The mysterious life and death of the first Playboy Playmate in glasses
I was thinking today: who was the first woman in eyewear I can remember that struck me as deeply sexy? I almost immediately recalled a Playboy Playmate from the 1960s, smiling, bookish looking, hair piled atop her head, white negligee forming a filmy canopy over the body of a fertility goddess. It was a study in contrasts and therefore striking.
I had seen it as a boy in an anniversary issue’s retrospective of past Playmates. Who was she?
I did a Google search and discovered her name was Fran Gerard, Playmate of the Month for March 1967. After looking at pictures from that shoot (I now notice she was wearing non-prescription eyeglasses) I became curious as to what ever happened to her.
Some Playmates have been famously tragic like Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, Anna Nicole Smith and Dorothy Stratten. Some just famous like Jenny McCarthy. Others have had unusual resumés like Victoria Vetri who played Isis in the Star Trek episode “Assignment: Earth” and later did time for shooting her husband. Still others have been notably interesting like Rock and Roll chick Bebe Buell (who I have the pleasure of knowing).
But Fran Gerard basically disappeared… and then she died at 37. That’s all.
If you have a bit of time and the inclination you can fall down a rabbit hole trying to solve mysteries on the internet. But this was all I found, which originated on a Wikipedia “Talk” page:
UNCONFIRMED BIOGRAPHICAL DATA–PLEASE CONFIRM BEFORE USING:
Fran Gerard’s real name was Fran Cavender. Born Frances Anna Camuglia, she married Jack L. Cavender, 37 years old, in 1966. The marriage only lasted 7 months. Fran Camuglia lived in the Los Angeles area and was a member of the Granada Hills High School class of 1966. Fran and Jack Cavender divorced in January 1967, shortly before her Playboy centerfold appeared. She remarried in 1970 in Las Vegas to Maximilian Anthony Rey, of New Mexico. Little is known about either of her husbands. She died in Fountain View, California on May 30, 1985. Her date of birth, given as March 23, 1948 on the Playboy website, may actually have been March 24, according to one record.
You start asking questions, like how did a high school girl come to marry a 37 year old guy before graduation? Why did nothing follow the Playboy appearance, not even a single bit part or other modeling appearance? What was the reason she died at the age of 37?
I’d simply wanted to write a blog post about sexy women in eyewear. Instead I find myself pondering a gloomy enigma.
Fran Gerard as she appeared in Playboy as Miss March 1967.
More eyewear stuff next week.
Adding another bit to the unconfirmed data above: I believe Jack Cavender was some kind of two-bit talent agent in Los Angeles who had a small hole-in-the wall agency that specialized in strippers, go-go girls, and nude modeling assignments, like girls to pose for photo clubs, and that he would take out small ads in the back pages of the LA FREE PRESS and the local trade papers looking for girls. This is all IIRC and maybe somebody can verify it; I wasn’t certain enough to add it to the Wikipedia page, back when there was a Fran Gerard Wikipedia page.
You’re right. She’s only mentioned in the 1967 Playmates page. And that article seems to “fall within the scope of the WikiPorn Project” which feels unfortunate. All things considered that photo shoot was more art than anything – just like a lot of vintage glamor and pin up photography.
A woman like that is the only proof I need that Evolution just couldnt be true.
Playmate 42, 1 of 50 collectible Playboy magazine photos from the 2010 video game Mafia II – although it’s actually set in 1945/51 (and also has radio songs from later too).
Her’s is the hottest pic I found, although I only have 16. Probably the best set of video game collectibles in history – worth the effort.
It’s actually from Mafia 3. Set in the late 1960’s after Lincoln Clay comes back from Vietnam.
Wrong. It’s also found on Mafia II, an earlier released game obviously.
Thanks, interesting indeed.
Thank you. This post has actually gotten a lot of comments, but many are off-color (though highly complimentary of Miss Camuglia’s beauty and charms) and I’m reluctant to unfilter them. This is a family friendly blog, after all.
