Yes, THAT Hemingway

You may have noticed a couple of shots from the 2019 issue where Anne de Paula and Robin Holzken are posing on trucks labeled “Hemingways.”

This is part of the Hemingways Collection, a trio of luxury, amenity-filled resorts. SI made ample use of their safari experience for 2019’s Kenya shoot.

The name of the resorts is inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s fondness for Kenya, but something tells me Ernest probably roughed it more than this Simba Tent with enormous double bedrooms and on-site butler.

In any case, this truck is not the first Hemingway to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. This is Margaux (née Margot) Hemingway. She was Ernest’s granddaughter.

She’s another Cindy/Amber/Sarah girl: one-hit wonder, and only one photo from that year.

Here she is as she was revealed to readers in 1975, nestled between already-established SI swimsuit royalty Cheryl Tiegs on the left, and rookie superstar-in-the-making Christie Brinkley on the right.

Her story has a sad end. She was mired in addiction, a faltering career, and depression, and she committed suicide in 1996.
 

I have occasionally wondered if she’s the only SI swimsuit model who is no longer living. She might be. I haven’t done any deep research into it, because it would be time-consuming and morbid. But it’s a magazine with over half a century’s worth of models. Margaux just might be the first casualty.

Yes, THAT Monica Bellucci

One of the newly announced Bond Girls is a Sports Illustrated one-hit wonder. Monica Bellucci graced us in 1991.

  • • •

UPDATE: By request, here is the only other Monica shot I know of from that year.

Yes, THAT Erin Gray

She’s much more famous as the lovely Colonel Wilma Deering in the “Buck Rogers” TV show from the 70s. I never watched a single episode of that show, so I mainly know her character for her rainbow of spandex jumpsuits.

But before that, she was a two-time SI model, appearing in 1967 and 1969. Here she is in the latter issue.

This interview has some choice quotes on her costume.

They wanted it very form-fitting and tight. That’s all I knew. I didn’t know...it’s interesting, because I came from the world of modeling and fashion, so I wasn’t really shocked or uncomfortable about wearing the costume. I’d been one of the original Sports Illustrated models, so my sexuality, showing my body, I was comfortable with that. The thing was, I didn’t mind being on-camera that way, but I couldn’t walk around the studio with my spandex – I always had to wear a bathrobe over it [laughs]!

I’ll never forget, one time I was at home and looking at an episode of Buck Rogers, and there was a moment when I walked away from the camera, so I’m seeing myself from behind – and I blushed. I was thinking that was quite – ahem! [laughs]

I see.

Today is Erin’s 63^rd birthday.

Happy travels, space lady.