Playgirl Searches For 'Harvard-types' To Pose in April

Playgirl magazine began a search this week for "Harvard-type" men to pose for an April 1979 photo layout.

Playgirl announced the Boston-wide search in an advertisement in this week's Real Paper. The ad begins in heavy black type "Playgirl 'Invades' Harvard," and solicits "good-looking, enthusiastic" models.

"Basically what we mean by 'Harvard-type' is clean-cut as compared to a long-haired, musician type," Selina Mellis, a local professional photographer in charge of interviewing and taking preliminary shots of models, said yesterday.

Playboy's recent appeal for models among the ranks of Radcliffe was not the inspiration for Playgirl's advertisement, Mellis added.

Jim Chada, art director for Playgirl, said last night he wants Harvard men because the magazine is in the process of upgrading its image.

"We'd like to throw more sophistication into nudity," Chada said, adding that he hoped to downplay the "beach-boy" image in the future.

The photo essay probably will run six to eight pages, but whether the models will pose in the nude or receive centerfold attention remains undecided. "We have to be concerned about the stuffier East Coast audience," Chada said.

Harvard students reacted the advertisement with mixed amusement and indifference. "I find nothing offensive about the ad, and I'm sure that there will be some people who will model, but I won't be one of them," Douglas A. Ames '80 said yesterday.

Michael Lynton '82 said Harvard is too small for anyone to consider following up the ad seriously. "If this were the University of Maryland with 50,000 students," Lynton added, "then the response would be much greater."

Those students who expressed any interest in posing for Playgirl cited the pay as the primary attraction.

Mellis said a pay scale has not been established, but that the men who have contacted her have not asked about money. "The serious ones I've talked to seem to be interested for the sake of fun and modeling exposure," she said.