Paige Young Images Used In Art and Merchandise. Paintings By Paige Young. (Updated 04/21/23) Previously Unseen Images. (Some NSFW)

Autographed photo I purchased;seller found it going through the papers of his uncle who had died. It’s not photographic paper but more like a thin magazine paper. Paige’s signature is on the paper though, it’s not mimeographed.

I found on the next 4 slides on ebay. The seller had purchased them through an auction. They were labelled only as “Peter Gowland slides” and I happened to recognize Paige in a few of them.

The subtle amount of pubic hair in this shot would have not made it into a Playboy centerfold in 1968. But it would have been rejected anyway due to a cat’s tail captured along the bottom edge. Thank you for restoring and scanning the slides to:  glamourphotographers.yolasite.com

by artist Martha Rosler. Rosler created a series of collages appropriating images of Playmates from Playboy magazine. Rosler used this image of Paige from the January 1969 Playboy. Original image seen in chapter Playboy 1969.
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Outtake from Playmate photo shoot by Peter Gowland. (The stone pattern of Gowland’s pool was seen in numerous of his published photography instruction books over the decades.

Playboy calendar 1970.
Depiction of Paige Young with exaggerated breast size by Pop Art artist Mel Ramos. Ramos has painted many images based on Playmates, models and actresses, their bodies entwined or emerging out of consumer products with a brand label showing: soda bottles, candy bars, Velveeta cheese boxes, Chiquita bananas, cigarette packages, etc.
From Peter Gowland’s photographs, Paige’s image on left is in an incomplete set of 4 “Sip and Strip” glasses, very popular in the 1970s. You might have seen these on the shelves of a store like Spencer’s or perhaps in an ad from the back of a magazine There should be white painted negligee or bikini that covers the nudity until the drinker fills the glass with ice and liquid. On this set I purchased, the paint has been worn off. The Gowlands either sold the rights to these photos to the company who produced the novelty glasses OR he sold the rights to someone who then sold them to a production company.

November 1968. Paige Young was not the cover girl of her Playmate issue. Instead, the issue featured the Femlin character posed with the Presidential election theme. Robert F. Kennedy, favorite for the Democratic ticket only 5 months previous, was assassinated in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel on June 6th.
The Femlin was created and drawn by famous artist LeRoy Neiman who had a long association with Hugh Hefner and the magazine. The cover is a photo of a sculpted clay model of the character which was used in some issues and as a “cover model.”.The term Femlin is a portmanteau of female and gremlin and is likened to a 10 inch tall sprite. Playboy’s Tinkerbell.
Lid of Paige Young puzzle with “mini-centerfold.”

LA writer Duke Haney told me about the history of Playmate puzzles, one of them included the centerfold image of Paige Young.

“The successful Playmate puzzle series was released periodically, in groups of 4 Playmates at a time. Paige’s group included Cynthia Myers, Gwen Wong and DeDe Lind. It was released in 70/71.

Haney describes the lid of the Playmate puzzle.

“The mini-centerfold measures 3×6.5 and two were included with every puzzle. One was folded so that only the face of the girl was visible through the opaque cap on the can. This was so that the buyer knew which puzzle it was, which Playmate. There are four pictured on the can itself. Then there was another mini-centerfold inside the can. This one wasn’t creased like the one below the lid. These pictures were guides to be referenced while piecing together the puzzle. Only one would have been necessary but hey…”

Author Duke Haney
Finished puzzle of the Paige Young centerfold. Image courtesy of Duke Haney

Haney says Playmates “never received residuals, Playboy owned the photos outright.” And that “The last of the puzzles were released in 1973, so Paige would have certainly been alive when her puzzle was released.”

Thank you Duke for speaking with me, I appreciate it!

Richard Sample as painted by Paige Young. Courtesy of Richard Sample

*NOTE* All of images of Paige’s paintings that follow were publicly posted on Pinterest and/or Facebook.

“Monica and Gort” Paige’s friend from Malibu/Topanga, Monica Narveson.

The Laundress

High Noon.

Painting by Paige Young courtesy of Melanie Myers. Myers said that Paige “stretched her own canvases and mixed her own paint.”

A favorite Gowland model in the late 1950s: starlet Venetia Stevenson

To mark the 100th birthday of Peter Gowland ZEPHYR – Space for Photography in Mannheim & Reiss-Engelhorn Museums curated “Peter Gowland’s Girls,” the first international exhibition of his lifework.  “Peter Gowland’s Girls” showcases some 200 works selected from Peter Gowland’s estate, which comprises tens of thousands of superb prints and slides, including the most sensational, most elegant and most daring pictures from his unparalleled career as a pin-up photographer. The exhibition displays his portraits of stars like Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield, his work for “Playboy” and “Rolling Stone”, and his pictures for innumerable calendars and magazines from the 1940s to the 1970s. from petergowlandphotography.com

PETER GOWLAND’S GIRLS exhibit and book curated by Thom Schrimbock 2016

Photo below is from the book “Peter Gowland’s Girls.”

Labeled “Unknown”

Outtake from a Gowland a Playboy session. Peter Gowland. Compare to “Unknown” photo above.
Another scuba photo not published. Paige’s published centerfold scuba photos show her immersed in water wearing full scuba gear while her companion spears a sea creature.
This is the cover of an art book featuring a Martha Rosler collage. Paige Young appears in the upper right corner, mirroring Sally Sheffield, May 1969. Image is distorted due to enlarging.

Paige had some photo shoots published and distributed in 1970. Like the Playboy Calendar shown above.

One of the Gowlands long time employers, 1964-2002, was the Ohio-based Ridge Tool Company, a hand tool manufacturing company, using the “Ridgid” brand name.

Ridgid Tool Company became famous for its’  2-year calendars featuring images of bikini-clad models holding various tools made by Ridgid. I’m guessing Ridge sent these calendars every year to their tool purchasing clients.

Paige appears in the 69/70 edition.

Paige appeared in the 69/70 edition of the famous Rigdig Tool Calendar with fellow Playmates Reagan Wilson and Mercy Rooney (Merci Montello) below. The calendar does not identify them as Playmates. Collection of the author.
Playmate, model and starlet Reagan Wilson posed for Peter Gowland several times in the late 1960s.
Mercy Montello model/starlet was a favorite of the Gowlands and appeared in many of their instructional books, late 60s, early 70s. She worked as a Bunny at the Los Angeles Playboy Club. She married Mickey Rooney Jr. and appeared as a Playmate in December of 1972 under the name Mercy Rooney. She wanted to be an actress but appeared in only 4 really bad softcore 70s movies.

Many more models, starlets and Playboy Playmates were unnamed models in these Ridgid Tool calendars over the decades. One did go on to great fame: Raquel Welch.

From 1964 until 2002, Peter and Alice photographed models for the Ridgid Tool Calendar (Ridge Tool Company). Some of the models who appeared in those calendars include Raquel Welch, Stephanie Drake, Kathy McCullen, Cindy Margolis, and several Playboy Playmates, including Renee Tenison, Nikki Schieler, Barbara Moore, Heidi Sorensen and Penny Baker.

Michael at glamourphotographers.yolasite.com