A digital recreation of an article published in Eve magazine No3 from 1962
Those of us employed on this publication don’t consider ourselves as odd balls. But lately we have been glancing at one another very surreptitiously. Finally we decided to sit down and figure out why a group of people, such as we, should suddenly become suspicious of one another’s mental balance. We came to the conclusion that it all dated back to the first time that we used Sheba Britt as a model.
Now we are not going to cast aspersions on Sheba Britt, but she refers to everyone at the studio by some rather odd names. She calls me "The Shiek of Araby". Our lab man is now known as "Darius, King of Persia," and name of names she refers to our camera man as "Solomon, Emperor of Kings".
If something goes wrong during the shooting,’ she tells you that when she was the "Queen of Sheba" she would have had you beheaded for making such a foolish mistake. Don’t get us wrong, we love Sheba. But you can just imagine our relief at finding out that there wasn’t anything wrong with us. Sheba was just "Putting us on". We think!
She acts every inch the queen. Her bearing is very regal. She never refers to herself in the singular "I", but always in the royal "We". We first became acquainted with Sheba through an agent, known to us for years only as Abe. Well, he brought Sheba to our office he handed us a card with the engraving "Abdul of Messopotamia". We still call him Abe, and when we do he threatens to send us to the galleys. He’s a very nice guy, but he still doesn’t realize that Sheba has him on a royal merry go round.’
With all of her idiosyncrasies, Sheba is one of the top fashion and figure models around this big city. She has worked and is now working for all the top magazines. She has appeared on the covers of all the leading fashion magazines and that is almost impossible. In fact most models would give three inches of their chest measurement to appear on the cover of just one top fashion magazine. Sheba has modeled everything that there is to model. Shoes, stockings, girdles, slips, bras, dresses, slacks, make up, gloves, hats etc. etc. etc.
You may even have seen her on television. She has brushed her teeth, shampooed her hair, poured soap into a washing machine, and even smoked Cigarettes for television. All in all, Sheba is a very busy girl and if it amuses her to call people by some peculiar names, why should we stop her. After all a girl as busy as she has no time for movies or the theatre and if we can offer her a little entertainment it is our pleasure.
If she had the time, Sheba would like to date tall men. Not young men, and not old men. What she calls, "mature men of the world." Men involved in some sort of business seem to appeal to her more than anyone else. She feels that they have a sense of self importance that gives them assurance, and it transfers itself to her and makes her feel a little more special. Besides, mature men know how to treat a’ woman. When we asked her how a woman liked being treated she told us that a mature man wouldn’t have to ask that question. He would know. That put us in our place, and we didn’t try to make a date. God knows that we’re mature enough. Thirty two should be mature enough for anybody.
Her favorite modeling jobs are bathing suit ads. She loves figure modeling, but the bathing suit adstake her out of doors to a pool or to the ocean. She just loves swimming; She says that when she was the Queen of Sheba, the whole Mediterranean was her private lake. She’s a happy girl, let her have her fun.
She does not go for these modern dances at all. She considers the twist to be barbaric. The cha-cha is interesting, but she would rather dance up close to some very dreamy music like Star Dust or Blue Moon. The Lindy Hop is strictly taboo. She claims that her favorite instruments are the same as when she was Queen of you know what. And that if they haven’t changed after all of these centuries they never will. She still likes harps and lutes. (Harps and lutes, say it fast and it sounds as though you are ordering a fish dinner).
We tried to find out where Sheba actually did come from and just how old she really is, but nobody was able to give us any information. She speaks several languages, but she still doesn’t speak English with an accent. She doesn’t look to be more than twenty two or three years old. But looks are deceiving. She could be younger.
She told us that a man would be calling for her at the studio. We told her to leave the gentleman’s name with our receptionist. We will tell you the name she gave as you would never guess it in a million years. Alexander the Great. We thought she was putting us on again, but he really did come. Dressed in armor with sandies, spear and shield. He said he was Alexander the Great, but he looked just like Charlton Heston. He asked if we would like two tickets to the chariot races. We took the tickets, said goodbye to Sheba, and couldn’t wait until they got out of the studio.
By the way, we went to Madison Square Garden and saw a very exciting chariot race. All those people in their togas kept looking at us in our GGG suit and thought we were nuts. Oh well, all we can say is "Come back little Sheba".
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