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On Modeling in the Sixties
 In the sixties, the modeling industry was not what it is today. In many ways it
was harder to break in because you had to be in New York City. Nowadays they
have model searches and hardly a tall pretty teen-ager is overlooked. Even in
small towns all over the world there model scouts on the look-out for girls with
potential. The great ones are flown in and advanced the money they need. Their
portfolios are paid for until they can pay it back later. Even so, only about 1%
of the girls who go there make it in New York.
I arrived in New York City from Key West Florida, where I had lived for a year.
I had gotten a job as a sales associate/model in Key West Hand Print Fabrics.
The establishment is still there today. They used me for some local ads and
encouraged me to become a model when I returned to New York.Although I had the required height and wore a size two, it still took a whole
year of very determined, heavy-duty pavement pounding and door knocking on my
part before I was able to put together a good portfolio in New York City. I had
no idea how to find work. I had never heard of Eileen Ford. I just looked in the
New York newspaper employment ads.
 Someone was looking for models for promotional work. I called and was given an
appointment at an address on Forty-Second Street, near Times Square, which was
very seedy then, decades before Mayor Giuliani cleaned it up.
When I got there the interviewer seemed to be bowled over by me. When I told him
how old I was he said “You mean all this happened in 18 years?” I had a few
pictures that I had done in Key West in an envelope. He called his wife who
worked a big advertising agency. He said he had discovered a fabulous model. She
told me to come over and ask for her.
Linda Morand Key West First Modeling Job Lilly
Pulitzer
When I arrived there at the Lexington Avenue address of the
Graybar Building, they were apparently having a cattle-call for something
because the waiting room was filled with professional models. This was before
the London invasion. The models looked like debutantes all dressed in hats and
gloves and carrying huge 11x 14 leather portfolios and large tote bags. “I’ve
got to get one of them”, I thought feeling rather pathetic with my manila
envelope full of 8 x 10 glossies. I recognized some of the models although I did
not know their names.
 When
my turn came I was shown into a small office of someone else, not the wife of
the man at the employment agency. The astounded interviewer had never seen such
an unprofessional model in the hallowed halls of J Walter Thompson. Thank
goodness she was kind.
“Dear, you‘ve got to get an agency, a portfolio and a composite” she told me.
She showed me to the door. I had no idea how to find an agency, so I went to the
Yellow Pages. There they all were in alphabetical order. Chris Anderson’s Golden
Girls was first on the list.
Above test shot from Key West
I called them and after inquiring how tall I was. They had me come right over.
They had a pretty nice office in the East Fifties and the receptionist was a
beautiful English ex-model. I was very impressed with her accent. They quickly
got 50 dollars out of me for headshots. I signed a 1 year contract.
 Then I was sent on the rounds. Every day I would commute into the city from
Fresh Meadows, Queens, where I had found a small apartment. On a tight budget I
only had a dollar a day to spend. Round trip to Manhattan was 30 cents. The
other 70 cents was for a Nedick’s hot dog and an orange drink.
A dollar a day would be like maybe 10 dollars a day now.
I had to walk everywhere. Luckily most of the studios were in midtown in those
days. There was nothing below 20th Street that had anything to do with
photography. My parents were totally against my modeling and would not help me.
The wanted me to continue in my art career. But at that time, being a model was
THE career choice for a young girl. I figured, I would spend a year or two
modeling and then continue my studies in art.
I had five or ten appointments a day. “Hi, I’m Linda Morand from Chris
Anderson,” I would say. “That’s your first problem, Honey”, they would say. I
found out that Chris Anderson was a very bad agency which was mostly in the
business of fixing up the models with the clients for dates.
My first booking was to serve drinks and appetizers at an agency party for
potential clients to meet the models. They provided me with a beautiful shocking
pink gown and had my hair and nails done. I could do my own make-up and applied
two sets of mink false eyelashes. For awhile, makeup was so heavy in the Sixties
that the models looked like little boys in drag.
