Naked as a Jaybird and loving it
A true milestone in fine art publishing. Excerpt from the book by Dian Hanson
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Johnny Castano says, "Milt Luros used to say to me, 'Johnny, when the couples start getting it on, let 'em go. Don't stop 'em.' Bob Reitman would say, 'We can't use that hard stuff,' but Milt brought me in his office and said, 'Look, you shoot whatever they're doing, we'll put it away for later.' He knew things were changing."
Indeed they were. Stan Sohler, fed up with philosophical impurities in the new Jaybird, left in late '68 to work with Lange at Elysium.
Without Sohler as conduit to the camps, Jaybird abandoned nudist models altogether. "We needed so much product and the nudists weren't cooperating," Reitman explained. "That's when we set out to hire photographers and models to bring us the hot stuff. We brought in Stan Grossman, our resident hippie; Paul Johnson, to me the best Jaybird photographer; Orm Longstreet, who did a lot of the photos for the girlie magazines; Johnnie Castano from back east, and Nippie Philips. They were all on staff, no more freelancers.
"We set up our shoots ourselves, got our models from the agencies, picked up our film at American Art in the morning and dropped the exposed film back at American Art in the evening for processing", says Nippie Philips. "We didn't own any of it and never saw the finished photos unless we looked in the magazines. We didn't make a lot of money but it provided great security and creative freedom for a young man like me, because we were on salary and didn't have to worry about whether we could sell the shoot. We just had fun."
"I made sure the modeling agencies only brought us a clean type of model," says Reitman. "That was what we wanted: new faces, and we got 'em by the bushel basket."
In 1968 Reb Sawitz was dividing his time between rent collecting and The Jokers motorcycle club. He fell into nude model management while collecting unpaid wages for some female tenants behind in their rent. "The girls kept saying they couldn't pay their rent 'cause this guy wouldn't pay them their money", says Sawitz, "I decided I was going to be the big bad guy and go out and collect for 'em. It turned out they were photographers who weren't paying these girls for nude modeling-not Jaybird, though, Milton Luros paid his bills." As did the deadbeat photographers when tattooed Reb showed up on his bike. Soon he was working full time as a bill collector for the model agent."Then he quit paying, I said 'Screw you', moved a block away and opened my own agency".
Reb's Pretty Girl International provided models for all the Jaybird photographers from '69 to '72. "I'd walk up to them on the street and ask them if they wanted to be in Playboy or Penthouse, 'cause they didn't know what Jaybird was. I also advertised in hippie newspapers. Most of the people I got were hippies. We got paid $25 to $50 a day. I was one of the models too. The first shoot, we were out in the desert up on top of a tractor. Two, four people up on a tractor for Stan Grossman. Stan was bi-sexual and kind of a fruitloop."
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Johnny Castano says, "Milt Luros used to say to me, 'Johnny, when the couples start getting it on, let 'em go. Don't stop 'em.' Bob Reitman would say, 'We can't use that hard stuff,' but Milt brought me in his office and said, 'Look, you shoot whatever they're doing, we'll put it away for later.' He knew things were changing."
Indeed they were. Stan Sohler, fed up with philosophical impurities in the new Jaybird, left in late '68 to work with Lange at Elysium.
Without Sohler as conduit to the camps, Jaybird abandoned nudist models altogether. "We needed so much product and the nudists weren't cooperating," Reitman explained. "That's when we set out to hire photographers and models to bring us the hot stuff. We brought in Stan Grossman, our resident hippie; Paul Johnson, to me the best Jaybird photographer; Orm Longstreet, who did a lot of the photos for the girlie magazines; Johnnie Castano from back east, and Nippie Philips. They were all on staff, no more freelancers.
"We set up our shoots ourselves, got our models from the agencies, picked up our film at American Art in the morning and dropped the exposed film back at American Art in the evening for processing", says Nippie Philips. "We didn't own any of it and never saw the finished photos unless we looked in the magazines. We didn't make a lot of money but it provided great security and creative freedom for a young man like me, because we were on salary and didn't have to worry about whether we could sell the shoot. We just had fun."
"I made sure the modeling agencies only brought us a clean type of model," says Reitman. "That was what we wanted: new faces, and we got 'em by the bushel basket."
In 1968 Reb Sawitz was dividing his time between rent collecting and The Jokers motorcycle club. He fell into nude model management while collecting unpaid wages for some female tenants behind in their rent. "The girls kept saying they couldn't pay their rent 'cause this guy wouldn't pay them their money", says Sawitz, "I decided I was going to be the big bad guy and go out and collect for 'em. It turned out they were photographers who weren't paying these girls for nude modeling-not Jaybird, though, Milton Luros paid his bills." As did the deadbeat photographers when tattooed Reb showed up on his bike. Soon he was working full time as a bill collector for the model agent."Then he quit paying, I said 'Screw you', moved a block away and opened my own agency".
Reb's Pretty Girl International provided models for all the Jaybird photographers from '69 to '72. "I'd walk up to them on the street and ask them if they wanted to be in Playboy or Penthouse, 'cause they didn't know what Jaybird was. I also advertised in hippie newspapers. Most of the people I got were hippies. We got paid $25 to $50 a day. I was one of the models too. The first shoot, we were out in the desert up on top of a tractor. Two, four people up on a tractor for Stan Grossman. Stan was bi-sexual and kind of a fruitloop."
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