Thing of Beauty

HUGH DOWNS TURNS TO FACE the camera and reads a teaser for the next segment of the January 6, 1983, edition of 20-20.

"Well, next," he says, "inside the world of the fashion model . . . a world that is not always as it appears. Right after this."

After the commercial, Downs introduces Tom Hoving, who presents a report that's supposed to detail "the dark and anxious side of the modeling business" but manages nevertheless to make the whole enterprise seem extremely glamorous. There's top model Christie Brinkley being coaxed by a photographer to "look at me like you're naked. That's it. Fabulous." After the shooting, Brinkley says she'll never have to worry about money again.

"Once you make it, you become a member of an exclusive international club," Hoving reports, "where the sun always shines, the parties are glowing; a land where there's no ugliness, no sickness, no poverty; a land where dreams come true and everyone is certified beautiful. … "

Hoving then takes the viewer through the cattle-call auditions and announces that there are 7,000 girls in New York who "call themselves models … of these, 500 are the so-called 'glamour guns' who get most of the work or money." Several models attest to how difficult the grind of traveling and groveling for work can be. John Casablancas, president of Elite, the top modeling agency of the moment, explains that "when success comes, they have a moment where they appreciate it very, very much, but it's very, very short ... they get too much too quickly."

Then the camera cuts to Francesco Scavullo's photography studio on East 63rd Street. Scavullo, of course, is beyond "top." He's Scavullo, king of the one-namers. Decades of Cosmo and Vogue covers hang on the high, white walls. The girl on many of those covers — who's now being made up for a photo session — is Gia, the former Gia Carangi, a 22-year-old from Northeast Philadelphia who once made a living serving hoagies in her father's shop. Now she's a top model. And of all the top models in New York, she is the best possible example 20-20 could find of someone who got too much too quickly.

When her makeup is completed, Gia begins working. "Now, bring your eyes slowly after each pop of the camera," Scavullo tells her. "Great. Like that. Tum your head over a bit ... fabulous, fabulous. Laugh, laugh. Beautiful. Marvelous."