The Matriarch of Supermodels

The last place that I thought to find inspiration for a post is on the obituary pages of a newspaper, to wit, The Star-Ledger.  I don’t often read obituaries, usually flipping over those pages onto other stuff.

Who wants to read about death, especially in the middle of summer when the weather prompts us towards other interests?  However, life precedes death and, in a way, an obituary – if carefully written – is, through words, a celebration of a person’s life.

The obit that I stumbled across yesterday heralds the life of a person who was so full of uniqueness, so rich in character, and who appeared to have been so resolute in not giving up the high ground in her search for success and in her attainment of it, that it deserves a close read – even a second pass in order to savor her accomplishments,

which, in this case were those achieved by Eileen Ford, who, beginning in 1946, together with her husband, Jerry, forged the most successful modeling agency in New York City.

Ford’s uncanny and nearly infallible propensity for selecting just the right “girls,” as she called them, were not the only elements that led to her fame.  She applied steadfast rules of ethical personal conduct for her aspiring supermodels when they were away from the runway and photo shoots.

Imagine!  A business based not only on talent, but on Ford’s enforcement of rigid criteria for acceptable personal behavior – a novel concept, one that would eventually hit the wall of the sexual revolution in the 1960’s and blow right through it.  Egad!  How did she ever manage that?

Ford is quoted as emphasizing that “Models are a business and they have to treat themselves as a business, which means they have to take care of themselves and give up all the young joys.”

She made sure of that by personally “enforcing high moral standards in an industry that had a reputation for exploiting its workers.”   She is said to have “often acted as a surrogate parent to the girls she accepted,” having some stay at her home “to keep a close eye on them so they’d stay out of trouble.”  It’s reported that “rebels who stayed out late were sometimes sent packing.”

It worked.  Cheryl Tiegs, Ali MacGraw, Margaux Hemingway, Sharon Stone, Brooke Shields, Melanie Griffith and Christie Brinkley are but a short list of women who achieved success not only in modeling, but some of them through subsequent movie careers.

Eileen Ford’s career spanned over 60 years.  She passed away at 92.  You go, girl!

EDITS:  Title changed @ 2:45 PM today, & hyperlink under Eileen Ford redirected.