OK guys. Apologies if this is old news to some of you. But the world needs to revisit this stuff in light of recent developments.
I have been researching a lot of stuff surrounding the Playboy Mansion culture lately. Hugh Hefner created a cult-like world for himself where women—many young, many desperate—would approach him, beg him, send him nude pictures, and sleep with him in hopes of getting a gig as a Playboy model. It really was a culture, mainly founded by Hefner in the 60’s and 70’s, but that wasn’t limited to Playboy by any means.
I started to do a search about the Trump modeling agency and almost immediately stumbled across the following article from March 2020 in the Guardian: “Teen Models, powerful men and private dinners: when Trump hosted Look of the Year.”
The article describes a boat trip on a private yacht in 1992:
Downstairs, a party was in flow. Scores of teenage girls in evening dresses and miniskirts, some as young as 14, danced under disco lights. It could have been a high school prom, were it not for the crowd of older men surrounding them.
John Casablancas ran Elite Model Management, and collaborated with Trump on the “Look of the Year” contest (think, “Playmate of the Year”) in 1991 and 1992. The contest involved many such social gettogethers:
Another contestant, who was 15 at the time, also remembers being asked to walk for Trump, Casablancas and other men on the boat in September 1992. She says an organiser told her that if she refused, she would be excluded from the competition. “I knew in my gut it wasn’t right,” she recalls. “This wasn’t being judged or part of the competition – it was for their entertainment.”
These were all very young girls, many on their own away from home, many from disadvantaged backgrounds (Hefner also targeted underprivileged and emotionally needy girls and women):
Kate Dillon, then 17. . . says that many of her fellow competitors were “from places that were very poor. I came from a family that had means, so it was something fun to do for a week to get out of school – but a lot of these girls were desperate.” She recalls various “after-hours” events over the course of the five-day competition. “It was very clear that there were opportunities to go out and party with Donald,” she says. The contestants were led to believe “that if you were nice to certain people, good things will happen to you, and I think that’s why girls were going out”.
Both the Playboy and Elite Model sphere report encouraging young women and girls to use alcohol and/or drugs (Playboy survivors report heavy use of cocaine and of course Quaaludes):
Ohad Oman, a young reporter for a magazine in Tel Aviv, was sent to cover it in 1991 and 1992. He attended a number of the after-parties, and remembers seeing girls drinking alcohol. He recalls one particularly debauched party, telling the Guardian: “I saw girls sitting on guys’ laps, and I remember one guy putting his hand down a girl’s top. I remember thinking they were younger than me, and I was 17 going on 18.”
There are several nauseating reports of Trump’s involvement, including but not limited to the following:
The finale of the 1991 competition was a glittering black-tie gala in the Plaza’s ballroom. Casablancas and supermodel Naomi Campbell presented, as 10 finalists went through a series of costume changes, walking across a stage decorated with columns of sunflowers. Trump sat on the front row alongside a roster of celebrities, his nine-year-old daughter Ivanka perched on his knee
The article finds no reports of Trump inappropriately touching or raping any of the models or contestants, but Casablancas and other officials at Elite were accused of both:
New York magazine reported that two of Elite’s senior women executives had pleaded with both Casablancas and Marie to stop sleeping with underage models, but had been ignored. (“We are men,” Marie reportedly said. “We have our needs.”
The article is long but well worth the read if you can stomach it. It presents good context for the Epstein issue:
Epstein had a Casablancas connection during the 1990s. According to a lawsuit filed in the US three months ago, in 1990 Casablancas sent a teenage model for her first “casting call” at a residential address on New York’s Upper East Side, to meet a “photographer” who, it turned out, was Epstein. The lawsuit states that Epstein ordered the 15-year-old girl to undress before taking photographs of her, pushing her against a wall and sexually assaulting her.
Read it, and give a donation to the Guardian if you can! They’re doing excellent work and are still paywall-free in most cases.
NOTE: Alert readers have mentioned in the comments that there were some first-hand stories from this world that posted here on DKos years ago. Here are the links:
www.dailykos.com/… ( from 2017)
Excerpt:
Sex Trafficking-disguised-as-modeling and used to lure young girls into sexual servitude is a malevolent practice perpetrated by men (and a few women) in the highest and lowest echelons of society and by some of the most powerful people in our country; one of them may even be the President. To this former child model, it is entirely conceivable.
www.dailykos.com/… (2019)
Excerpt:
“I probably know more about Jeff Epstein than Jeff Epstein knows about himself at this point. I have read every single court document, article, and book written about him and his case. I’ve combed the flight logs, and every page of his “little black book”. I’ve even researched the background of every witness who testified-background searches, property records. When I say I spent hundreds of hours on this story, I meant it” . . .
. . . Jeffrey Epstein was, to the core soul, a narcissist. As a narcissist he was driven by self interest first and foremost, but when things don’t go his way, his focus turned to revenge. For years Epstein has been collecting “dirt” on his associates- secretly recording their liaisons with underage girls and creating “files” on his friends and enemies alike. He used this as both leverage and blackmail. It allowed him to get away with his crimes for years. This indictment must have felt to him like a huge betrayal.
These diaries are super fascinating to read in light of everything coming out now. They’re snapshots from the time, and boy do they ring true.