 I was hit on by a guy named Frank . He introduced me to his friend Paul. “The
most important man you’ll ever meet”, he told me. Paul worked for Good
Housekeeping in the Public Relations department. He had nothing to do with
booking the models. Both of them were married. It was pretty clear that we
models were on the menu. I made a note to change agencies quickly. I knew that
the big agencies like Ford and Stewart took care of their girls. But I had
to get in there. it was not easy,
First test Shot by Steven Schlesinger 1966
The first photographer to test me was Michael Chassid. He had a cheesy, dirty
studio on Twenty-Third Street and it was well known that he would take pictures
of models for free. A cute young red-haired man named Steven Schlesinger was
working as his assistant. When Mr. Chassid was out of hearing, Steven whispered
to me to be careful. The dressing room had a two way mirror. Chassid could see
everything from the darkroom. He was even secretly photographing it. So I
changed without revealing anything. I am very adept at being able to get
completely dressed without showing an inch of skin, if I have to. On location
models often had to change in parked cars on the street, or even in traffic. I
eventually learned how to apply full make-up in a moving taxi, much to the
amusement of the driver. I could even aply false eyelashes.
 Chassid was in a bad mood, because he got nothing out of me and the pictures he
shot in the studio came out terrible. But Steven Schlesinger took several shots
later that week which came out great. We remain friends to this day and I have
worked with him many times over the years.
By this time I had learned that Eileen Ford was the top agency followed by
Stewart. Wilhelmina, who would later open up a competing Agency was still
working as a model. I went to Ford’s open call which was a little window of
opportunity between 10 and 10:30 AM every Tuesday. Most of the applicants did
not get past the receptionist. I did get interviewed by a booker, named Rusty,
but I was told to come back when I had more pictures and shown the door. I could
just glimpse Eileen Ford, sitting at her desk inside her office. She seemed like
an unattainable goddess to me.
I got a part-time job with Bloomingdale’s in the Junior Dress Department to help
out with the expenses. There I met a very nice model who was hired to wear the
dresses around the store. How can I get a job like this? I asked her. She sent
me to her agency, Paul Wagner. It was not one of the very top agencies, but it
was well respected and represented some top models. The head of the men’s division was Zoli, who
later opened an agency of his own.
Much to my joy, I was accepted by Wagner and started being sent to the better studios. I got one
or two minor jobs, but nothing very good. Still determined to get into Ford I
went back to the brownstone on Fifty-Ninth Street that housed their offices. I
had more test shots, with the long, teased hair, wig and hairpiece look, that
was slowly fading away. Jean Shrimpton was the reigning supermodel, but she was
soon to be replaced by the phenomenal Twiggy.
This time the interviewer told me I was very pretty and had potential but I did
not have a “look.” "Come back again", they said. It was encouraging. So many of
the other girls in the waiting room were rejected outright. A few left in tears.
In those days the agency did not spend money developing girls like they do now,
unless they were brought in especially by Eileen who used to go on hunting trips
to Europe to find the amazing Swedish and German girls that were all the rage.
She used to let them stay in her house and treated them like her own daughters.
Paul Wagner sent me to several studios to get more pictures and I had been
testing with a beauty photographer named Art. He used to photograph the models
for the Clairol hair color boxes. He was very inspired by me and tested me like
crazy, shooting sever rolls of 2 ¼ film on his expensive German Hasselblad
camera. Then he would go into the darkroom and develop the negatives
immediately. I had to stay in there with him if I wanted the pictures right
away. That afternoon I would leave with five or six gorgeous 11 X 14 prints.
 Art was experimenting with new darkroom techniques like dodging and burning. He
printed everything in black and white in very high contrast, sometimes through a
screen to give a textured effect. He was kind of weird, liking to take off his
pants and walk around in a dress shirt, tie, shoes, socks and boxer shorts. With
his pot belly and skinny legs, he looked pretty funny. I tried not to laugh. But
he seemed harmless.
He fell in love with me and it was very awkward. I have a sympathetic soul and I
don’t like to hurt anyone but I was only 18. He was forty. Eventually he was hit
by a bus while riding in a taxi and broke his neck. He spent a lot of time in
the hospital. That’s where he was when I flew off to Paris. I heard he got a
good settlement. I hope so. His pictures got me into Ford.
I used to wear a long, luxurious fall to augment my tresses and loved the big
teased hair look. However, I was not getting any work. I had a sort of Jackie
Kennedy/Dolores Hawkins look. I still did not have a new hip modern “Look” There
was a new model, Kathy Carpenter, that looked like she could be my twin, who
worked a lot for Glamour. She was with Stewart. When she came out on the cover
of Glamour in 1965, while I was still trying to get an agency, all my friends
and family called with congratulations. They thought it was me on the cover.
