Kathy Shower, Miss May, 1985

In a Hancock Park duplex not far from Beverly Boulevard, not far from the Hollywood Hills, not far from a whole block of neon boutiques, there is a little bit of Brookville, Ohio. You ring the bell, the door swings open and from then on, it's girls, girls, girls.

"There's no place like home," says Kathy Shower, model/actress/single mom, standing there in a yellow blouse and jeans, with a daughter attached to each leg. "Come in and sit down."

It's a dream of an apartment, a little girl's dream blown up to Panavision proportions, stuffed with toys and swathed in pastel shades. Kathy calls it The Orphanage "I'm the Kool-Aid lady on the block. The neighborhood kids are always over here, and I like it that way." She shrugs. "Makes it a little hard for dating, but that's OK. On the weekends, it's slumber-party time. We play Cabbage Patch dolls."

The girls--Mindy is nine and Melonie is six--entertain you with a soft shoe while Supermom, 32, runs to the kitchen. Rosie, the parrot--in this house, you will find only girls--fluffs her feathers and squawks, "Hello!" The phone rings every minute or so. Kathy returns with a pitcher of ice water and fills a glass for each of the girls. Melonie says, "Nobody pours water like you, Mommy." The girls retire to the Cabbage Patch and Kathy sits down next to you.

She had second thoughts about posing nude, she says. If offered a nude scene in a movie, she thinks she'd want a body double.

"I talked with the girls about PLAYBOY," she says. The girls spin in and out of the room, trading kisses for promises of Big Macs later on. "We talked about how pictures of a beautiful woman can be art, and they pretty much decided that if Mom did it, it was great." Kathy sits on the couch with her legs curled under her, like a little girl. "So the other day, we were driving past a Coppertone billboard, and Melonie wanted to know why that dog was pulling down the little girl's pants. And Mindy said, 'Melonie, that's art!'" Kathy laughs. The girls, who have been hiding behind the couch, laugh even harder.

Kathy grew up in Brookville, a little town not far from Dayton, where the only TV work is in TV repair. A self-described ugly duckling, she never even had a date until she was as old as some Playmates. Hollywood called shortly after she became a swan. A stint on Broadway as "the second-lead blank" (Brookville girls frown on profanity) in The Best Little Blankhouse in Texas led her to L.A., but Kathy wouldn't leave Brookville for the bright lights. She would take it along.

"People don't know me until they've seen my house," she says. "Here's this girl doing Los Angeles--the New York--style work--but living Brookville, Ohio. My work is hard work, long hours, constant running, but I know I can always come back here, where it's Mom and the girls. Mine is the old story of the girl who goes from a small town to Hollywood, but it's been more grueling than glamorous. Still, I'm making it. I'm surviving."

Even thriving. You've seen Kathy--sometimes more than once--on Three's Company, Scene of the Crime with Orson Welles, Airwolf, Simon & Simon and in other appearances too fleeting to be remembered by anyone but a bleary tubeaholic, playing (text concluded on page 196)Kathy Shower(continued from page 101) lovers and strangers, vixens and vamps. She gets respect from Hollywood, certainly, but just about everything else comes from the kids. "I've got to start dating again," she'll say. "I'm single--very single." But tonight, the lady has more pressing concerns than dates or even work. How many neighborhood children will fit into one compact car?

"OK, let's go to McDonald's."

The girls applaud and outkick the Rockettes. Kathy goes to turn off the TV. On the screen, a pretty blonde is tumbling out of a speeding limousine.

"No matter what I do, no matter how hard the day may be," she says, "I'm a star to the girls. When I come home, they'll run up and yell, 'Mom, we saw you on television!' "

Mindy and Melonie watch, but Kathy doesn't. "I don't sit at home and watch when I'm on TV," she says. "It's probably the same thing a lot of people feel--I'm just not comfortable watching my picture on the screen. I've been lucky in the roles I've gotten. I don't usually get the blonde-bombshell bimbos. So it's not that I'm disappointed in the way it comes off. But I still think of myself as that gangly ugly duckling in Ohio."

That girl was the one all the other kids said had personality--adolescent code for "something less than killer looks."

"I didn't look ... well, exactly the way I do now. I go back for reunions and they say, 'My, how she's changed.' "

These days, when she's not on the arm of the star of the show, where glamor girls go, Kathy is likely to be flying out of a fast-moving vehicle. That's the lot of the Hollywood blonde.

"Getting paid to fall out of a car is one of the things that make my best girlfriend yell 'Perspective!' I'll grumble a little about it, and she'll want to know if they need somebody to fall out the other side."

Kathy smiles. Perspective means knowing that most people have nine-to-five jobs.

The girls wrestle with their shoes and socks as Kathy talks about her most recent, most eye-opening appearance.

"I can't quite comprehend being Miss May, the glamorous girl of the month," she says. "But I want to be seen as a complete woman. I'm a single parent, acting and modeling, singing and dancing, pursuing a career and, at the same time, being mother, father, grandparent, teacher--all these things wrapped into one. And being very appealing to the male audience, being aware of my sexuality. Sexuality is hard to put into words; I guess the pictures will speak for themselves. What I want to get across is that there are many facets to a woman. Not just me, all women." She smiles. "We're a pretty good breed."

Rosie, the parrot, says, "All right!"

Playmate Data Sheet

Name: Kathleen Ann Shower

Bust: 35

Waist: 24

Hips: 35

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 122

Birth Date: 3/8/53

Birthplace: Brookville, Ohio

Ambitions: To expand my career as a successful television and commercial actress into major feature films.

Turn-Ons: Perfumed laths, men who make me laugh & love, cuddling, sleep or staying awake with the rnight man.

Turn-Offs: Profarnity, untidiness, arrogance, man who say all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

Favorite Movies: Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, Close Encounters, Doctor Ehivago, fantasia, Being There.

Favorite foods: Chinese food, Sushis, Chocolate souffles, soua Lee cheesecakes, mesquite-boiled, Swordfish.

Favorite Place: Paris, France

Ideal Evening: Young to led with a good look or a man who has just read one.

Biggest Joy: Having children, because it is a constant reminder of the child in me.