PICTURE this: 'Every playboy, every Shah of Iran, every movie star, every rock 'n' roll star, they all wanted me. But it was just a really lonely time for me.' Thus is the 'tragic-beauty' self-portrait painted by the models who file forgettably through Michael Gross' warts-and-all history of the model business.
It begins in 1915 with John Robert Powers, a handsome man but a 'lousy actor'. After being paid the princely sum of US$30 to pose for a picture for a professional photographer, Powers came up with a plan to supply models for advertisements. He rounded up the telephone numbers and addresses of presentable friends - stunning looks not a requirement - and offered to supply his 'models' for catalogue photographers.
The book lumbers on through the early years when Powers' agency was the only one of its ilk and traces the slow development of competitors, including the powerful Ford agency.
A few themes reverberate throughout the 80-year history: inflated egos, frustrating naivety and a 'me-first' approach to life.
Almost every woman canvassed appears to bleat the same tired claim. An array of blondes, brunettes and redheads each adamantly informs us she is the most admired in her field, a ground-breaker, an individual, the inspiration for books, films and classic movies.
But the haunting similarity of each claim - and the insistence of each claimant - infuses them with a plaintiveness.
Many admit they gaze at the past through the fog of years spent on drugs. They drank and partied by night and sped through photo shoots by day.