One thing is certain: she’s not forgotten.
Fran was a classmate of mine at Granada Hills High School. We sat next to each other in a home-ec class. She would tell me several times that after she graduated she was going to be a Playboy Playmate. I would say “sure Fran”!
Well she was serious and was the centerfold the following March. Fran was very nice and I was so sad to hear of her death at such a young age.
What was she like? Can you shed any more light?
She had the most luscious big tits of them all. Beautiful girl.
I was active in a number of Playmate shrines on Yahoo a decade or so ago and we gradually developed a list of the Top Dozen of All-Time. Fran Gerard just made it–Others were: Marilyn Lange, Cynthia Myers, Alana Soares, Janet Lupo, Petra Verkaik , Kimberly McArthur, Patti Farinelli, Melinda Windsor, Candy Loving, Miriam Gonzalez, and Roberta Vasquez. Stellar Company!
You’re exactly right she had the most beautiful tits I’ve ever seen
The glasses turned her into some Kookville, USA Amazon. A pretty but not precious boner Queen. The unbelievably large,.unbelievably soft tits with the salami aureole, the big, crazy hair,.the slim waist, the perfect ass,.the “get a load of this, big boy” expressions, in toto,.the hottest Playmate of all time.
Correction: Victoria Vetri did shoot her husband in 2010, but he survived. She got 9 years in state prison.
You’re right. Duly corrected.
Victoria Vetri did NOT do that scene from Star Trek it was April Tatro. Tatro herself was contacted by The Trek Files and confirmed she played Isis in human form for “Assignment: Earth.” According to the sheet, Tatro was budgeted to be paid the standard rate for all the extras of $29.15 for the day, plus the cost for time for being fitted with her costume and body makeup. An additional production report unearthed by The Trek Files shows her adjusted rate of $84.51.
Interesting.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Camuglia&GSfn=Frances&GSiman=1&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=164995527&df=all&
She was very lovely.
Answers.com says she committed suicide. No details or references to support the claim
I saw that. I have no idea who edits that. With no sources or further information, I’m not sure how much weight that carries.
If you search Frances Anna Camuglia on find a grave web sight it lists her mother and father names and shows her head stone. She is buried in Santa Ana, Ca. She also had a sibling but their name is not given.
That information is public record. I recall coming across it when I first wrote this blog post.
What many are curious about is the narrative beneath the facts.
As someone who does eyewear, she’s the first woman who comes to mind when I think of glasses actually making someone more sexy. As such, for me she’s iconic.
She only did one photo shoot over 50 years ago, but she was memorable.
Found her mother Jesse’s obit on line from 2016. She had an older sister Louise and a younger brother and sister Rosario and Jeanette. Her father Frank has a remembrance page without an obit but with pictures of his family. There are two labeled 1958 and 1982 that shows Fran and her siblings. Reading the comments on her mother’s obit page it is hard to imagine her committing suicide.
Found her mother Jesse’s obit on line from 2016. Fran had an older sister Louise and a younger sister and brother Jeanette and Rosario. Her father Frank has a remembrance page without obit, but with many pictures of his family. There is one from 1958 of mother, father and kids and an other from 1982 of the family. In the 1982 picture I think Fran is on the far right.
From the messages left on her mother’s obit page it is hard to imagine her committing suicide.
The thought experiment blog has an article on her with her Playmate spread and many other pictures.
Yeah, I read the obituary as well. I realize she had/has family out there, but at the end of the day, they’re private citizens, and I write a blog about eyewear.
She was sexy, of course, but there was also something more that’s made those images evergreen. As I said in the post, her looks presented a study in contrasts. Your average, wholesome, bookish, All-American fertility goddess next door. Those images are also locked in the amber of when they were shot – that giddy salient between the arrival of the Beatles and the Tate LaBianca murders. They’re coy, but also, somehow… kind of innocent. There’s a lot going on in those photos, beyond the very obvious.
