What do you think of this photo? That was me, modeling for PCH back in 1995. I was already modeling professionally for nine years, since I was 15.
My father was the epitome of a real stage-parent, pushing me towards modeling. He had brought me (and a photo album) to a modeling agency, hoping that they would accept me. What kept them from taking me on? I was 13, standing five-feet-two inches tall and weighing ninety-five pounds, extremely photogenic...and very handsome (if I do say so myself). So, what was the problem???
"There's no doubt that he makes love to the camera and the camera loves him", said one of the agents. "But, he's too thin!"
"I'll tell you what", replied the other agent. "We'll keep his file open for four months. Get him beefed up and broadened out. If, at the end of four months, you can put, say, thirty pounds of muscle on him...then he just might have a good career ahead of him".
At the time, what they were requesting sounded hopeless. I mean...how could a normal kid like me put on thirty pounds of muscle and broaden myself out in four months? But, leave it up to my dad to come up with an answer.
"We'll just get you a trainer and a nutritionist", he said.
So started my personal odyssey. Dad got me a trainer-nutritionist who put me on a strict regimen. My day started out with a pure protein shake followed by a breakfast which consisted of a medium, trimmed, medium-done steak, two scrambled eggs, unbuttered toast and a tall glass of orange juice. Then, it was on with the shorts and sneakers and running a total of two miles (extending it to five miles each day), working out in the gym with exercises (squat thrusts, push-ups, sit-ups, bends, etc.) and into the pool and doing ten laps (extending it to twenty each day, working my way up for thirty or more). And that was all before lunch!!! For lunch...another protein shake, followed by another trimmed, medium-done steak, salad with fat-free dressing and a tall glass of whole milk. You have to remember...I was building myself up, trying to put more meat on my bones. After lunch, it was a one-hour rest...then the weights. Curls, dead lifts...every exercise imaginable to build up muscles in my arms and legs...and more exercises targeted towards my abdomen. After a full day of exercise, running, swimming and weight-training, a good dinner sounded great. Another trimmed, medium-done steak (smaller than those I had for breakfast and lunch), salad with fat-free dressing and a glass of whole milk, finishing off with a small raisin bran cake topped with fruit for dessert. Then, a little television and off to bed to get a full eight hours of sleep. That was how it was...three days a week, ultimately working up to four days. It was pure torture!
Then, came the big day. After four months, my dad and I went back to the modeling agency. Luckily, I had the good sense to put on a bathing suit under my street clothes because the two agents asked me to strip down. Down went the pants and off went the shirts. The two agents couldn't believe their eyes! What stood before them was no longer the gawky five-foot-two-inch, ninety-five pound boy they saw four months earlier...but a five-foot-five inch, one hundred thirty-five pound teenager...complete with six-pack abs and a twenty-seven inch waist...and sporting a Speedo bathing suit! Out came the contracts! My start as a model seemed assured. But, also came a new regimen...one of maintaining a proper weight. I now had to make certain that I watched what I ate. Fats were out! No more ice cream, candies, sodas...everything that a normal, red-blooded American kid loved. I now had a career to think of...one that required total discipline of both my body and mind.
Of course, I still had to go to school. To avoid temptations, my dad enrolled me in a private boys' school in New York...one that saw to it that the human body remained a perfect work of art. Proper nutrition at all three meals, plenty of homework and sleep...and lots of exercise. I not only took part in gym classes...but got started in sports as well. Soccer, tennis, lacrosse, baseball...anything to keep myself in shape.
But, the calls were not coming in. At least, not as fast as I had hoped. Then, one day, I was called to the house phone. It appeared the agency had a job for me. I had to take a train the next morning (a Saturday morning, naturally) and go to the agency's midtown Manhattan office.
What a sight welcomed me as soon as I entered the office! I thought I was going to be doing this photo shoot alone. But, there were five other models there...two older men and three women, one, roughly 18 or 19, in an advanced state of pregnancy. When it came time to prepare for the shoot, I was given some clothing to change into...a long-sleeved designer shirt, designer shorts, sandals, kerchief and a hat. Now, dressed like that in any air-conditioned office would have made one uncomfortable...and I was no exception. So, I rolled the sleeves up to just below my elbows and opened the front down to the center of my chest.
"Put those sleeves back the way they were and button up that shirt!" snapped the photographer.
As I beginning to do as the photographer ordered, a second man swatted him across the back of his head with a rolled-up magazine.
"That boy is making a statement with my designs, not yours!" the man yelled in a thick European accent. "You put that shirt back the way you want, uomino".
Cowed by the designer, the photographer went to work snapping picture after picture, going through ten rolls of film, until quitting time...at seven o'clock in the evening! Man, I knew that modeling was going to be tough work...but I never thought it was going to be an all-day affair!
But, the thought of posing for a camera all day long took a back seat...especially when I received my paycheck. How much did I make on my first shoot? Would you believe $50,000? Yet, only two years later...I would be paid almost ten times as much to pose nude.
And, who, you might ask, were the designer and the very pregnant model? They were none other than the Gianni Versace and Anna Nicole Smith!
By the way, I still model today...whenever time permits, of course.
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