true - she went to work at The Club Largo on Sunset Boulevard, the same club where she had seen her first burlesque show.

Also in 1960, she got a non-speaking part in a "Nudie Cutie" film called "Not Tonight Henry" (which can be downloaded for free from https://archive.org/). The next year she got a part in another early nude classic, "The Touchables".

Doris Gohlke/Delilah Jones went on to have a very long career in burlesque and travelled all across the North American continent for her gigs. In 1977, Doris was hired by Paul Perry to perform at the Cabaret Burlesque Palace in Las Vegas. She continued to dance there for the next three years until Mr. Perry asked her if she'd like to become the day shift manager. So, in 1980, at the age of 39, she retired from burlesque dancing, but continued to work with the business until 1996, when she retired for good (although she did make a dancing comeback in 2013).

Today, Doris Gohlke/Delilah Jones, a Burlesque Hall of Famer, has quite a presence on the internet. You can follow her on Facebook here and also buy autographed glamour photos from her on ebay. She also has two books that she has written for sale: "My Life Without Regret" (2014) and "Vintage Pin-Up, Fetish & Nude Model" (2019). Doris continues to live in Las Vegas, NV.

Update (1/29/23): Doris no longer uses ebay to sell her photos but instead has switched to selling her images (in addition to those of other models) on AdultStuffOnly. You can view her listings under her burlesque name Delilah Jones by clicking here.












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