When I wrote this post, I didn’t realize how many people found the images compelling. I doubt anyone would be reading this now if they didn’t care. Perhaps one day, a friend or family member will come across this blog, and share her story.
I was a morning paperboy in 1967.
I ran across the “Playboy” edition with Fran Gerard as I did with other editions;
through a left open window at a college fraternity.
An irony, perhaps is that the accompanying article mentioned Dorothy Parker’s quote, “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.”
I grew out of centerfold and into humorous literature.
I’m wondering whether the Playboy was within easy reach, or whether you actually had to scamper through the window to pilfer it?
Of course, your choice of target indicated you had good taste. And it introduced you to the Algonquin Round Table, too, so all’s well that ends well.
Anyone know how she died? I’m researching hard to find out about the only 1967 playmate who died young.
I must be the only Brazilian who is interested in Playboys of the sixties, specifically.
Believe me, more people are interested than you think.
Agora São dois
Hello my friend, 2022 !!! from Greece, did you finally learn from what he died of?
I found literally all the info you were looking for here. Yes, she commited suicide
What’s your source for that?
It says this on find-a-grave but anyone could have written that.
I realize Fran was a nude model, but she was still someone’s daughter, and/ or
best friend. If you look past her body, you will see a broken heart that drove her to kill herself. Her death has caused me great sadness.
Do you have documentation of cause of death?
Just read your comment about her being evergreen. That is what she is to me, because of what was happening in my life when I saw her centerfold. I had just completed Infantry training and was home on leave from the Marine Corps before going to staging at Camp Pendleton and than on to Viet Nam. My Father and my uncle sat me down told me what jungle combat was like and then told me there was a good chance I would not be coming back. They also told me it would change me if I survived. This was the first time I faced my mortality. She was my age, stunningly beautiful, so full of life and promise plus I had a thing for girls with glasses. she was the exact opposite of where I was headed and I wanted to hang on to what she appeared to have. I think that is why I still remember her so fondly even though I only knew her as images in a magazine, that and the fact so much of the little I know of her life makes so little sense. I hope some day a writer will become interested and tell her story.
Part of the power of those photos is they capture the last few moments of something like innocence (even though they were pin-up images) before the 1960s turned really septic. In that sense, your personal experience of what those images meant is universal
Spoke with Shane the other day. He said Ethan is a low-down Yankee liar.
I was a boyfriend of Fran’s for a too-brief time in the ’70’s, ten years after her centerfold. She was even more beautiful than the photo shoot, bright, fun, had a seductive voice to rival Kathleen Turner . . . and was very tragically lost in life at that point. I got to know her parents very well, as well as her brother Rosario (they all called him Rar, as in “rare”). Jesse and Frank were salt of the earth good people, welcoming and loving of me and other friends of their “kids.” Fran’s Playboy past was outside of their comfort level, but (according to her) although they “didn’t raise her that way,” they loved and accepted her unconditionally. The tragedy was Fran’s struggle with drugs – heroin, specifically. According to her, her ex-husband had “introduced” her to it, and she told me it was the reason they broke-up so shortly after their marriage. She’d been in a rehab program twice before I met her, was in a methadone program while we were together, and a few lapses took me out of the game. I sometimes regret that I bailed, but I had my own demons and wasn’t strong enough to better support her. Rar was as hot as Fran and just as much fun and a wonderful person to his core.
I can’t tell you how much joy reading this blog has given me . . . to have Fran remembered and (discovered) all these years later.
Is it sacrilege or a lasting tribute?
I have cherished Fran’s 1967 centerfold for many years, literally, and I have preserved it to now do what my plans for it were many years ago. It will soon be laminated on the nose of a 1963 Bing surfboard where it will be admired by many, but especially me, as she accompanies me with her smile out into the water and then down along the faces of lovely and at times equally voluptuous San Diego waves.
I hope it will be a lasting tribute to a very special young lady.
I guess I’m a typical American boy finding some friend’s hidden collection of Playboys. I was mesmerized with Fran back in ’67. I was 13 then, and I’m still mesmerized with her stunning beauty today.
