Linda Gamble

[CandyMoFan]

linda gamble...............

[Fabrizio]

Missing

[Sonnet]

Hi-res centerfold scan (4,350 x 9,100 pixels - 16.84 MB)

[masque51]

From the 2015 German NSS "Die 55 Schonsten Blondinnen".

[masque51]

From the Japanese Playmates of the Year Collection, which I will be posting tomorrow.

[CandyMoFan]

linda gamble.............................






Linda Gamble
You'd never know it from looking at American cars of the period, but
there was a school of thought in the late '50's that emphasized the
spare, unadorned line. Good examples of this are the "Bauhaus" glass box
skyscrapers and "modern" furniture of the period. Every design element
in Linda Gamble's April 1960 centerfold by Mario Casilli reflects this
ideal that "less is more".
The lighting is monochromatic, tinted by the drapes. Whatever lights
were used on the camera's side of the curtains were designed to extend
the quality of the light coming from behind Linda, and there are almost
a complete lack of strong shadows in the picture. The result is much
like the lighting you would find in a bedroom with light colored walls
as the morning sun was filtered through an east-facing window.
The design is equally simple: large numbers of vertical lines, broken
only by the short horizontals of the louvered doors and the diagonal
line running from Linda's right arm down to her left leg. A less
dominant design element, the right leg makes a diagonal in the other
direction. This sets up a triangle in the lower half of the photo, which
gives the centerfold weight and stability.
Linda's costume is about as simple as it gets: a pair of high-heeled
slippers and a sheer nightgown draping from her left hand. The gown
fills out the triangle formed by her legs, giving it even more weight.
The implied situation is also pretty basic. Linda has arisen from bed,
and is just about to open the drapes. The viewer is still in bed,
judging from the height of the lens, which is at the same level as
Linda's bottom. Linda's right hand is turned as if to open the drapes,
but she has turned toward the viewer and is hesitating, contemplating a
return to bed. From the light we know this isn't early morning: this is
more like 10 or 11 o'clock. From Linda's expression we know the viewer
and Linda have already spent a good deal of time in the bed.
And not because they're sleepy.
1960 is not a year that will ever be known as one of great sexual
liberation. Although the exact date of the onset of the Sexual
Revolution is open to debate. I think it's safe to say that April 1960
is definitely Pre-Revolutionary. Which makes this centerfold all the
more of a standout. A case could be made (although I won't make it here)
that it was the most sexually direct and overt centerfold to appear in
Playboy up to that time.
But what really makes this centerfold a classic is the relationship
between the photographer and model, between Mario Casilli and Linda Gamble.
I've talked about "perfection" in design - a design in which nothing can
be changed without either reducing the impact of the design or making an
entirely new one. Linda's pose is "perfect" in this same way. Look what
the high-heeled slippers do to the firmness and shape of her legs. (Like
I really have to tell you to look!) Look how her pelvis is turned to
show off the fullness and roundness of her hips, how that same slight
twist outlines and highlights the structure of her back, how raising her
right arm gives an absolutely perfect curve to her breast, how turning
her head to look over her right arm adds to the allure in her eyes, how
the turn of her right hand forms and defines the muscles in the right arm.
Not to take anything away from Linda, but no other photo of her I've
seen even comes close to the allure and "perfection" of her gatefold.
Was it an accident? A lucky shot? While I can't rule out the
possibility, the 8 x 10 Deardorff view camera does not lend itself to
"accidents". I prefer to think that Mario Casilli discovered, in the
short time he had to work with her, the pose that would work best for
Linda. While it's possible I might, on a good day, stumble across a pose
that flatters a model as well as this one does Linda, it would take
many, many exposures and many hours, if not days, for me to find it.
But Mario found it. Not only that, but he took the technical restraints
he was forced to deal with and made them strong, integral parts of the
centerfold. That monochromatic lighting may have been as much because
the printing process Playboy used couldn't reproduce full-range color as
well as single tomes as it was to stimulate a bedroom in mid-morning.
Linda may have been asked to twist her pelvis as much to provide a "fig
leaf" as to highlight the curve of her hips.
To use only the simplest elements in a design is like being on a high
wire without a net. There is no place to hide sloppiness. "Less is more"
makes a catchy phrase, but it's damn hard to pull off. Witness the large
number of soulless, heartless glass boxes that dominate much of our
landscape. But Mario did it in April 1960 with the help of the stunning
Linda Gamble, and the result is definitely a Classic Centerfold.

[CandyMoFan]

linda gamble...................closer lOOk......................................

[CandyMoFan]

linda gamble....................POM, POY, sexy, busty, erotic, blonde, etc.,

[CandyMoFan]

linda gamble............................................ ........

[r wakeman]

In Playmate of the Month pictorial, April 1960 - photographed by Mario Casilli


In Playmate Review, January 1961


In Playboy Club News, November 1961


In Playmate Holiday House Party pictorial, December 1961


In The Playmate-Bunnies pictorial, July 1963


In Playmates Revisited - 1960 pictorial, August 1964


In Premier Playmates Revisited pictorial, June 1971


In Playmates of the Year: Past Winners Take Another Bow pictorial, June 1979


In Playboy’s Playmate Reunion pictorial, April 1980


In Playmates - The First Fifteen Years NSS, 1983 - photographed by Mario Casilli


In Playmates of the Year NSS, 1986


In Playmate Lingerie - 1960 feature in Book of Lingerie NSS, November-December 1995


In Pocket Playmates 6 NSS, 1997


At the 1961 Playmate Holiday House Party and with other Playmates of the Year at the 1979 Playmate Reunion in Inside the Playboy Mansion pictorial, December 1998


With Jean Jani, Ellen Stratton and Diane Hunter in "Playmate Reunion" in World of Playboy, December 1999


In Celebrating Centerfolds Vol. 3 NSS, 1999


In Centerfolds of the Century pictorial, January 2000


In Playmates of the Year NSS, 2000


In Centerfolds of the Century NSS, 2000


In Bunny Chow article, April 2012


In Every Playmate of the Year Special Collector's Edition, December 2013 - photographed by Mario Casilli and Pompeo Posar