Karen Elaina Price

[cqnew1648]

I couldn’t agree more with Price-Is-Right. Karen is (IMO) the most beautiful PM of all time—and the tint of her skin in PB’s digitized version of her photo with the squirrel is terrible. Who is in charge there? Poor Karen looks radioactive. The colors in the magazine were true, which is why in my avatar I use a scan of her photo as it appeared in the January 1981 issue.

I wish they’d release full sized copies of more photos from Karen’s opening shoot. Several appeared in miniature in PB’s Dear PM column, and they are great.



PB doesn’t seem to understand how much PB’s stalwart fans love such photos. Karen’s appearance in PB is a fantasy—for her and for her fans—about the Girl-Next-Door: beautiful, talented, natural. The fantasy should begin as Karen meant it to begin, with her having fun, playing with her pet squirrel, practicing in the gym, and performing acrobatic stunts with friends at Muscle Beach. I wish that PB would give us similar clothed photos of Karen on the patio by beach, on the beach, and by the hot tub, so her fantasy could start in those scenes too as she intended. By the time we see Karen on the patio in the photos released to date, she’s already half out of her sun dress. She’d look lovely in that dress. I wish they’d give us a few shots of her wearing it. Nor have we had the pleasure of seeing Karen in a swim suit on the beach or in a robe by the hot tub. That’s what the Girl-Next-Door would be wearing at the beginning of the fantasy—and what I’m sure Karen was wearing. After all, the fantasy needs somewhere to go. Why start in the middle? PB isn’t hard core. It is erotic and sensual, but it never goes farther than a fun-loving, adventurous Girl-Next-Door like Karen would go. So why not start her scenes at the beginning, with Karen looking beautiful and natural in stylish clothes, so her fantasy can unfold properly? So we can see Karen as a person—friendly, fun-loving, and playful—before she leaves us speechless? That’s what Karen meant for us to enjoy—and what PB at its best lets us enjoy. I feel the same way about all the PM’s who like Karen put on great performances and built compelling fantasies for us—Marilyn Lange, Patti McGuire, Patti Farinelli, et al. Let their performances unfold slowly, so their fantasies can be enjoyed in the spirit in which they created them and in which their loyal fans enjoy them. And please get their skin tones right! Natural means natural!

Of course, I wish we had more photos of Karen of every kind. Karen is beautiful coming and going, but we don’t yet have a truly good picture of Karen from behind, looking back at us, as we do for so many PMs, like Marilyn Lange, who smiled and flirted with us as she splashed in the pool or kneeled on the bed, or Patti McGuire, who vamped in front of a fireplace and in the surf, or Patricia Farinelli who stood statuesque before a window. I hope Ken Marcus took a few photos of Karen like these. We get a tantalizing hint of what such photos would look like from the shot of Karen on the orange sheets, probably from her test shots, and of Karen twisting around in the hot tub, but that’s about it. I’m sure Karen would have struck more poses like that if Ken had asked—she was nothing if not confident of her beauty, generous to her fans, and eager to please and entertain. So there’s hope. Maybe they're in the vault!

[masque51]

Details:

[cjjusticex]

Here is the official PB Cyber Club version of a pic that has been posted here before:

[cqnew1648]

Thanks to palaeolox, here is a link to a newspaper interview with Karen Price that appeared in the Weekender edition of THE LEADER, April 4,1981, pages C 8-9 (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada). It’s a big double-page article. Hopefully someone can scan it and post it here (I can't figure out how to save it from the Google page). Here is the link to the article. Go to p. 41 (Google page) for the article.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...&pg=4863,1269\

The article is interesting, and it has two nice photos. Karen let’s us know that she weighed 148 pounds before dropping weight for her PB shoot (which may explain a few things!) and that after her shoot, while she was trying to break into acting, she went down to 118 pounds. Karen also names the names of hangers-on around the PB mansion who she met. She's polite, but it doesn’t sound like she was terribly impressed.

Karen’s VEF thread now has over 400,000 views, more than 20,000 ahead of Candy Loving.

[togolane]

Here are 2 versions of the article.One for text and the other for the pics.

Originally Posted by AYHJA

Cool Togo! How'd you do it?

I just went to the microfilm archives and made a PDF scan.

[masque51]

Although Karen's first Calendar appearance (1982) is in this thread, her second one somehow got missed. Posted in two sizes (1000 pixels high and 3000 pixels high).

[curtiss82]

Karen is by far my all time favorite playmate and I've been seeking to find a recent photo of her. I googled Karen Castoldi and found this picture of her on some film group website. It's without a doubt her and she linked her member page to a facebook account with the name Karen Castle (found a twitter account with both names). Have to say, she still looks good at age 50.

[LeroyLargeCar]

Here is a new one to the thread. Can you spot some of the differences such as.....the body rolled slightly more to her left, exposing a bit more of the right breast , her grip on the sheet is different , her grip on the left breast is different (pinky finger) , her mouth is open a bit more, etc?

[masque51]

From the French magazine "Photo" (Volume 202). This pic is similar to some others in this thread, but based on the tilt of her head and position of her eyes, I believe this is a new picture.

[LeroyLargeCar]

Not the best quality but it's the only image of the Birthday Girl that I have which hasn't been posted yet.