Helen Ryan’s modeling career began when a photographer spotted her as she was performing in the Jones Beach, New York, water ballet. She had met her husband Tom there two summers before while he was working as a lifeguard. The Undiscovered American Beauty cover of the February 1950 Ladies Home Journal Magazine was shot the day before their wedding. Helen knit the sweater she wore plus a matching one for her new husband. Although married, Helen became a very popular junior model, appearing on the covers and in the editorial pages and ads of teen magazines. In the 1960s, Helen’s modeling jobs reflected who she was in real life…a pretty, young wife and mother.

Helen was interviewed about her modeling career for the Ford Models/Fashion Institute of Technology Archives in July 2010. At that time, she generously allowed us to scan many of her favorite tear sheets for her Portfolio Album. Here are just a few, with more being posted in the near future:
http://www.minimadmod60s.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=95134

Helen's modeling debut in the February 1950 Ladies Home Journal magazine photographed by Claude W. Huston:










Helen & Marguerite Brubaker
June 1950 American Girl Magazine
Photographer: Ormond Gigli


Helen & Joan Olson
May 1951 Seventeen Magazine
Photographer: Richard Litwin


June 1951 American Girl Magazine
Photographer: Kohn-Schneider


March 1953 Seventeen Magazine
Photographer: Carmen Schiavone

The background of this cute 1953 Ship 'n Shore ad featuring an unidentified model, Helen, Joan Olson and Dolores Hawkins (foreground)...



...was also used on the cover of Home Economics textbook:


Homemaking for Teen-agers Book 1
By Irene McDermott & Florence Nicholas
(Chas. A. Bennett, 1960)


Lovely Helen Ryan at her Ford Models/Fashion Institute of Technology Interview
July 23, 2010

Thank you, Helen, for these wonderful additions to our archives!

Susan Camp
Senior Editor & Archivist