The face that changed it all
Subtitle: a memoir
By: Beverly Johnson with Allison Samuels ; foreword by Andre Leon Talley
Contributors: Samuels, Allison, author
Edition: First Atria Books hardcover edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9781476774411
Subjects: Actresses; African American models; Models (Persons); Biography
Description: In her revelatory and redemptive memoir, Beverly Johnson, the first African American supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue, recounts her career in her own passionate and deeply honest voice. She chronicles her childhood as a studious, and sometimes bullied, bookworm during the sixties. She left college to pursue modeling and a successful three-decade career followed. Amid glamorous tales of the hard partying of the 1970s and Hollywood during the eighties, she details her many encounters and friendships with the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Halston, Calvin Klein, Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Keith Richards, and Warren Beatty. But she also reveals the demons she wrestled with--her struggles with racism, drug addiction, and an abusive marriage followed by divorce proceedings which tested her fortitude and sanity. She shares for the first time intimate details surrounding her love affair with the late tennis icon Arthur Ashe, and pays homage to her mentor, the late Naomi Sims, while lifting the veil off the complicated and often tense relationships among models. Familiar names from the catwalk, such as Pat Cleveland and Iman, illustrate how each had to fight not just the system, but each other, in order to survive. More than five hundred magazine covers later, Johnson is now a successful businesswoman, actress, women's advocate, and philanthropist. This no-holds-barred look at the lives of the rich, fabulous, and famous is also a story of failure and success in the upper echelons of the fashion world, and how Beverly Johnson emerged from her struggles smarter, happier, and stronger than ever.--Adapted from book jacket.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Who's that girl?; title: Smile; title: Girl on fire; title: New York, New York; title: The goal; title: Friends and foes; title: Naomi; title: "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll"; title: "Darling, you should always wear red!"; title: The distinguished gentleman; title: What's love got to do with it?; title: If it isn't love?; title: The other shoe drops; title: Bob Marley, the Devil, and me; title: Doing bad all by myself; title: Mr .Cosby; title: Iron Mike and real Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; title: Victory is mine!