From all the vintage playboy shoots there are a two that just always come to mind when I think of my favorites. Unfortunately they both died much to young. Willy Rey overdosed only 24 years old and Fran Gerard supposedly committed suicide.
The shoot of Fran Gerard was just fantastic. Of course she was beautiful and gifted where it mattered but like someone wrote above, there was an extra alluring quality to the pictures.
Hi Moss…Thanks for the info on Fran. I am hoping you might have some suggestions about Playmate stories. I have been trying to fill in the blanks about 1969 PMOY Connie Kreskki- a true mystery as far as I can see…She dated stars, lived with James Caan for a time, was always front and center with Hef, did a couple of small TV and movie (most very small) and then- Nothing…She died in her early 50s bur there are decades of silence and all sorts of contradictory information out there…Any ideas appreciated!
Thanks, Bruce Sinclair
All kinds of things happen in Hollywood. Reasons are sometimes hard to come by. She died of a blocked carotid artery according to Wikipedia.
Bruce: Connie was married in the mid-1980s to a man named Edelman and they lived in Los Angeles. Unfortunately Connie suffered an eating disorder and died of alcoholism.
Just found this site. Max Rey worked for me as a bar tender in NYC. I travelled with him to Las Vegas to be the best man at their wedding. So sad to hear that Fran’s demise. She was a lovely, bubbly person.
What bar?
Old post, I know but thought I’d mention that Vetri did not play Isis on “Assignment Earth” even though that was widely believed.
https://trekmovie.com/2019/03/12/star-trek-mystery-solved-isis-actress-from-assignment-earth-identified/
Wow, looks like you’re right. Will amend the blog post at some point.
Correction: Victoria Vetri did not play “Isis” in Star Trek’s “Assignment:Earth” episode, though that was commonly believed for decades. The actual actress was April Tatro.
I’ve been made aware.
Well from the little we know about her seems she was ripe for exploitation. My mind runs to darker scenarios and considering other playmates capitalized on their bodies before and after their centerfold appearances through prostitution, Joey Gibson June 1967 comes to mind, it might not be too far a reach to think that Fran ran afoul of some svengali who pushed her into prostitution and drugs and that she either was murdered, died of a drug overdose or committed suicide at age 37. Other notable nude models like Roberta Pedon went that way. It kind of runs in the profession. Once the looks start to go, there is no where to go but down.
Tragically, Fran committed suicide on May 30, 1985 in Fountain Valley, California (Orange County), and rests peacefully in the lawns at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, CA
She did not take her own life. It’s hardly appropriate to slander poor Fran with these ridiculous rumors the web and it’s lapdogs enjoy spreading. Fran is still alive walking and talking in Frisco Colorado.
Fran never enjoyed people and left Cali in 1970 to find peace in the mountains. Peace Is what she found.
Is there a documentary on the netflix models of the 60’s were the stigmatized prostitutes of society, and many were abused and murdered, the police considered the second class people to commit suicide murders and no one was interested in learning anything more, did the same happen to the girl we are looking for?
No idea really. Without access to pertinent public records, hard to verify anything.
I was 16 when I first found an old Playboy bin at a yard sale.The first one I grabbed was Fran Gerards issue because I was so shocked to have seen a voluptuous/nerdish BUSTY Playmate.I was absolutely gobsmacked.(yeah I said it.)
You and a lot of others. It was like a revelation that sexual appeal could be enhanced by eyewear.
The glasses enhanced her appeal.
Murder disguised as suicide.
No confirmation of cause of death I’m aware of.
In March of 1967 I was 20. Fran was 18. I wish I had met her back then. She would be 75 now to my 76. Alternative reality.
Alternative reality would be very nice.
I’m sorry you didn’t get some help before you died. Every guy wanted to be with you. A piece of our hearts died with you. I hope to see you in person
I am so interested in what happened to the vintage Playmates. I never knew Fran died so young–but many of them did sadly.