Christine Carter / Gina Graham

[pcaca]

as 'Thelma', thank you to Osyrus for ID...

[inactionman]

[inactionman]

4 film and one photo scan

[inactionman]

HM Film needed some work

[Its gardener]

[inactionman]

Dodgy photo scan + negative

[geemahn]

GINA GRAHAM
Real Name Chris Williams [married name: original surname unknown, unless it was Carter]
Modelling Aliases Chris Carter, occasionally ‘Tina Graham’

STATISTICAL DATA
Date of Birth 1944?
Age at start of career 17
Age at finish
Measurements 37-22-36 (Ed Alexander)
Height
Eye Colour
Hair Colour (natural) Blonde
Hair Colour (dyed) Brunette, Auburn
Wigs known to have been worn
Country/County/Town of Origin
Town/County/Country moved to after retirement from industry lived in London with Ken Williams and their two children
Ethnic Background/Ethnicity European

MODELING CAREER
Photographers posed for Harrison Marks – Russell Gay – Ken Williams
Studios Known to have worked at Kamera
Other Models Posed With June Palmer, Vivienne Warren, Anna Verdi, Elaine Desmond
Duration of Career From Early 1960s To Late 1960s


PUBLICATIONS FEATURED IN

Magazines
Adventure (US magazine, issue unknown)
Beau (US magazine, issue unknown – cover girl)
Escapade (US magazine, issue unknown – centrefold and colour studies by Ed Alexander)
Folies de Paris et Hollywood (various issues)
Health & Efficiency (various issues)
Joy
Kamera No.47
London Figure Models by Ken Williams (paperback book)
Model No.30 (covergirl and centrefold)
Modern Man Annual (US publication, year unknown)
Monsieur (US magazine, at least two issues, dates unknown) [in one as ‘Monsieur’s Mademoiselle of the Month’]
Parade (many issues)
Parade Carnival (issue unknown)
QT (several issues including centrefold as Chris Carter ‘QT Beauty’ in No.50)
Six No.6
Solo No.28 (as ‘Tina Graham’)
Spick No.133

FILMS
Dream of an Apartment - Venus Films No 49
Kamera Films ‘Dream Goddess’ (as serving maid to June Palmer)
The World of Harrison Marks (feature film)

ANY OTHER PUBLICATIONS

OTHER INFORMATION

Pre-modelling occupations farm worker(Parade); telephonist (QT)
Post-modelling occupations Fashion Model
Other occupations whilst modelling professionally

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Gina/Chris was one of the most familiar modelling faces of the 1960s and worked with all the major photographers of the time. She also married one of them – Ken Williams (b.1931): they met when he was working as an assistant to Russell Gay. Despite her measurements quoted above, she was the girl in a ubiquitous ‘little ad’ for nudie photosets that ran for several years in a multitude of US magazines with the heading ‘I’m 42+ - and that’s my bra size, not my age!’ She also featured in a well-known advertisement for Fullbloom Bosom Beautifying Cream. Chris/Gina was one of the very few glamour models to make the transition to high fashion modelling.

UNVERIFIED INFORMATION

Part of a profile of Gina/Chris from Ken Williams’s book ‘London Figure Models’. Unfortunately the end of this text is missing:

At that time Mr. Gay had a young assistant of much promise and it was to him that he turned over the neophyte model. The initial meeting resulted in not only a fabulous camera session: it began for Chris a career that each year grows more rewarding and also began a brilliant chapter in Ken's professional life.

The very first pictures were an absolute sensation. Ken captured that special look of hers to perfection - a look that combined impish coquettishness with cool sensuality. It is a combination difficult to find and impossible to beat. At once, everybody fell in love with Chris: the public, the staff at Gay's studios, the darkroom technicians ... and Ken Williams more than all of them put together. Within a year Ken had become the No. I photographer in the organization and Chris (under the names of "Chris Carter" and "Gina Graham") had become the No. I glamor model under the same aegis, famed and admired on both sides of the Atlantic.

Following a course seemingly charted by Fate, Ken simultaneously married Chris, left Russell Gay's employ and set up his own studio with Chris as his first (and only) model. They had three things going for them from the beginning: her natural beauty, his camera skill and their personal rapport. She knew what he was trying to create: he knew how to mold her unpolished beauty into the image he had in mind.

These pages show the evolution from ‘Gina Graham’ to Chris Williams (she uses her own name today in high fashion [TEXT BREAKS OFF HERE]

SOURCE CODES
(C) = Collector
(D) = Dealer
(GM) = Group Member
(H) = Historian
(MA) = Model Agent
(MG) = Magazine
(MO) = Model
(PH) = Photographer
(PU) = Publisher

AUTHORSHIP
This content was created by Richard Tearle for his (UK) 60sglamdatabase
website. His website no longer exists and the original files have been
lost, except for an incomplete snapshot captured by the Internet Archive's
Wayback Machine. Richard also notes that Malcolm MacDonald deserves
credit for his contributions to the content.

Richard has graciously permitted me to republish this information here (previously MyArchives, now VEF).