Connie Mason | |
---|---|
Playboy centerfold appearance | |
June 1963 | |
Preceded by | Sharon Cintron |
Succeeded by | Carrie Enwright |
Personal details | |
Born | Connie Snow August 24, 1937 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
Connie Mason (born August 24, 1937) is an American model and actress who was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1963 issue. Mason then acted in the gore movies pioneered by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs! Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. She was also a Playboy Bunny at the Chicago club. [1]
Mason was born in 1937 in Washington, D.C., and began her career in the early 1960s. She attended a private school for girls in Danville, Virginia. At the age of 17, she moved to Florida with her family. She was managing the cosmetics department for Jordan Marsh in Miami.
There, her parents went to the opening of the new Playboy Club. They were guests of their friend Tony Roma. Roma suggested to her father (who built custom homes) that his daughter apply to be a bunny at the newly opened Playboy club. Playboy clubs were all the rage across the country and in London, England. He said they were looking for pretty girls with great personalities and good figures. Mason was hired as the "camera bunny", and was a huge hit with all the customers because of her "bubbly personality".
Mason then moved to Chicago, and met Hugh Hefner and moved into his mansion and went to work at the club as the bunny photographer. He asked her if she would be interested in testing with the magazine's staff photographer, to be featured as center fold for the popular Playboy magazine. She was chosen by Hefner to be Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1963 issue. Then, one night when she was working, Mason was introduced to fashion designer Oleg Cassini, Jackie Kennedy's personal designer. Cassini encouraged her to come to New York City, where he introduced her to the Eileen Ford Agency. The agency signed Mason, thus beginning a career in fashion modeling and national TV commercials.
Mason was discovered by director Herschell Gordon Lewis in 1963; she was cast in the starring role to work in the horror movie Blood Feast (1963) directed by him the same year. This was followed by the leading part in the film Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), also directed by Lewis.
She met and married Shelly Kasten in New York City, who was the entertainment director for all the Playboy Clubs. Mason had previously been married to actor Tony Young from 1958 to 1962. [2]
Playboy is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playmate Data Sheet", which lists her birthdate, measurements, turn-ons, and turn-offs. At the end of the year, one of the 12 Playmates of the Month is named Playmate of the Year (PMOTY). Every Playmate of the Month is awarded a prize of US$25,000 and each Playmate of the Year receives an additional prize of US$100,000 plus a car and other discretionary gifts. In addition, Anniversary Playmates are usually chosen to celebrate a milestone year of the magazine. The use of the word "Playmate" in a sexual sense did not originate with Playboy, and was seen at least as early as 1950 in Vue magazine.
A Playboy Bunny is a waitress who works at a Playboy Club and selected through standardized training. Their costumes were made up of lingerie, inspired by the tuxedo-wearing Playboy rabbit mascot. This costume consisted of a strapless corset teddy, bunny ears, black sheer-to-waist pantyhose, a bow tie, a collar, cuffs and a fluffy cottontail. In more recent Playboy Clubs, such as Sin City that was re-opened in 2006, Playboy bunnies wore slightly altered costumes that were based on the original bunny suit.
Blood Feast is a 1963 American splatter film. It was composed, shot, and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, written by Allison Louise Downe from an idea by Lewis and David F. Freidman, and stars Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Lyn Bolton. The plot focuses on a psychopathic food caterer named Fuad Ramses (Arnold) who kills women so that he can include their body parts in his meals and perform sacrifices to his "Egyptian goddess" Ishtar.
Herschell Gordon Lewis was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the "splatter" subgenre of horror films. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore", though his film career included works in a range of exploitation film genres including juvenile delinquent films, nudie-cuties, two children's films and at least one rural comedy. On Lewis' career, AllMovie wrote, "With his better-known gore films, Herschell Gordon Lewis was a pioneer, going further than anyone else dared, probing the depths of disgust and discomfort onscreen with more bad taste and imagination than anyone of his era."
The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club Room. Members and their guests were served food and drinks by Playboy Bunnies, some of whom were featured in Playboy magazine. The clubs offered name entertainers and comedians in the Club Rooms, and local musicians and the occasional close-up magician in the Living Rooms. Starting with the London and Jamaica club locations, the Playboy Club became international in scope.
Tina Marie Jordan is an American glamour model and actress. Jordan is the Playmate of the Month for March 2002 and a former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner.
Ashlyn Martin was the stage name of Laura Lynn Hale, a model and actress who was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its April 1964 issue. She was born in Dayton, Ohio.
Joyce Nizzari is an American model, dancer, and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its December 1958 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Bunny Yeager. She was born in The Bronx, New York and is of Italian descent.
Arline Hunter was an American actress and model. She was perhaps best known as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for August 1954. Her centerfold was the first not to be purchased from the John Baumgarth Co. by Hugh Hefner, and was instead photographed by Ed DeLong, who went on to become one of the more prolific Playboy photographers in the 1960s.
June Wilkinson is an English model and actress, known for her appearances in Playboy magazine and in films of the 1960s. One of the world's most-photographed women in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the height of her career she was called "the most photographed nude in America".