FOR CHRISTMAS OF 1966, I remember being taken by my Father to visit a relative’s house. It was probably during December, as we often made the rounds of seeing great Aunts and distant cousins during Christmas season. At one stop, I was introduced to my second or third cousin, Molly.
I remember her as, um, reserved. And so darn pretty as to make me wish I wasn’t so darned, you know, reserved. I was perhaps 15, she perhaps 16. I was my usually awkward self with girls—any girl but especially pretty girls. I remember nothing else.
Later I found out that her big sister Colleen was one of the most famous models in the world. This was news to me: as a ‘guy’ I knew lots about baseball and comic books and science fiction novels but nothing about the world of fashion and the silly magazines that girls read.
Cousin Molly in the May 1966 issue of Teen, meaning she was already successful when I met her when we were both teenagers.
As my group of Umphreds were not close to the Corbys, I was never shown any photos of Colleen so I really didn’t know what she looked like. The only model I knew of before Twiggy (and her excessive skinniness and too-short hair) was Donna Loren, and then only because she also made records and movies and so popped up in the pop music magazines of the mid-’60s.
To make my point: I was so underwhelmed by modeldom that Janet, my girlfriend of more than two years during high school, never knew that I had a model for a cousin. It was only that the Internet made so much previously obscure information so readily available that I caught onto the beauty and the success of my cuz.
This photo was taken in 1964 as Colleen was about to take over the world of teen fashion. It is iconic: she is pretty, perky, and pixieish, traits that would be her signature to many fans, especially young girls who followed her in Seventeen and other magazines. This was a full-page ad for Cover Girl make-up in the April 1965 issue of Ingenue.
Colleen Corby, superstar model
This is a brief intro to Colleen Corby, superstar model. The photos I selected were a combination of those I thought representational of Colleen’s career, those I thought representational of the Mod and Swinging Sixties, and those I found particularly lovely.
The images are arranged in rough chronological order, but I paid attention to layout and design so that this page is visually interesting.
‘TeenJuly 1965
August 1965
I frankly don’t remember Teen magazine but since it was a chick ‘zine, I probably did no more than glance at it once or twice. The only thing noted on either cover that would have interested me would have been the piece on the Beatles’ second movie.
December 1964
March 1966
February 1967
May 1967
September 1968
February 1969
This would not be a complete article if Colleen’s lengthy and mutually profitable association with Seventeen magazine was not acknowledged.
She looks years (and many life-experiences) older on the cover of the April 1965 issue of Ingenue. This is one of my favorites photos, possibly because it reminds me of Natalie Wood, on whom I had a HUGE crush in the ’60s.
This photo was taken in the second half of the decade and is quintessentially Sixties. The look that Colleen has here—especially the hair and make-up—seems to predict the look of Linda Ronstadt and Natalie Wood of the early ’70s.
Colleen and Molly in a scene that would be drowned out prior to publication by the PC Police of the 21st century. But if emulating Native American culture isn’t a part of the Sixties, then neither is Op Art and Dayglo!
The final two images below, along with the header at the top of this page, are black and white and yet capture her loveliness better than most of the full-color photos.
Finally, two things need to be addressed: first, when I brought the topic of visiting the Corbys forty years before to my Father’s attention (about ten years ago), he assured me that it had never happened! I assured him that the only way that I could have known about Colleen’s sister prior to the Internet was through this having occurred.
In hindsight, it is possible that I did visit relatives who were not Corbys but was accompanied by my grandparents and who were also being visited by Molly and her parents.
So, Cousin Molly, if you are reading this and it rings any bells, please add a comment below assuring me that this memory is so or that I need to be on the alert for early onset Alzheimers.
Two-page spread from the February 1969 issue of Seventeen. Sitting: Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, and unknown model. Standing: Colleen Corby, Grace Slick, Spencer Dryden, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, and unknown model. I think this would have been a more interesting image had the three models been long, dark-haired Gracie lookalikes.
Neal, I really enjoyed this. Your articles are wonderful when they don’t devolve into tiresome political screeds. Thanks for sharing this!
MZW
Thanks! Ah but the politics would appear neither tiresome nor screedish if you merely let loose your embrace of the Dark Side and allowed yourself to bask in the warmth of the All Seeing Eye of the Wholly Grommett . . .
NU
That is some beautiful time-travel...in more ways than one.
Still trying to get my head around the Airplane posing for Seventeen...in 1969. It’s great...just not how I pictured the Age somehow!
