Posted on 07/10/2014 12:26:18 PM PDT by Borges
Eileen Ford, who co-founded Ford Models with her husband Jerry in 1946 – essentially inventing the modern modeling business, and exerting enormous influence on the world's views of human beauty – has died at 92.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
Whoa. One tough broad.
I thought that she did a great job, especially with the F150 and the F250.
Ford represented some of the best looking eye candy in the world.
May she rest in peace
I learned to drive a stick on a 1980 F150; very forgiving transmission.
Thanks Eileen!
“Ford had an exceptional eye for talent, but didn’t always get it right. “Grace Kelly and Marisa Berenson were among the models she rejected,” he says.”
She blew it there. Two extremely beautiful and photogenic women.
92? Must have been a Model T.
She probably saw a lot of wrecks and oddballs in her industry - it likely helped her have perspective.
NYC Story - Ford Models
Back in the 70’s Knoll Furniture (commercial) had a big roll out of their new “return to nature woolen upholstery and carpet fabrics”. As our design firm had just completed a multi floor contract on Park Avenue we received invitations to this cocktail hour gala event in the GM Building.
Knoll did it up right. Subdued lighting with baby spots on their product line, Moet in crystal flutes, very nice hors d’ouvres, and female and male models from Ford Models as servers in well fitted tuxes. Live chamber music topped off the elegant event.
But.
The PR spark at Knoll had decided that live sheep would top the evening and guarantee press and word of mouth coverage.
Just after the spiel about the woolen product line peaked a dozen sheep were released to wander the space. Now these weren’t your run of the mill stinky lambs. This was the Big Apple by God and they had been lathered, rinsed, shampooed, and curried and blow dried to a fair the well. Never had such pampered sheep appeared in Manhattan. If one of these sheep had been chosen to co-star with Gene Wilder I would not have been surprised.
Well, sheep will do what sheep do no matter how pampered, so it was no surprise to me that calling ovine cards were dropped left and right. You’re probably thinking, “what a disaster!”.
Not so. The Ford models rose to the occasion and with perfect nonchalance smoothly dipped the emptied crystal flutes scooped up the offending objects and glided from the space with many of the guests none the wiser.
Ford Models saved the evening. Worth the price of admission.
I learned to drive a stick on a 1980 F150”
I would suspect that a lot of gals also learned this way.
Marisa Berenson
Extremely beautiful as Lady Lyndon.
Eileen Ford, who co-founded Ford Models with her husband Jerry in 1946
Their motto: Making ordinary women hate their bodies since 1946.
Wow! What a story! Yes, Ford models were the greatest - although as a NYer watching them run through the streets with their gigantic portfolio briefcases - they appeared very odd-looking to me. More like giraffes than human beings. Photography made them into goddesses.
RIP.
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