Word: modeling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...says upstart Johnny, as Manhattan's model wars rage...
...pulchritude wars began in earnest three years ago, when the longtime dominance of Ford Models, Inc., was challenged by an interloper from Paris. The parvenu, John Casablancas, had owned the biggest model agency in Paris and for years enjoyed an uneasy working relationship with "Godmother" Eileen Ford, trading les girls between continents as occasion and opportunity demanded. Then, in 1977, despite an unwritten agreement that he would not set up shop in the U.S., Casablancas descended on Manhattan. He promptly aggravated the assault by raiding some of Ford's most toothsome stars-10s or near 10s all-as well...
Hell hath no fury like a woman broker scorned. Eileen sent Bibles to the defectors with passages about Judas marked in red. More significantly, Eileen, 58, and her partner-husband Jerry, 55, filed a $7.5 million suit against Casablancas' Elite Model Management Corp. and his four Parisian partners for "violation of fiduciary trust." The second largest agency in the U.S., Wilhelmina Models Inc., sued Casablancas for $4 million. While the suits have yet to come to trial-and quite possibly never will-the epithets and the raids and the counterraids have piled up with the intensity of Hawaiian breakers...
Beverly Johnson was one of Elite's most sensational catches. The superstar model, who was the first black to adorn the cover of Vogue, is a typical warrior of the model wars. She started with Ford in 1971, switched to Wilhelmina in 1973, and returned to Ford in 1974 until she landed in Casablancas in 1977. Last month she made a stab at leaving Casablancas and returned to Ford, only to rebound to the Casablancas stable. The most telling deserter from Wilhelmina was Patti Hansen, who disports her form in Calvin Klein jeans and has just finished acting...
Casablancas also realized that the young Venuses who vend every imaginable product in print and on TV could command far higher rates than they were getting. The hourly charge for a top model has trebled (up to $300 an hour) in the past three years. Instead of setting fixed fees for a model's time, Casablancas started negotiating each booking with a canny perception of the client's particular needs and the girl's availability. The whole industry has had to follow suit, with the result that many models' incomes and clients' budgets have skyrocketed...