New York Models Not Necessarily Sophisticated

Photos Kenn Duncan 1,3, The Leader Photographer 2

Looking for Santa Clause in May...playing in the snow in July...hunting for Easter Eggs in November....and all this in New York City. It's a day's work for petite Lisa Anne Silhanek, blue eyed, blond and beautiful.

Four-year-old Lisa is a professional model in New York and has recently been in Kentucky visiting her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Keller of Flemingsburg, formerly of Cynthiana.

Just as natural and naive a little girl as on ever met, Lisa is totally unaware that she one of the top fashion models in the field. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Silhanek Jr., both alumni of the University of Kentucky.

Her mother, the former Miss Peggy Keller, says that she and her husband had no idea of entering Lisa into modeling competition until a friend of theirs took some pictures of her and persuaded them to submit them to an agency. From that time forward she has led a busy life in live fashion shows for New York department stores, magazine covers, TV and magazine commercials.

Contrary to what we might imagine, there is no training for the child model. First, she must be photogenic; second, she must have the ability to project herself into imaginary situations.

The children who model are put into a nursery school-party time setting. They are given a suggestion as to what is wanted and from then on they take over. There is a little bit of "ham" in every small child as anyone knows who has worked with children's theater or who has watched her own child talk to an imaginary playmate.

The world of make-believe is presented to the young model and without makeup or direction she is the perfect subject for the photographer. She may play for an hour or a half hour depending on her span of attention to an idea; as many as 50 or 60 pictures may be taken before the photographer gets the exact expression he wants.

Lisa worked last May with a large Santa Clause lollipop to achieve what we will see soon on the December cover of Good Housekeeping magazine. During the hot months of July, she was modeling ski outfits and winter underwear and sleepwear for national advertisements now seen in current publications. Last spring she was wearing winter clothing seen this fall in the 1963-64 Montgomery-Ward catalogue. Her latest TV commercial is one that is sponsoring the Dr. Kildare show. If you buy a Kissy doll for your daughter or granddaughter this Christmas, that is Lisa on the box.

Lisa is paid union wages for modeling and has a social security card.

Daddy Silhanek, son of Mrs. Frederick Silhanek of Lafayette, Ind., and the late Mr. Silhanek, is with the Alexander Proudfoot Co. of New York.

Mama Silhanek is missing the boat. She is as pretty and fetching as any professional model in New York City. She should be right in there with her daughter. But don't tell her we said so. She wouldn't even let us take her picture.

Virgina Boyd Cox, Woman's Editor