Bunny Yeager

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Linnea Eleanor "Bunny" Yeager<ref name= "NYT obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=AP>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=bizarre/> (March 13, 1929 – May 25, 2014) was an American photographer, pin-up model, actress and author.<ref name=bizarre>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="WashPost obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life and career

Linnea Eleanor Yeager was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, to Raymond Conrad and Linnea (née Sherlin) Yeager on March 13, 1929.<ref name= "bizarre"/><ref name= "LAT obit"/> Her family moved to Florida when she was 17.<ref name= "LAT obit"/> She adopted the nickname "Bunny" from Lana Turner's character Bunny Smith in the 1945 movie Week-End at the Waldorf.<ref name= "LAT obit"/> The nickname has also been attributed to her portrayal of the Easter Bunny in a high school play.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

She graduated from Miami Edison High School and enrolled at the Coronet Modeling School and Agency.<ref name="Boca mag">Template:Cite news Reprinted Template:Webarchive May 28, 2014 at bocamag.com/blog.</ref> She won numerous local beauty pageants including in rapid succession Queen of Miami, Florida Orchid Queen, Miss Trailercoach of Dade County, Miss Army & Air Force, Miss Personality of Miami Beach, Queen of the Sports Carnival and Cheesecake Queen of 1951.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> Yeager became one of the most photographed models in Miami.<ref name=bizarre/><ref name= "MNT2011"/> Photos of Yeager appeared in over 300 newspapers and magazines.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Yeager designed and sewed many of the outfits she and her models wore, at one time boasting that she never wore the same outfit twice while modeling.<ref name= "Boca mag"/> She designed and produced hundreds of bikinis when the two-piece swimsuit was a new fashion item and is credited with its popularity in America.<ref name= "NYT obit"/><ref name= "Boca mag"/><ref name= "MNT1993"/> Bruno Banani, the German fashion company, has developed a line of swimwear based on Yeager's designs from the 1950s.<ref name= "NYT obit"/>

Yeager entered photography to save money by copying her modeling photographs, enrolling in a night class at a vocational school in 1953.<ref name= "LAT obit"/> Her career as a professional photographer began when a picture of Maria Stinger, taken for her first school assignment, was sold to Eye magazine for the cover of the March 1954 issue.<ref name= "LAT obit"/><ref name= "Boca mag"/><ref name= "Pitt Trib 2010">Template:Cite news</ref> She became a technically skilled photographer known for her early use of the fill flash technique to lighten dark shadows when shooting in bright sun.<ref name= "MNT1993"/> Yeager was one of the first photographers to photograph her models outdoors with natural light.<ref name= "WashPost obit"/> Matt Schudel wrote in The Washington Post that her images were vivid and dynamic, going on to say, "She favored active poses and a direct gaze at the camera lens, in what could be interpreted alternately as playful innocence or pure lust."<ref name= "WashPost obit"/>

She met Bettie Page in 1954, and took most of the photographs of her that year.<ref name=bizarre/> During their collaboration she took over 1,000 pictures of Page.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> Along with photographer Irving Klaw, Yeager played a role in helping to make Page famous, particularly with her photos in Playboy magazine.<ref name=bizarre/> American Photo magazine described Yeager's work with Page as "a body of imagery that remains some of the most memorable — and endearing — erotica on record" in a 1993 article.<ref name= "AmPhoto1993">Template:Cite news</ref> The most famous images of Page by Yeager include the January 1955 Playboy centerfold in which she kneels wearing only a Santa hat while hanging a silver ornament on a Christmas tree and a series of photographs with a pair of live cheetahs.<ref name= "AmPhoto1993"/><ref name= "SunSent2013b">Template:Cite news</ref>

Yeager was a very prolific and successful pinup photographer in the 1950s and 1960s, so much so, that her work was described as ubiquitous in that era.<ref name= "MH obit"/><ref name= "MH2013"/> She continued to work with Playboy, shooting six centerfolds — Bettie Page (January 1955), Lisa Winters (December 1956), Myrna Weber (August 1958), Joyce Nizzari (December 1958), Cindy Fuller (May 1959), and Sandra Settani (April 1963) — in addition to covers and pictorial spreads.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She discovered Lisa Winters, the first Playmate of the Year.<ref name= "SunSent1998">Template:Cite news</ref> Yeager also appeared in the magazine as a model five times.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> One appearance with the headline, "Queen of the Playboy Centerfolds", was photographed by Hugh Hefner.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Her work was also published in mainstream magazines including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Pageant, Redbook and Women's Wear Daily.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> The famous still images she took of Ursula Andress emerging from the water on the beach in Jamaica for the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No are probably her best known bikini photographs.<ref name= "bizarre"/><ref name= "MH obit"/> She discovered many models.<ref name=bizarre/> In the 1970s as men's magazines became more anatomically graphic Yeager largely stopped photographing for them, saying they were somewhat "smutty" and that, "They had girls showing more than they should."<ref name= "LAT obit"/><ref name= "Indy obit">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1998 she stated, "The kind of photographs they wanted was something I wasn't prepared to do."<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Later career

