University of Virginia Library

Former Playboy Playmate Bares Her Soul

By Fred Heblich
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Reagan Wilson, the girl from Missoula,
Montana, better known as Playboy's Miss
October of 1967, flew into Charlottesville
last night to spend a weekend promoting
the men's shop at Leggetts, and some time
attending University functions and talking
to students.

"I just love college boys," said Miss
Wilson, a pretty green-eyed brunette, who
stands 5′11″ tall. She added that she is
looking forward to the weekend and
expects to enjoy her stay here very much.

Interviews Available

She will spend part of Friday and Saturday in
the men's store on Barracks Road, signing
autographs and giving interviews, and she will
attend the pep rally at Leggetts on Friday night.
On Saturday afternoon she will attend the
football game against Duke and help the
cheerleaders.

"I don't know a thing about cheerleading, but
I guess I can just stand out there and shake some
pom-poms or something," admitted the playmate.

Jim Brewer, a representative of Leggetts who
met Miss Wilson at the airport, commented, "I
hope she brings the football team good luck. Last
year we won the game that the playmate
attended."

Equestrian Enthusiast

Speculations are that Miss Wilson may replace
the "Cavalier" on horseback at Saturday's game,
since horseback-riding is one of her favorite
interests. Quick minds may recall the spread in
1967's October "Playboy" featured several shots
of Miss Wilson on horseback, an interest she
developed in her hometown in Montana.

Missoula hasn't spawned too many greats in
recent years, and it is doubtful if it would have
spawned Miss Wilson if she had stayed there.
Instead, she went to Los Angeles, where she
became a playmate after an amazing series of
events.

Success Story

Her success story began in a bank in Los
Angeles where spent her time as a secretary,
punching a typewriter. A photographer noticed
her, and kept coming back asking Miss Wilson if
she would like to pose for "Playboy."

"I had never modeled or posed before, and I
was really nervous about posing nude," said Miss
Wilson. "At first I kept thinking about what my
parents would think, but after I did it my parents
thought it was great," she laughed. She added
that the people back in Missoula thought it was
pretty neat too.

What is it like being a playmate?

"It's really groovy," she bubbled.

"Being a playmate, especially one that
continues working for 'Playboy' doing promotional
tours is really good for a girl who likes to
travel and meet people, and do something
interesting," she explained.

Talking about the concepts that some people
have about playmates having low moral values.
Miss Wilson said, "Concepts like that are
completely unfounded. The playmates are just
regular girls, some are nice and some aren't!"

Photogenic Qualities

She said that the decision to make a girl a
playmate is based on whether a girl is photogenic
or not, and her physical attractiveness. She also
said that the playmates have no sort of social
group and that she has only met a few playmates.

The playmates who are chosen to do
promotional tours are picked mainly for their
personality, according to Miss Wilson.

For her, being a playmate has not had a great
impact on her life to the extent that she is
harassed by autograph seekers.

"People on the street don't recognize me, and
I usually don't make it a point to tell people I
meet that I was a Playmate," Miss Wilson said.
She lives in Hollywood, the home of many bigger
celebrities, and "in that area people just aren't
impressed by someone who is a playmate," she
said.

"Most of my friends are in show business and
I'm usually more impressed by what they are
doing," she added.

"If I date a guy and it comes up that I was a
playmate and he makes a big deal about it, then I
think he's a drag and I don't date him again," she
said.

Conservative Dress

Clothed in a skirt that may get her arrested in
Charlottesville, Miss Wilson told The Cavalier
Daily that she has dressed more conservatively
since an unfortunate incident in Atlanta.

"I was wearing a bright pink form-fitting
dress, shorter than this," she said, pointing to her
thigh, "and I had on pink shoes and a pink bow in
my hair, and the dress had the Playboy bunny on
it." She continued, "Actually I was dressed quite
conservatively for Los Angeles, but the people in
Atlanta didn't think so, so now I try to dress
more conservatively!"

Not everyone approves of her career as a
playmate. "My 12-year old sister doesn't like it at
all. She's very conservative."

Her nine-year old brother is a different story.
"He pins my pictures on the wall and he also has a

subscription to 'Playboy.' " She continued, "He
even watches me model in a bathing suit and
whistles at me. When he came to visit me in Los
Angeles, he told me, 'There sure are a lot of
good-looking chicks out here.' "

Later, after her two-year contract with
Playboy is up, Miss Wilson expects to go to
Europe and become a model and possibly a
clothes designer. She has appeared on about a
dozen television shows, such as laugh-In. Dean
Martin, and Big Valley, "but I'm more interested
in clothes than acting," she said.

Will she be disappointed when her career as an
employee of Playboy is over:

"No, I look at it as a fortunate event on my
part," said Miss Wilson. "But it will be really neat
after I get married and have kids and be able to
tell them that I was a playmate."

She said that she had no prescribed rules to
follow while doing promotional tours. "I'm just
supposed to be myself," she smiled. "But I'm not
supposed to get drunk and pass out or anything
like that," she added. Anyone would probably
agree that herself is plenty, especially at a place
where playmates are as rare as pot parties in the
Rotunda.

Miss Wilson is beautiful, personable, and in
her own words, "a normal, healthy girl."

And the girl from Missoula who made it big
will be around all weekend, as definitely one of
the highlights of Homecoming.