Carol Vitale, July 1974 Playmate of the Month, 61
David Carson
reported in the Miami Herald on 1 August 2008. The story isn't on the
paper's web site anymore, but it is still in Google's cache.
---------------------
Posted on Fri, Aug. 01, 2008
Playboy's Miss July '74 dies at 61
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
She was blond. She was beautiful. And in the 1970s, Carol Ann Marie Vitale
was frequently naked in Playboy magazine.
The August 1972 cover girl and Miss July 1974 -- later a Frederick's of
Hollywood lingerie designer and host of a long-running, eponymous cable
talk show -- died at her Aventura condo on July 23.
Vitale was 61 and had been suffering from lupus and scleroderma for almost
a decade, said Marlie Rosen, her personal assistant.
Still, Vitale was taking it all off for Hugh Hefner as late as 1997. That
year, she appeared in a spread called Playmate Revisited: Carol Vitale,
shot by Miami Shores photographer Bunny Yeager.
''Young men these days are so hot for older women, and I like men of all
ages,'' the then-50-year-old Vitale declared. ``Just treat me like gold,
and you'll never be sorry.''
At her last shoot in 1998, for Yeager's Glamour Girls Then and Now
magazine, ''She was very much a perfectionist about how she posed and what
she wore,'' Yeager said. She brought her own stylist and ''looked just as
good'' as her younger self.
Born into a blue-collar, Elizabeth, N.J., Catholic family with seven kids,
Vitale studied ballet and worked as a Sears credit investigator.
Married briefly after high school, she was soon the single mother of a
daughter, dancing on a local TV show ``in miniskirts and boots, in
cages.''
Vitale was still a teen when she came to South Florida with her boyfriend,
a hairstylist. She danced, modeled, tended bar, won Miss Gulfstream and
made the 1969 Miss Florida-World finals before joining the Miami Playboy
Club ''hutch'' at 21.
She sported the ears and fluffy tail for five years and, as she once
wrote, ``cherished every moment of it. I worked diligently and considered
myself to be a star student. I performed every task that was delegated to
me, including running the coat check, counting inventory and working in
the Playmate bar, showroom and lounge area.
``Every job was executed with pride. . . . I would also later appear in
several of the Best Bunnies of the Year features in Playboy.''
She won Miami Bunny of the Year in 1972, which earned her the magazine
cover. She's in a white bikini, encircled by a red, rabbit-shaped swim
tube, in a hotel pool.
Though she'd have to wait another two years for the coveted Playmate
title, Vitale appeared often in ''What kind of man reads Playboy?'' ads.
Finally a centerfold in '74, she posed in a hammock, wearing only
sunglasses. Her vitals at the time: five-foot-six, 115 pounds, 37-22-35.
`GOD'S GIFT'
''She had such a gorgeous body, and she thought it was God's gift,'' said
close friend and executor Anna Abers, aka actress Anna Marlowe.
Her layouts ``were always in good taste. In those years, it was art; today
it's pornography.''
The exposure, as it were, led Vitale into a life of fast-paced glamour
with a mob-connected admirer who bestowed jewelry, furs and a Corvette.
When that ended, she toured with the Ray Coussins Revue, which opened for
big-name comics like Henny Youngman, Red Buttons and David Brenner.
In 1978 and '79, Vitale hosted Disco Magic, a Miami-based television
series, and dated Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Manny Fernandez.
Then she moved to California, where she got bit parts in minor Hollywood
films. But she never sought screen stardom, Abers said.
In 1989, she launched the Carol Vitale Show on public-access cable.
''She loved it,'' Abers said. ''Without preparation or cue cards, she'd be
asking the most intelligent questions.'' While mostly featuring
celebrities like Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Mary Hart and Hefner -- as
well as Playmates and Bunnies -- the show also booked businessmen, artists
and doctors.
Dedicated to finding a cure for lupus, Vitale raised money for City of
Hope, the Los Angeles-area research hospital, and was named the Miami
chapter's Woman of the Year in 1995.
In 2000, too sick to continue, she finally pulled the plug on her show. It
still airs in syndication nationally.
