Colleen Corby in the October, 1963 issue of Seventeen magazine. Vermeer couldn’t have done any better.
Colleen Corby’s uniquely lovely face was seen everywhere throughout the Sixties. On magazine covers, in catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Ward, and on the pattern books my older sisters had when they were into sewing. Although those markets were for girls, Colleen’s presence was so ubiquitous that legions of boys had a crush on her, and most of us didn’t even know her name.
Colleen’s Wikipedia page says, “Two weeks after walking into Eileen Ford’s modeling agency (ostensibly to look for a summer job), Corby was sent on her first modeling assignment.” This reminds me of Grace Kelly starting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, at the same time my mother was graduating. A few weeks later Grace went to a photo session with a boyfriend who modeled men’s fashions. The photographer took one look at Grace and he took pictures of her instead. One of those photos with Grace soon appeared on the cover of Good Housekeeping magazine. My mother didn’t have that sort of luck. She didn’t have Grace’s looks. What other woman did?
Prue wasn’t looking for a modeling career, she was spotted on the street. That’s also how it happened for Annie Little. There’s a documentary, Chasing Beauty, with a segment showing a scout for an agency in search of the next supermodel.
A legitimate scout hands over a business card, and if the prospect she’s spotted isn’t with her parents she says something like, “If you’re interested, have your mother call the office.”
I had a girlfriend in college who had done some modeling. She had a smart and memorable explanation of how to get started in modeling, in those pre-YouTube days and before social media. “You walk in the door, no portfolio, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. They will either tell you to take a seat or say no thanks.”
