1964 At this stage, after winning 1 million for Pamela Mason, Marvin Michelson has a steadily increasing clientele, consisting primarily of Beverly Hills and Hollywood women against rich and powerful men; most often their husbands. Paige Young is one of his divorcing clients who has no money to pay him up front.

Later this year, Michelson represents legendary lyricist Alan Lerner’s estranged wife, Micheline.

Mark F. Segal came from a fairly well off Sherman Oaks family. Father Harold Segal owned a thriving car business according to friend and potential car thief Rex Ramsey. Still he wasn’t in a league with rich and famous My Fair Lady composer Alan Lerner.

Both men did have a couple things in common: estranged wives represented by rising lawyer Marvin M. Michelson. The other is being found in contempt of court by failing to pay alimony to these estranged wives.

1965-Marvin Michelson goes hard on Mark Segal this year. For every month Mark fails to make his monthly alimony payment to Paige and the lawyer’s fees, Michelson files a contempt suit in court.

And it turned out to be all 12 months. (documents in collection of author.)

Peter Gowland

1963-1965 It was around this time I think, Paige meets and models for famous “glamour” or pin-up photographer Peter Gowland. She may have met Alice Gowland later, 67/68.

Richard Sample confirmed to me that Paige had known and modeled for Gowland already several years before her Playboy centerfold issue was released in November of 1968. See chapter on Richard Sample interview.

The Gowlands would produce Paige’s Playboy magazine centerfold published in November of 1968. 

By the 1960s, LA native Peter Gowland and his wife Alice, had already enjoyed a thriving photography business for over a decade.

In the 1950s:

They were one of a small number husband and wife pin-up photography teams in the Los Angeles area. The Gowlands were part of a larger group of male glamour photographers; many based in the LA area.

The “pin-up model” was transforming along with photography styles and equipment, lighting, and appeal as a hobby.

.Peter and Alice Gowland were at the forefront of the genre and the business.

Their specialty was selling these photos for use in different types of men’s magazines,  girlie calendars, mainstream commercial work and many photography instructional books.

Peter himself was often featured in magazines for amateur photographers, he not only built his own outdoor sets by hand at his Rustic Canyon home, he invented a large format 4×5 camera he named the Gowlandflex. Throughout the 50s and 60s, Peter and Alice Gowland photographed many well-known glamour models such as the legendary model and nudist Diane Webber. Webber appears on the latest paperback edition of Gay Talese’s book: Thy Neighbor’s Wife, one of the first books I read about the hidden side of Hugh Hefner and Playboy. And the first place I learned about Diane Webber.

Warner Brother TV starlet Saundra Edwards is mentioned in the above article as a Gowland favorite model. Saundra was a Playmate for March 1957 and the photographed by the Gowlands. Saundra would go one to kill her husband, actor Tom Gilson, in self-defense when he drunkenly approached Saundra during a separation, demanding to see his son. This happened in Oct. of 1962 in Van Nuys. Below is one of many articles on the incident. Saundra was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Saundra Edwards already had two children by a previous marriage.

Other notable models who worked for the Gowlands were model and swimsuit designer Barbara Osterman, mid-century pop culture phenomenon  Vicki “The Back” Dougan, Julie Newmar (pre-Cat Woman) Tina Louise (pre-Gilligan’s Island) cult movie actress Edy Williams, starlets Yvette Mimeux and Venetia Stevenson. And many more.

Credit Michael for this information and history glamourphotographers.yolasite.comsite.com Please checkout his website for an in-depth discussion of the Gowlands and other photographers from the classic era of postwar glamour/pin-up photography and mass media.

The Gowlands produced dozens of photography instruction manuals from the 50s through the 80s at least. Some were magazine format and others were hardback books. 3 examples of magazine format below

Many of these instruction manuals pushed boundaries for nudity (topless) standards or simulation of nudity, (naked back turned toward the camera, almost see-through garments etc.) for the times.

The Gowlands did publish photos with obvious frontal nudity in a small number of instructional books

Mainly though, it was swimsuit attire.

Peter Gowland is well-known (Alice less so) for contributing to the Playboy magazine Playmate feature in the 50s and 60s.

Most fans know Paige Young was the last of the Gowland’s Playmates with her feature in November of 1968.

Peter Gowland has has a type of fame, both then and now, but not one that is mass fame. He has more of a cult status now.

However, Gowland was more mainstream in the 50s and 60s when non-nude pin up models were used in a myriad of ways in mass media culture and had been throughout the 1950s.

Beauty contests and media coverage of them flourished in the 1950s and 60s.

Southern California was a hub for all kinds of beauty contests and displays of physicality; for example the Venice Beach “muscle” scene.

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