Marguerite Empey
Webber in 1955
Playboy centerfold appearance
May 1955
February 1956
Preceded byMarilyn Waltz (April 1955)
Lynn Turner (January 1956)
Succeeded byEve Meyer (June 1955)
Marian Stafford (March 1956)
Personal details
Born(1932-07-27)July 27, 1932[1]
Los Angeles, California, US[2]
DiedAugust 19, 2008(2008-08-19) (aged 76)[2]
Los Angeles, California, US

Marguerite Diane Webber, born Marguerite Empey (July 27, 1932 – August 19, 2008),[2][1][3] was an American model, dancer and actress.

Early life

Born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., the daughter of Marguerite (née Andrus), a Hollywood actress and former Miss Long Beach beauty contest winner,[4] and Arthur Guy Empey. She received her formal education at Hollywood High School. As a child, she received ballet lessons from Russian ballerina Maria Bekefi.

Modeling career

In the early 1950s, while developing her professional modeling career, she found employment as a chorus girl at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco. As the decade progressed, she modeled for many professional photographers, including Peter Gowland, Bunny Yeager and Keith Bernard, appearing in a myriad of men's magazines, such as Esquire, and commercial advertising imagery.

Playmate of the Month

Under the name Marguerite Empey, she was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in both May 1955 and February 1956. The photo shoot for the 1956 publication was shot by Russ Meyer. When she posed for Playboy the second time, Hugh Hefner didn't even recognize her as a Playmate from the previous year.

Album covers and film

Webber appeared on the cover art of several pop music vinyl record albums in the late 1950s-1960s, including George Shearing's Satin Brass (1959), Les Baxter's La Femme (1956) and Jewels of the Sea (1961), Nelson Riddle's Sea of Dreams (1958), Marty Paich's Jazz for Relaxation (1956),[5] Xavier Cugat's Chilie con Cugie (1959), Otto Cesana's Sheer Ecstasy (1960) and the R.C.A. Japanese release of Seiji Hiraoka & His Quartet's Bedtime Music (1965).[6]

In the 1960s and 1970s, she appeared in the movie Mermaids of Tiburon (1962), and an episode of the television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea entitled "The Mermaid" (1967). She also appeared in the film The Trial of Billy Jack (1974).

Nudism

In the mid to late 1960s, as a part of the counter-culture movement in the United States, Webber became involved with nudism and appeared in numerous nudist publications advocating the lifestyle, such as Naked and Together: The Wonderful Webbers by June Lange (1967).[7] In 1965, she traveled to Sioux City to give evidence at the request of a District Attorney's Office in a court trial involving the sending of allegedly obscene nudist publications into the State of Iowa. However, when taking the witness stand, instead of proving the prosecution's case, she gave a spirited defense of the principles of the lifestyle.[8][9]

Middle-Eastern dance

From 1969 to 1980, Webber's professional career was as a bellydancing instructor at the now defunct Everywoman's Village in Van Nuys, California. She occasionally performed this dance accompanied by some of her better students to the accompaniment of Middle-Eastern music in public places in and around Los Angeles.[10][11] She founded Perfumes of Araby,[12] one of the first Middle-Eastern dance companies in the United States. Webber's dancing shows were sensual but didn't pander to a male audience, with women and children often attending the performances. [13] For several years, she led and coordinated these outdoor shows, with up to forty performers taking part.[14]

Cultural references

Her iconic status among Playboy models is referenced in Gay Talese's non-fiction book Thy Neighbor's Wife (1980).[15] Talese had published an extensive article in the August 1975 issue of Esquire, in which Webber is considered an object of fantasy as well as an actual person.[16] Two nude photos of her appear in the article, and one is on the cover.

Personal life

In her final years, Webber was a librarian and archivist for a law firm in Santa Monica.[17]

She married Joseph Webber in 1955 (the marriage ended with a divorce in 1986), from which came a son named John (born 1956).[4]

Webber died on August 19, 2008, in Los Angeles, following complications from surgery for cancer. She was 76.

Filmography

  • This Is My Body (1960, Short) – Herself
  • Mermaids of Tiburon (1962) – Mermaid Queen
  • The Swinger (1966) – Model No. 12 (uncredited)
  • The Witchmaker (1969) – The Nautch of Tangier
  • Sinthia, the Devil's Doll (1970) – The Housewife
  • The Blue Hour (1971) – Belly Dancer
  • The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) – Belly-Dance Instructor (final film role)

Notable TV guest appearances

  • Bold Venture – playing Latin dancer, along with Kathy Kelly and Lisa Gaye, episode 1003, August 1959.
  • Peter Gunn – playing Midge in episode "Scuba" (episode 1.21), February 16, 1959.
  • Highway Patrol – playing Woman in episode "Coptor Cave-In" (episode 18), February 1959.
  • Markham – playing Valerie in episode "The Glass Diamond" (episode 1.8), June 1959.
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents – playing The Other Woman in episode "The Pearl Necklace" (Season 6 Episode 29), May 2, 1961.
  • Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea – playing Mermaid in episode "The Mermaid" (episode 3.19), January 29, 1967.
  • The Stanley Siegel Show – as herself, discussing bellydancing, 1981.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Name: Diane M Webber, State: California". Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 "Playmate listing". Retrieved March 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Marguerite Diane Webber: Diane Webber". December 6, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Biographical website detailing the life of Marguerite Empey.
  5. ↑ Entry for 'Jazz for Relaxation' on Discogs.
  6. ↑ Entry for Otto Cesana's 'Sheer Ecstasy' (1960) in Discogs database.
  7. ↑ Published by Elysium Inc
  8. ↑ "Marguerite Diane Webber".
  9. ↑ "Diane Webber". The Perfumes of Araby.
  10. ↑ Talese, Gay (1980). Thy Neighbor's Wife, Doubleday & Company, page 440, paragraph 2.
  11. ↑ "Demography: The Command Generation". Time. July 29, 1966. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Diane Webber". The Perfumes of Araby.
  13. ↑ "R.I.P. Diane Webber | Scott Pearce.com".
  14. ↑ "Anaheed & the Perfumes of Araby". www.anaheed.com.
  15. ↑ "Web sampler". HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher.
  16. ↑ Talese, Gay (August 1975). "A Matter of Fantasy: First look at his report on sex in America", Esquire, vol. 84, No. 2, Whole No. 501, pp. 49-57 & 144-52.
  17. ↑ "Diane Webber". The Perfumes of Araby. Archived from the original on 2021-02-28. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
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