Her friend also had osteoporosis, Abers said, ``and it devastated her body
and her spirit. She was bedridden most of the time and in great pain.''
UNABLE TO ADJUST
Emotionally, she couldn't adust, Abers said.
``She couldn't live without having fun.''
Carol Vitale is survived by a daughter, Colleen, of California; father
John Vitale and stepmother Connie Vitale of New Jersey; and several
step-brothers and step-sisters.
She will be buried Saturday at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills,
near Los Angeles, where she also had a home.
---------------------
I have added Vitale to my Dead Playmates page:
http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com/l_pmom.asp
I am also trying to find corroboration or additional information regarding
the death of Debbie Boostrom (Miss August 1981) this past July. The only
information I have found so far is here:
http://daggy.name/cop/bkofdead/obits-bo.htm
I have never known Caskets on Parade to be wrong about a Playmate death,
but still ...
David Carson
--
Why do you seek the living among the dead? -- Luke 24:5
Who's Alive and Who's Dead
http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com
David Carson
> I have the feeling *all* the Playmates have that same spelling
>error after you click on her name.
I fixed it.
MWB
I gra d u a t ed hi gh sc h o ol i n 1 9 sev...sev...sev...7 4.
Som et h in g is w ron g w i th my ri g ht ha n d.
What kind of person reads PLAYBOY?
A 17 year old with a 1972 candy apple red PINTO. He lives a life of danger.
If he gets rear ended he going out in a ball of flames.
GO YANKEES
Mark
nixi...@earthlink.net
MWB
This may help:
http://www.charlottekemp.com/cgi/journal.pl
See 8-20-2008 entry
There is nudity here.
I remember her.
http://playmate.freeweb.hu/html/7407.html
GO YANKEES
Mark
B. Campbell
> It's sad so many of these 'Playmates' died so young, and some
>were murdered.
> http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com/pmdetail.asp?n=willisca
> auto accident, plane crash, suicide?, strangled, shot, auto
>accident, suicide, drug overdose, strangled; not to mention 'unknown' and
>heart attacks, cancer.
>
> Look at those young ages: 36 [1], 34 [2], 30, 28, 23, 40, 42,
>41, 20, 39 [3], and 28.
> It's not healthy to be a Playmate, on average.
> No cause (BLANK) on Missy Cleveland's death; not even an
>'unknown'.
So, who is the OLDEST living Playmate Of The Month?
My guess would be Bettie Page (Jan. 1955), who is 85 now.
R H Draney
Weren't there a few in the first couple of years, before Playboy really found
its market, who just posed, picked up their checks, and disappeared?...some of
the first few Playmates nobody's really sure whether they're alive now or
not....r
--
Evelyn Wood just looks at the pictures.
David Carson
>B. Campbell filted:
>>So, who is the OLDEST living Playmate Of The Month?
>>My guess would be Bettie Page (Jan. 1955), who is 85 now.
I'd say that's a good guess, since, at age 31 when she posed, she was
rather older than her contemporaries.
>Weren't there a few in the first couple of years, before Playboy really found
>its market, who just posed, picked up their checks, and disappeared?...some of
>the first few Playmates nobody's really sure whether they're alive now or
>not....r
Playboy did quite a bit of research tracking down all of the Playmates for
its 50th anniversary. There were only two they couldn't find out anything
about - Miss September 1954, Jackie Rainbow, and Miss December 1957, Linda
Vargas. They are either dead or deliberately avoiding being found.
Bob Feigel
<da...@neosoft.com> magnanimously proffered:
>and Miss December 1957, Linda
>Vargas.
I wonder if she was a "Vargas girl"?
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Magnus
Thanks, Mark. I was wondering when someone would get around to posting
a photo.
magnus
helenb...@gmail.com
helenb...@gmail.com
MJ Emigh
> CAROL LIVED FABULOUS,LIMOS, KEPT HER PERFECT FIGURE,TOOK ME TO HORSERACES, DID HER SHOW, MET HER LOVE "ALLAN", DIETING MADE HER LETHARGIC, IT WAS LETS GO CAROL DOLL!SO CUTE FRIEND FOREVER EDY WILLIAMS!
-MJ