JR
Well, the Airplane were never as “underground” or “countercultural” as the Dead or Quicksilver and there really weren’t a lot of avenues for broad-based exposure then. Once you made it with the Crawdaddy/Rolling Stone crowd, where was there to go?
And just as there were a lot of bungholes in the “alternative” scene, there were a lot of groovy people in the established media.
Remember, Gracie was from a well-off family, good college, arty, a wannabe filmmaker, a former part-time model. Alas, all undone by LSD . . .
Times have changed. Up against the mall, motherf*ckers!
NU
I too remember a visit to a house in Wilkes Barre where there were photos around picturing a young, good looking girl who we were told was our cousin who was a very successful model
That visit was and still is the only time I was given a connection to my bloodline and Colleen .....so I have to agree with you that it really happened to us.
Hi. I am your cousin too! My grandmother and Colleen’s grandfather were brother and sister. I do genealogy and your last name comes up in records. Hi!!!!
KATHLEEN
Well, hello, cousin! Thanks for finding us and thanks for leaving the comment.
Where do you live?
NEAL
Needless to say, Charlie is my brother. He is one of two owners of a company that produces Mia Bella Hand Poured Gourmet Soy Candles (https://www.scent-team.com/).
He is not always so brief as the comment above would lead you to believe:
http://tuneinunlockattain.com/2011/03/07/february-28-2011-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-charlie-umphred-of-scent-sations-%E2%80%93-master-key-coaching-teleseminars-32/
Hi Neal,
I just thought I would let you know that I have a website devoted to your beautiful cousin, Colleen. If you want to check it out, it’s colleencorby.net. I have pics from pretty much her entire career (a remarkably long 20+ years). I was a big fan of Colleen when I was a kid. I discovered her in the Sears and Penney’s catalogs of the Seventies. (I was too young in the Sixties to even know she existed, and I only found out her name about 10 or 15 years ago.)
CARL
Just returned from colleencorby.net and I have to say that is a lovely tribute indeed to very lovely lady.
If I could reproduce photos here in the Comments section I would use the one of Colleen at the beach from the April 1969 issue of Seventeen magazine (http://colleencorby.net/colleen1969/seventeen1969/fashion1seventeen-apr1969.html).
She is perfection!
Thanks for turning me on to your site!
NEAL
PS: I also liked the typewriter ad from ’65 (http://colleencorby.net/colleen1965/magazines1965/olympiatypewriter-ingenuedec1965.html)
Great article!!
R
Thankee kindlee.
I am going to rewrite it and add LOTS more pictures.
N
If I remember correctly, the model lounging in the purple outfit is Lucy Angle, another beauty from that era! Thanks for the happy walk down memory lane
CAROL
Thanks for the comment!
Glad you enjoyed the article.
I am not familiar with Lucy Angle so I looked her up: She had a part in the 1973 movie Elektra Glide in Blue, which sounds like it could be a psychedelic movie but is actually a cop movie with a young Robert Blake. I saw it forty-six years ago, another walk down memory lane.
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL
Neal, if you want to see the scene where Lucy Angle appears in that movie, I clipped it and posted it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62707zQnW0Y
Also, here’s a commercial featuring Colleen from 1965: youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDoXrQXvDY.
CARL
Thanks for the clip from Electra Glide in Blue! Great flirting scene: I always liked Robert Blake and I always admire men who are willing to use a little self-deprecating humor to a woo a beautiful woman.
Thanks for the commercial with Colleen: I was the first kid in my class with zits—and I didn’t just have zits, I had Z-I-T-S! all over my face—and my mother had me use Noxzema. After which I had the softest Z-I-T-S imaginable ...
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL
PS: These days, when I talk to young people—those a third my age—I find that they don’t understand flirting at all. Hell, some of them equate it with sexual harassment!
I always as girl of 14 wanted to look like colleen but my nickname was twiggy
LINDA
Thanks for the comment.
I imagine that a great many young women in the US wanted to look like Colleen at some time.
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL
PS: Twiggy was a pretty cool nickname for a while ...
As a young Fort Worth teen, I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. And it’s interesting that you compared her to Natalie Wood, because looking at her now in her teen photos—yes, that’s exactly who she resembled.
JANICE
Thank you for the comment.
I still consider Natalie Wood one of the most beautiful women ever to grace a movie screen. Needless to say, I have a similar opinion regarding cousin Coleen.
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL