Playboy's Playmate Review

In Music, classic forms often end with a recapitulation of what has gone before. Always in search of harmony as well as invention, Playboy has again prepared its annual exposition of Playmates past. These 12 variations, classical forms all, on the prettiest of themes should provide a suitable body of evidence for selecting a Playmate of the Year. Though entries come from as far a field as Austria and Great Britain, California's cup ran over in 1966, as an impressive number of our gatefold girls were uncovered in the Golden State. Californian Tish Howard, who was already twice a debutante when she made her Playboy debut in July, has postponed her projected career in fashion design and is scheduled for a junket this month to the Jamaica Playboy Club, where she'll be hostess at a convention of the Canadian Admiral Corporation. Miss July's biggest thrill as a Playmate came unexpectedly in the L. A. airport one day last summer as she was about to embark for Chicago: "A young man had just bought a copy of Playboy at the newsstand, when he noticed me--and he spent the next five minutes trying to decide if I really was the girl in the gatefold. But I guess he was just too shy to find out."

A pacesetter indeed was Dolly Read, the first British Bunny to doff her rabbit ears, among other things, and adorn the Playboy centerfold. Her Playmate potential was revealed while the Bristol belle was training in Chicago for Bunnydom at the London hutch. Dolly agreed to help make May a merry month--to the advantage of the Playboy commonwealth, as readers will doubtless attest. Since her conquest of America (during which she appeared on David Susskind's TV program), Miss May has been greeting keyholders as Door Bunny at the London Club.

A golden-haired golfing expert whose gatefold shot last March rated a birdie on our score card. Pat has continued to split her time between working out on the links with her father, a veteran golf pro, and helping out her mother, a commercial artist, at the drawing board. "Maybe I can combine the two with a cartoon strip about golfers," says the Huntington Beach beauty. "I'm sure a lot of downcast putters would appreciate a good take-off on the game." Miss March is currently lending a pretty hand in upcoming Playboy promotions.

Bringing our annual cycle of Playmates to a memorable close was Sue Bernard, who, as the daughter of a top Hollywood glamor photographer, practically grew up in front of the camera. The former calendar child, who likes to ponder time past and time future while sitting before the family hearth, added just the right amount of her own incandescence to the year's-end festivity. Sue has spent the past month completing her first filmic starring role, in Stranger in Hollywood, and sharpening her Thespian skills on the Los Angeles stage.

Angeleno Judy Tyler, who graced our gatefold to greet the year just past, has maintained her membership in the Gold Coast's sun-and-surf society since her debut au naturel. "There's no sense in my traveling," the Granada Hills heliophile avers, "since anything the rest of the country has will find its way to California." Generously endowed Miss January has sequeled her centerfold appearance with various modeling ventures. Says Judy, who had an abbreviated fling in movies when she was four, "Modeling satisfies a girl's desire to be in the spotlight."

Our lunar attraction, Linda Moon, is content for the time being to sit back and savor the natural wonders of her own back yard--which is nothing less than Sierra Madre. The Michigan-born teenager has found that her easygoing philosophy pays its own dividends. "Sure, I'm lacking in ambition," says Miss October, who hasn't let her Playmate status go to her blonde head, "but I don't lack anything else. The closer I am to nature, the happier I am. The mountains here offer a fresh view each day--and they give you a sense of stability that's worth a million."

A medical-supplies buyer for one of the Golden State's largest pharmaceutical firms when she got the call to star as our June Playmate, freckle-faced Kelly Burke filled the prescription with ease. Her association with Playboy has continued in the best of health; the sociable lass from Glendale has proved herself a pro at promotional work, especially in maintaining friendship with Canada, where she represented Playboy on a national television program. Says the effervescent Miss Burke, "Playboy is certainly the best medicine I ever helped promote."

Outgoing Karla Conway, the diminutive (4' 11") diadem of our April issue, is currently making one of her fondest ambitions a reality--after a surfeit of surfing at Malibu Beach, Miss April has left California for a leisurely tour of Europe's most enticing vacation capitals, from carefree Copenhagen to the sunlit Mediterranean's Côte d'Azur. The extroverted expatriate says she's discovered that the diversity of Continental languages poses no problem--"People who know how to have a good time can always understand each other, even without subtitles."

Austrian import Susan Denberg, whose August exposure in Playboy gave proof positive of the charm she displayed in the Warner Bros. production of An American Dream, spent the fall season in cinemactive London, making a new movie for Hammer Productions. Miss Denberg, one of the most glamorous guests to grace the opening of the many-splendored London Playboy Club last summer, reports that "London today is too much--things have really changed since I started there in the Bluebells chorus line." Susan, praise be, came to America with the dance troupe.

The lucky find of L. A. photographer Bill Figge on a routine wedding assignment, November Playmate Lisa Baker has been traveling far and wide as a Playboy emissary, and found that "life begins at the centerfold and expands outward." The transplanted Texan, who occupies a bachelorette's apartment in suburban Culver City, is keeping her fingers crossed awaiting the results of a recent screen test. Later this month, Lisa will team up with July Playmate Tish Howard on a good-will promotion junket to the Jamaica Playboy Club.

Legend has it that February was foreshortened by a Roman emperor so as to enrich another month (which happened to bear his name). We expect that scorned February was appeased when Playboy unveiled Melinda Windsor. A psychology major when she made our acquaintance, Melinda has since completed her baccalaureate requirements--but she's altered her plan to go after a postgraduate program. "After concentrating on my studies for so long," she explains, "it's time for positive reinforcement--I'm going to take my next seminar on skis."

A dramatics major who was specializing in backstage stints because she was "too shy" to face the footlights, Dianne Chandler accepted her first lead role as our Playmate for September, and the University of Illinois coed acquitted herself with consummate form. Since the 19-year-old set designer opted for Playboy's center stage, everything's been coming up roses; she's received a screen-test offer from London photographer-producer David Connelly. "Stardom's a long way off," says Dianne, "but I never imagined I would become a Playmate, either."