Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Save Your High School Yearbook - It Could Be Worth Something!

There's something to be said for being a packrat: "You've Got CASH!"

While most stuff in the attic or basement isn't worth much, you never know. Take your high school yearbook.

If a celebrity was in your class, that yearbook could be worth...

$898 is the asking price for the yearbook featuring a certain "Julie Newmeyer."

The same dealer also managed to find Batgirl Yvonne Craig's yearbook. Yes, same price.

Last month, Raquel Welch's high school yearbook (she was Raquel Tejada back then) went for $125 and Diana Ross's got a final bid of $383. And who out-sold both of them combined? Err....

Acting as a Model

Throughout Julie's career, she's acted many roles. A more subtle form of acting involves being a photographer's model.

Over the years, for the needs of record album covers, commercial products, and magazine editorial desires, Julie has played many roles. You might remember her as the Smirnoff cowgirl, or a tanned Coppertone beach beauty, or the sultry focus of "How to Make Love to a Blonde.

She even was Elvis Presley for Esquire!

Even for magazines where she was promoting herself, she was also promoting the skills of the photographer. The deal, in some cases, was free publicity for Julie and her latest film, and the photographer selling the images for whatever he could get. If it was summer, a magazine might want outdoor or beach photos. A swanky magazine might want to see Julie in expensive lingerie and in a beautifully decorated apartment. Some other magazine might want to stress her Amazon height in a leotard and some high-kicking poses.

Here are two very different examples of what a photograph can do with or to Julie.

Two similar poses?

Yes, but is the viewer's reaction equal? Not at all. It's like Julie is playing two different roles. Actress as a Model.

What's similar in both pictures is: it's Julie, the hair is tousled, and the hands are under the chin.

The early picture is warm, even in black and white. Julie's luminous brown eyes are focused on YOU.

She has a Mona Lisa-type slight smile that is beckoning but mysterious.

The focus shifts from her eyes to her hands, which are in a prayerful pose. Complicated, yes, but with a promise...to YOU.

This could easily be a publicity picture that "sells" Julie as someone open, interested in YOU, and brimming with promise. No heterosexual magazine editor or casting director could resist this image!

Next, here's Julie not really as herself, but acting as a model.

The eyes are at half-mast. Looking away. No connection to YOU.

The lips are made up in an artificial "don't smear" manner, compared to the other, more luscious pose.

The "lollipop on a stick" pose for the hands are "ME" and not "YOU."

Instead of bare wrists, there's the almost royal silver ornament sleeves. The Queen.

This is a woman to be feared. Because she is a woman? Because she is Marie Antoinette or someone equally frosty and imperial?

Perhaps this image would interest a jewelry company trying to get some fearful Norman Bates to buy something expensive for Mother.

There was a time when glamorous actresses of the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford type, turned up in horror films, often with a transvestite (Henry Cossins in "The Anniversary") or homosexual (Victor Buono in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane") trembling in fear. Perhaps a producer looking to re-make a Davis or Crawford vehicle would get the idea from this second picture, that Julie could play such a role.

Some models are always the same (Cheryl Tiegs, Heidi Klum, etc.) and they are paid to always be themselves. But when a model IS an actress, the possibilities are limitless.