December 17, 1927 - January 13, 2024
An image of popular 50s glamour model Vivian Maledy applying her lipstick during a shoot with photographer George Mann.
Vivian Maledy - I've been wanting to write a profile on Vivian for quite a while as I'd been researching her for at least 4 or 5 years. Over the course of my research, I found many biographical details for Vivian and even found her phone number in Santa Maria, California in 2023. However, as she was 95 years old at the time, I decided not to bother her. Instead, I periodically checked obituaries over the next few years, but never found one for Vivian. Then, in October of 2026, I discovered that a fellow admirer of Vivian Maledy named Timothy C. Merritt had recently been in contact with one of Vivian's nieces, and Tim had learned from her that Vivian had passed away on January 13, 2024 at the age of 96. It was only due to the diligent research of Timothy Merritt that I was able to finally put together all the puzzle pieces of Vivian's life and write something about her on this website.
Vivian A. Nunes was born on December 17, 1927 to Joseph G. Nunes and Katherine O. (Myers) Nunes in Santa Barbara County in California. Joe had been born in the Azores Islands Portugal in 1897 and after coming to the U.S. became a rancher and dairyman in Los Osos, California before moving his wife Katherine and three sons to Casmalia in 1926 (Vivian would be born the next year). Katherine Myers Nunes had been born in Cayucos, California in 1905 and would be a lifelong homemaker.
Vivian attended high school in the nearby town of Santa Maria and was a good student, receiving A's and B's. She was also active in sports, being on the school's volleyball team. In addition, she developed sewing and clothing design skills while attending Santa Maria High School. In the April 4, 1946 edition of the Santa Maria Times, there was an article about the exhibit of fashions by Santa Maria students: "Features of Thursday's exhibit will be a moss-green suit by Fredia Muscio, and a cardigan suit with a black checked jacket and black shirt by Vivian Nunez." (misspelling of Nunes).
Vivian Nunes' senior portrait from the 1947 Santa Maria High School yearbook.
Sometime during her junior or senior years, Vivian had obtained employment with the J.C. Penney Company as a saleswoman / clerk. In the Spring of 1947, Vivian met John Lloyd Maledy. John had been a member of the Parachute Infantry in the U.S. Army for a year and four months during WWII and after the war ended, the Army was downsizing and John Maledy was discharged from service. However, in Sapporo, Japan, John re-enlisted for another year on March 20, 1946 and was sent back to the U.S. to be part of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment which was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. After separating from the Army at Fort Bragg on April 21, 1947, John travelled around the U.S. on his Harley and soon met Vivian in California. The announcement of their engagement appeared in the June 12, 1947 edition of the Santa Maria Times (see below).
After their marriage, John and Vivian Maledy would eventually take up residence at 181 N. Alta Vista Ave. in Monrovia, which was approximately 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Vivian continued to work as a store clerk at J. C. Penney while John began working at a Linoleum Store.
After six years of marriage, John and Vivian divorced in July of 1953 (the reason Vivian gave on a later document was "Cruelty"). John remarried later that same year to a widow named Geraldine Lavonne Turner (born Roseth). Her first husband, DeLon P. Turner, had died two years earlier when an airplane crashed into their apartment building!
Sometime after the divorce from John in July of '53, Vivian embarked on a new career as a model. The first published photos of her that I could find were from the June 1954 issue of Cover Girls Models (the photographer was James Spicer aka Kurt Reichert). The two-page layout can be seen below.
Soon, Vivian would be posing for many of the other leading glamour photographers in Los Angeles, including Sam Wu, William Graham, Keith Bernard, David M. Mills, Del Hayden, George Mann and Art Messick. To view a few of her photos by some of these photographers, click here. I will continue to add photos to the page as I collect more of her magazine appearances.
Vivian was equally comfortable posing in a bikini or fully nude. In fact, in between her still photography assignments, she also starred in several short films where she appeared completely nude...lounging around, reading a magazine, dancing or taking a dip in a pool. Something Weird Video produced numerous compilations of these old shorts in a DVD series called Nudie Cuties and many videos from this series can still be found online today.
Vivian Maledy also posed nude for camera clubs where several hobbyist photographers got together for outdoor photo sessions.
Vivian Maledy posing outdoors in the nude for a group of hobbyist photographers sometime in the mid to late 50s.
One publicity assignment that Vivian was hired to do was pose in a bikini on the beach with Father Time for a New Years Eve 1956 photo that would be printed in several newspapers across the country.
An alternate take from the beach session that took place in late 1955.
If you are able to read the caption on the newspaper clipping above, you'll see that Vivian claimed to be 24 years old at the time. Because she got a late start modeling, she would typically take 3 or 4 years off her real age when giving her statistics to photographers. In late December of 1955, Vivian would have been 28 years old.
1956 was a pretty big year for Vivian in terms of being published on magazine covers. Below are three magazines that were from 1956 and one from 1957.
Folies de Paris et de Hollywood (1956) A French magazine.
Frolic magazine - the February 1956 issue.
Picture Scope - September 1956
Vue magazine - September 1957
Photo by Del Hayden
Vivian's photos had been published in many male-oriented magazines of the mid to late 50s, including Cover Girls Models (June 1954), Escapade, Modern Man (Sept. 1958), Caper (March 1957), Adam Bedside Reader #03 (1960), Follies, Gaze, Stare, Frolic, Picture Scope, Vue, Photography For Men (Issue No. 1, 1957), Model Studies Annual #14, Rascal (March 1957) and Slick.
A lovely two-page color photograph of Vivian that was taken by William Graham was featured in the March 1957 issue of Caper magazine. It was titled "Mardi Gras Girl" and can be seen below.
Another color centerspread of Vivian Maledy appeared in the April 1956 issue of Escapade magazine. It was a photograph by Hollywood glamour photographer Keith Bernard and was titled "Artist and Model".
On February 1, 1958, at the age of 30, Vivian married for the second time. Her new husband, Douglas William Lindsey was 44 years old (soon to be 45 in just 19 days) and had been married twice before. Douglas was a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WWII and was working as a furrier in Beverly Hills. The couple's marriage took place in Las Vegas and they set up residence in West Hollywood at 1222 N. Harper Ave. After the marriage, Vivian's modeling career began to wind down.
After her career as a Hollywood model had concluded, Vivian became a seamstress and made clothes for prominent doctors and lawyers, as well as a few celebrities in the Los Angeles area.
On November 23, 1984, Douglas Lindsey passed away at the age of 71 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was buried in Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California on November 28.
Vivian Lindsey was 56 years old at the time of her husband's death. She continued to live in West Hollywood for at least another 24 years. Sometime between 2008 and 2017, Vivian moved to Santa Maria, California to be closer to her relatives. In Santa Maria, Vivian Lindsey resided at 1248 Glines Ave.
As Vivian was getting into her mid 90s, she needed some assistance so at some point she moved in with one of her nieces. This niece took care of Vivian until January 13, 2024, when Vivian passed away. She was 96 years old.
Vivian had elected to be cremated and her ashes were scattered somewhere in Southern California. There was no formal ceremony of any kind for Vivian, but the family did have a memorial announcement printed up.
Vivian was a lovely and talented woman and will certainly go down in history as one of the icons of 1950s glamour photography. She will undoubtedly be missed by all her fans and everyone who personally knew her. I will conclude this profile of Vivian Nunes / Maledy / Lindsey with a quote that was printed in her High School Yearbook from 1947:
"Sweet, quiet gal who's really tops".
Thanks again to Timothy C. Merritt for doing the research on Vivian's activities after she had left the modeling profession and for finding out when she passed.