Kathy finally ended up marrying a big TV star, David McCallum.
 On
my third attempt I was finally accepted by Eileen Ford, the top model agency in
the world. Now it is said that Eileen Ford discovered me, but is was only after
I almost had to break down the door. By way of the credibility of a contracted
Ford model new doors were opened and I finally was getting some respect. With
pictures from Schlesinger, Art and Dennis Petoe and a few others I was sent to
all the top photographers and magazines. But there were to takers yet. People
were starting to notice me, but still no bookings. I continued to test with any
photographer who would work with me.
I needed to reinvent myself. It was 1966 and now the new English sensation was
Twiggy, with her short blond hair and androgynous look. My girlfriend, Stephanie
Fields ,a model with Plaza Five, suggested I get my hair cut very short. Vidal
Sassoon of London, who had cut Mary Quant’s hair, had just opened an ultra
modern salon in Manhattan. I discussed it with Eileen who was all for it. She
made an appointment and they Sassoon was delighted with me. I became a “house
model”, meaning I would get free haircuts and color in exchange for allowing
them to use my pictures in the salon and for the hair magazines.
Above Eileen Ford with 60s Supermodel Babette 1966
Sassoon chopped off all my hair and created a cute little head hugging Beatle
type haircut on me, very close cropped and longer on one side than the other.
Well, I hated it! I thought I looked like a pinhead and refused to be seen in
public without a long full fall, which I attached to the top of my head with
pins and combs or a long dark wig with bangs.
Sassoon cuts Linda Morand's hair
The winter of 66 was a cold one in New York City. I still had to walk
everywhere. I had bought an authentic US Navy pea-coat and a pair of navy sailor
pants at the Army/Navy store and three ribbed Poor-Boy turtleneck sweaters, in
red, white and blue. The long wig kept my head very warm. This was my uniform.
It was very chic and, more importantly, very warm.
 One day I was sent to show my portfolio to Gosta Petersen, a top photographer,
whose wife was the fashion editor of the NY Times. He worked with all the top
models. His studio was all the way up on Eighty-Sixth Street and Lexington
Avenue. I had to walk there from Penn Station almost sixty blocks in a light,
stinging snow. I was freezing my butt off by the time I got there. Future
photographer superstar Arthur Elgort was Gosta Petersen’s young assistant at
that time.
Gosta said, “I like your cheek bones and big eyes, but you have way too much
hair. If you had short hair, I would book you for a ten page spread in
Mademoiselle.” He and Artie were shocked into laughter when I ripped that
hairpiece off my head in two seconds flat, revealing the ultra-chic little
asymmetrical Sassoon cut.
 Gosta picked up the phone, called Eileen personally and booked me 10 pages. That
phone call changed my life forever. I was now in the big time. As soon as people
were told that I was going to appear in Mademoiselle I was a hot property.
Suddenly my phone was ringing off the hook with prestigious modeling jobs. I was
featured on the cover of Mademoiselle, with the ‘do’.
The Sassoon Look caught on with editors and overnight I on the covers
 and/or
the pages of many fashion and beauty magazines in a period of about 6 months. My
new look helped to promote the Betsey Johnson, Mini-Skirts, Go-Go boots, and the
whole Mod Look, Carnaby Street/London Invasion. I was a favorite with designers
who sold their clothes in the ultra-chic boutique Paraphernalia. I was also
booked for many of the sought after "bread and butter" jobs like Sears and
mcCalls Patterns. It was fun running around the city with my over stuffed
accessories bag, filled with shoes, hats, gloves, wigs, hairpieces, fake nails,
false eyelashes, and a selection of shoes, scarves, and jewelry. In those
days models had to be hairdressers, make-up artists and stylists. Some models
were booked more for their ability to style a shot than for their looks.
One day Eileen called me into her office and introduced me to a man named
Francoise Lano, a top agent from Paris.
Soon after that I went to Paris. My adventures were just beginning.
I would go on to find adventure and excitement all over the Continent, meeting
princes and aristocats, musicians and movie stars and some very interesting just
plain folks. I made lasting friendships, learned three more languages and met
the love of my life.
 
Linda Morand and Future Husband Philippe Viscount Forquet de Dorne
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