COLLEEN CORBY was one of the all-time favorite SEVENTEEN models.


Colleen Corby (Born August 3, 1947) was one of the most recognized and beloved teen models of the Sixties. To every Baby Boomer in the Sixties, Colleen Corby was every bit a Super Model and she had been called one in the press. Her image was everywhere. She was the model with whom almost every teen girl could identify.

After walking into Eileen Ford's modeling agency, as a young teen to look for a summer job,Colleen was signed to an exclusive contract with Eileen Ford, founder of the renowned Ford Model Agency. That "summer job" would last for the next twenty years. Colleen's career took off right from the start.



By the end of that first summer her assignments were coming so steadily that her parents enrolled her in Manhattan's Professional Children's School,which allows for the irregular schedules of actors and models. By her last yea rof High School she was so busy she hardly ever attended classes. However she was bright and a hard worker. She was able to complete her assignments and earn good grades. She was more than a model, she was a role model.


Starting her career at a very young age, posing for American Girl, The Girl Scout magazine, Co-ed,Teen, Ingenue, she was already an experienced model by age 16 when she first appeared on the cover ofSeventeen in April 1963. According to one of her fellow kingpin models atSeventeen, the editors for all teenage oriented magazines knew they had a hot propertyin COLLEEN CORBY.

And what a young beauty she was, according to her peers. She had that amazing dewiness, the perfect glowing skin, hair and innocent on-camera movement that gradually became more stylized as this young model grew into herself and her signature look.


Colleen Corby loved working with the camera and the camera simply loved her. She knew exactly where her best light was and always played to that. She was one of the first young models who capitalized on the sultry look while retaining that innocent sweetness in the same breath, a la junior VOGUE. By the time she’d been in Seventeen regularly for a year or so, she would only crack a big smile if she was asked to do so. She was a leader of sorts in "taking it to the next level." Cutesy young model poses were okay sometimes,but we were beginning to get beyond that, finally, and to have fun with it.






There was a fairly small group of models who seemed always to be together in the ads and editorial pages shot for Seventeen, and those ads often also appeared in Mademoiselle and Glamour, which appealed to older teens, college students, career girls and young marrieds. This tight group worked so smoothly together,playing off one another, just like a band playing music, naturally finding the perfect harmonies. It was true creativity,and Colleen was often at center position, quietly commanding the position she loved. She was a great team player too, and was always ready to compliment the lead taken by a cohort. That synergy was what commanded the higher daily rates for ads that eventually came with that territory.







The 60s was a magic era of modeling and the editorial pages of Seventeen were made for developing an almost decade-long following for its favorite models of the time. They were true supermodels to their millions of fans know in the trade as "the readership."


With her dark hair and piercing innocent eyes, Colleen was the perfect cover girl. She was a bit more petite than some of the other regular Seventeen models and yet had a boldness about her mixed with that unmistakable innocence, a very alluring combination of qualities that the Seventeen readership practically worshiped. She was a hero for a

whole generation of 13 to 18 year old girls, and boys, and received a healthy-sized pile of fan mail on a monthly basis during her hottest years.





The young readership would choose their favorite brunettes and favorite blonds "Oprah Winfrey, said: 'My teen idol was Colleen Corby, who was a model in Seventeen Magazine.


That’s what we all love to do, to have our icons to relate to. It’s all part of the fun of growing up,feeling a part of what’s happening, being up with what works to maintain health and beauty, and of the utmost importance, as always, WHAT DO I WEAR?, to school, to work, to dinner, to a party or concert, oron a great vacation trip, so that I’m exuding the confidence of my favemodels.



What would Colleen Corby or Terry Reno, or Joan Delaney, orRinske Hali or Wendy Hill or Jennifer O’Neil, or any of my favorites wear tothis event? And, where’s that new issuethat just came in the mail?!! I NEED ITNOW!! There was no Internet then and magazines were what we had. Big slick glossy magazines full of amazing fashions, styles, new make-up and hair styles and stories, columns and articles geared to the teenage at a time when 50,000 Americans a day were turning 18.
And so, the beat goes on. Here we all are again, lapping it up, reminiscing together about our glorious era, whether we were the models, or the readership who made them famous in the Sixties.



Thanks to Colleen Corby and her cohorts of the 60s, we had a great time, and now, we get to relive it here on MiniMadMods60s!! Come back for more stories.

Many thanks to Terry Reno, Wikipedia, Susan Camp, and other sources.