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| Fawn Silver aka Fawn Silverton aka Fanya Carter in Millionaire. |
Hugh Hefner really struck on a magic formula when he launched Playboy in 1953. Obviously, the main selling point was sex. But Hef's notorious magazine didn't just offer sex. It offered sex with class and style. Through its regular column, "The Playboy Philosophy," and other articles, the magazine espoused an entire lifestyle that included good wine, expensive stereo equipment, hip jazz, and sharp clothing. This was porn with a veneer of dignity. Hef wanted only the best for Playboy—the best looking women, the best writers, the best photographers, the best cartoonists. Even Stephen King, in the introduction to his anthology Skeleton Crew (1985), said it was a longtime goal to get a story in Playboy.
Naturally, with a success like this, there were imitators. Every MAD needs its Cracked. One wannabe Playboy, a magazine called Millionaire, lasted from 1964 to 1967. Not bad, all things considered. It blatantly copied from Hefner's formula. While each Playboy had its Playmate of the Month, Millionaire had its Heiress of the Month. For its May 1966 issue, the Heiress du mois was one Fawn Silverton. You probably know her better as Fawn Silver, the petulant and pouty Princess of Darkness in Orgy of the Dead (1965). In that Ed Wood-scripted, Steve Apostolof-directed burlesque show, Fawn is basically the Ed McMahon to Criswell's Johnny Carson.
Here's Fawn on the cover the magazine. Would this be enough to convince you to cough up 75 cents? (That's nearly seven bucks in today's money.)
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| All of those tycoons appear nude, by the way. |
For those who don't know, Fawn's real name is Fanya Carter, and she came from wealth. Her father, Walter Carter, was once the head of Republic Pictures. In the mid-1960s, Fanya assumed a fake name and landed a few screen credits, Orgy being the most memorable. She soon got out of show business—way out of show business—and pursued an education. Today, she's a psychologist in Santa Monica and does not talk about or acknowledge her scandalous past. Here's a more recent picture of Dr. Carter, along with the cover a book she wrote about her father.
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| Fanya Carter; a biography of Fanya's father. |