Her first name is pronounced Veer-va and means, roughly--but then, everything translates roughly from Estonian--"reflections of sunlight on the water," and June Playmate Virve Reid is as refreshing as her name implies: an old-fashioned girl who can't wait for tomorrow. "I love antiques and old clothes, silks and velvets," she says. "I can dress up and look as if I'm from another century. But the future and the unknown fascinate me, too, and I love to read science fiction." Until a few months ago, Virve was living peacefully in Vancouver, British Columbia, a few blocks away from "an endless beach I could stroll for hours. On a typical day, I'd draw or cook or read," she says. "I'd been going to art classes for two years, but I wanted to travel and make some money for a change." She got a chance to do just that when fate, in the form of a local photographer she'd met at a party, stepped in. "I'm very spontaneous--don't like to make plans," Virve says, "so when I met this photographer, Ken Honey, and he took my test shots, I figured it was destiny that I become a Playmate." Maybe it was; at any rate, Virve was soon on her way to Los Angeles for more pictures. "I'm a bit of a chameleon and adapt well to any surroundings, so I was right at home in L.A., except that, being only 20, I couldn't get into any of the clubs where the action seemed to be. But the atmosphere at the Playboy Mansion was definitely something to which I could become accustomed." When she and lensman Phillip Dixon got together with a batch of old clothes, Virve felt completely at ease. "Phillip has the kind of creativity I agree with," she says. "Sometimes I'd be waiting for him to load the camera and I'd get into a certain mood and he'd say, 'That's it!' My gatefold, for example, is very Victorian. The photo sessions were interesting, erotic and fun." Who could ask for anything more?