An exhibition titled "Beach Babes Bash" in the early 1990s at the Center for Visual Communication (at that time located in Coral Gables, Florida) featured photographs by Yeager of models from Miami on the beach from the 1950s.<ref name= "MNT2011"/> Another exhibit at the same gallery featuring Yeager's work was titled "Sex Sirens of the Sixties."<ref name="SunSent2013">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1992 Playboy published a retrospective of her work titled "The Bettie Boom".<ref name= "SunSent1998"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Since 2002, Yeager's work has been exhibited in contemporary art galleries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In early 2010, The Andy Warhol Museum held the first major museum exhibition of Yeager's work.<ref name= "MNT2011">Template:Cite news</ref> The exhibit, "The Legendary Queen of the Pin Up", featured her self-portraits, some from her book How I Photograph Myself published by A.S. Barnes & Co. in 1964.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "The Fabulous Bunny Yeager" an exhibit in 2011 at the Harold Golen Gallery in Miami also featuring self-portraits by Yeager was of photographs that had not been exhibited previously.<ref name= "MNT2011"/> Also in 2011 Helmut Schuster curated an exhibition for Art Basel at the Dezer Schauhalle in Miami titled "Bunny Yeager: Retrospective to the Future" featuring over 200 of Yeager's photos.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Included were some images that had not been shown before of models including Bettie Page.Template:Cn

In 2012 Bunny Yeager had two exhibitions in Germany, "Funland" at Gallery Schuster Potsdam and "Femme Fatale" in December 2012 at Gallery Schuster Berlin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale held a 2013 exhibit, "Bunny Yeager: Both Sides of the Camera" featuring her photographs of herself, Page, and model Paz de la Huerta.<ref name= "SunSent2013"/> The exhibit also included some of Yeager's first new pictures in twenty years.<ref name= "SunSent2013"/> Yeager had a show at the Sofia Vault in Sofia, Bulgaria in October 2013.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The Gavlak Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida put on an exhibit, "Bunny Yeager: Selections from How I Photograph Myself" in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas held a posthumous exhibit, "Bunny's Bombshells", from June 5 to Template:As of.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

She had her own studio in the Wynwood Art District of Miami, part of the Center for Visual Communication.<ref name= "MNT2011"/><ref name= "MH2013">Template:Cite news</ref> There is a "Bunny Yeager Lounge" in Berlin which is open to the public and shows photos, memorabilia and movies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Yeager was also founding editor and publisher of a trade magazine for entertainment professionals, Florida Stage & Screen.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> Template:As of her 24 books had sold over 1 million copies.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Personal life and death

Bunny Yeager was married twice, first to Arthur Irwin who died in 1977 and then to Harry Schaefer who died in 2000.<ref name= "LAT obit">Template:Cite news</ref> She had two daughters, Lisa and Cherilu.<ref name= "LAT obit"/>

Yeager died on May 25, 2014, of congestive heart failure at age 85 in North Miami, Florida.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name="WashPost obit"/>

Legacy

Yeager's obituary in The Miami Herald called her "one of the country’s most famous and influential photographers."<ref name= "MH obit">Template:Cite news</ref> She has been cited as influencing many artists and photographers including Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura.<ref name= "Boca mag"/><ref name= "Telegraph2012">Template:Cite news</ref> Arbus called her, "the world’s greatest pinup photographer."<ref name= "WashPost obit"/><ref name= "MH obit"/> In The New York Times, Margalit Fox wrote, "She is widely credited with helping turn the erotic pinup — long a murky enterprise in every sense of the word — into high photographic art."<ref name= "NYT obit"/> Her obituary in The Independent titled, "Bunny Yeager: Pin-up who moved behind the camera to take influential, iconic shots of Bettie Page and Ursula Andress" called her photographic technique pioneering and influential.<ref name= "Indy obit"/> The Washington Post reported she "helped define [the] art of erotic photography."<ref name= "WashPost obit"/>

Yeager is credited with helping to popularize the bikini in America.<ref name= "MNT1993"/><ref name= "MH obit"/> The inspiration for the term "cheesecake" in reference to scantily clad women has been attributed to Yeager.<ref name= "MH obit"/> Her books, including Photographing the Female Figure which sold over 300,000 copies, have influenced several generations of photographers.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Media appearances and depictions

On July 14, 1957, Yeager appeared on What's My Line?, stumping the panel.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> She was also on I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/> She was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1966 to discuss her book, How I Photograph Myself.<ref name= "MNT1993">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1968 she played the role of a Swedish masseuse opposite Frank Sinatra in Lady In Cement.<ref name=bizarre/> She had bit parts in over half a dozen films including Tony Rome, Midnight Cowboy, Porky's, Dogs of War, Absence of Malice, Harry & Son and The Mean Season.<ref name= "MNT1993"/><ref name= "MH obit"/> Yeager also had small roles in a number of television series including Miami Vice and made occasional appearances singing in Miami nightclubs.<ref name= "SunSent1998"/>

Yeager was played by Sarah Paulson in the 2005 film The Notorious Bettie Page.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was also featured on a 2006 CNN story about the 60th anniversary of the bikini.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> In 2005, Cult Epics released the DVD 100 Girls by Bunny Yeager, a documentary with behind-the-scenes footage on Yeager's photo sessions with Page and other pin-up models.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Books

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1963 Bunny Yeager's Nude Camera Herself
1963 Intimate Diary of Artists' Models Herself
1964 Bunny Yeager's Nude Las Vegas Herself
1965 Nudes on Tiger Reef Herself
1968 Lady in Cement Bunny Fjord - Swedish masseuse Uncredited
1984 Harry & Son Marina Bar Waitress

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

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