Russ Meyer, now famed as an auteur director of nudie films, was a freelance photographer when he took photos of his wife, Eve, on assignment for Playboy. She was the first Playmate to be shot to order for the magazine. Art Director Arthur Paul sent Meyer a pencil sketch of the pose the magazine was looking for, but somehow the lensman misinterpreted it and had to do a reshoot after the directions were clarified. The two glasses of wine in the foreground suggest an unseen male presence, a Playboy theme that came to prominence at this time. When Russ went into the movie business, Eve served as his producer -- a role she filled even after their divorce. She was killed in history's worst aviation disaster, the collision of two jumbo jets on a runway in the Canary Islands in 1977. 

Of Eve, Meyer later told London's "Observer": "I was the usual rat. I ran off and found another pair of boobs, brought her to the States for 'Mudhoney,' a movie Eve was financing, and Eve found out. That was not a very nice thing to do. Eve was very upset. We were divorced and then Eve was killed in a plane crash. I felt terrible. It had been a great love affair; a great marriage." 


PLAYBOY APPEARANCES: Centerfold, June 1955; "First 24 Playmates," January 1956; "Evening With Russ Meyer," March 1956; "Playmates Revisited," March 1964.

PLAYBOY NEWSSTAND SPECIALS: "Playmates: The First 15 Years," January 1983.

MOVIE CREDITS: "Operation Dames" (1959); "Eve and the Handyman" (1960).