Chapter 19: Memorial

IT WAS FUNNY that none of us teens who lived here in Tenbrook—even those who had lived here all their lives—knew the 21 Club Bar and Grill down on the corner had once been a thriving hotel. It had two floors above the bar that were just empty hotel rooms, except the one where Garson, the janitor for the bar, lived. Eleven empty hotel rooms!

Part of the deal for Photosensitive Productions to lease the hotel rooms was to keep Garson on as janitor with his own room. He’d be responsible for hiring a bunch of people to come in and scrub the place from top to bottom. We checked the beds and decided new mattresses were in order, even though the bedframes were in pretty good condition. It turned out there was a store in Fulton that could supply mattresses and box springs for all eleven rooms for $47.95 apiece, and they’d remove the old ones. Don ordered pillows and sheets for all eleven beds, and decided we probably didn’t need much in the way of blankets if there was heat in the building.

I was amazed at how much he was willing to shell out for us. None of us was involved in the hotel renovation, which went very quickly. Garson hired every available farm wife and spinster in town and they attacked that old hotel with mops and buckets and a will to restore a village landmark. Pris and her older brother went through the hotel room-by-room testing the circuits and replacing outlets. Debbie’s family happened to be painting contractors and before the week was over, the entire hotel had a fresh coat of paint inside. Judy’s father was a furnace installer and went through the entire heating system to make sure it would stand up to full time residents.

Don hired them all, declaring it to be a local operation. The town was showing some pride in the restoration and Orion Topper, who owned the building and the bar, got an exterior contractor to clean and paint the outside of the building. It was possible other parts of town were going to be cleaned up as well. Mr. Barkley came in and did new window displays for the front of Center Marketplace.

Two desks and a file cabinet were delivered along with the new fireproof cabinet for my photos. These were set up on the second floor and two phone lines were connected. Mr. Barkley was getting some revenue from the unused second floor of the store.

The first resident of the Dutch Arms—a name we discovered when the façade of the building was cleaned—was Chrystal. She’d been commuting from the Hill Motel to the studio each day. She’d had all of us fill out W4 forms and put us on the payroll for Photosensitive Productions. My understanding had been that we’d be paid for our time in Las Vegas. Don said we were on the clock immediately. The girls were all blown away by being salaried at $400 per week starting May 19.

“What are we supposed to be doing?” Debbie asked.

“We’ve got a model coming in on Thursday,” Anna said. “And Chrystal says there will be a film crew in town next week to gather color and atmosphere shots of the town. So, before that, we need to have everything in perfect condition. Pris is busy over at the hotel, but the rest of us need to make sure Center Marketplace sparkles from the Attic to the grocery store.”

One thing about my models and girlfriends, they had never shied away from getting things clean. Chrystal, however, was shocked when she came upstairs from the second floor and saw five sexy teenagers wearing nothing but their tennis shoes as they scrubbed every corner of the studio, restrooms, and dressing rooms, and moved upstairs to dust and clean all the props in the attic.

“Is this how it is?” she asked me as I cleaned lenses and developer trays in the darkroom. I had briefs on.

“What?” I asked.

“They work naked? All the time?”

“Not when we have a model. But from the first, the girls all seemed to consider the studio as a place where they can just cut loose and be free. And I have model releases for all but Ronda and Anna. I can take a camera out there and direct them into poses and take pictures. I can take pictures of Ronda and Anna, too, but I can’t display them,” I said.

“When the camera crew gets here next week, they’ll want pictures in the studio. Do you think they’d run naked for them?”

“No, I don’t. You’ve been accepted as part of our team. Uncle Nate and Don have gone back to Chicago to get the girls there ready to come to Tenbrook. So, they don’t see it as a problem. You’re welcome to join them if you want. But a camera crew is outsiders. You’d need separate permission from each girl to film her in any state of undress,” I said.

“Well, if you aren’t offended by my rolls of flab, I might join them. First, though, we need to go over the shooting schedule for your models and the production purpose of having them here,” she said.

“We need Anna for that conversation. She is master coordinator of our studio.” I called Anna over and she sat on my knee at the table as we went over the procedure and timing of our models coming in.

“Just so we’re clear, Anna,” Chrystal said, “I’m only asking about this so I can run interference outside the studio. I am not trying to infringe on anything you do inside. I recognize you as the manager here. Our employment of you and the rest of the crew is to pay you so you can all dedicate your time to the studio. We don’t have responsibilities for you outside the studio.”

“That’s good, Chrystal. Please let me know if there is anything you need from us. When Cassie gets here there will be two of us focused on the business side of the studio. Just dealing with the consolidation of the two studios and getting our accounting and filing taken care of will keep the two of us busy most of the next month,” Anna said. I didn’t realize it was such a headache.

“The same goes here. If there is something you need, or if the film crews or production crew are in the way, let me know and I’ll take care of it,” Chrystal said.

“Our model today is coming in from Madison, Wisconsin,” I said Thursday morning as we gathered together. “Anna, what’s the order?”

“We have a full, immediate model release from Cora Smith. She is a theatre student at the University of Wisconsin and is hoping to get at least the basis of a comprehensive portfolio put together. She will be staying the night in our hotel and we’ll be able to work more tomorrow morning,” Anna said.

“Okay. We have a spec sheet for her. Judy, pull a range of suitable costumes from ultra-casual to formal. Ronda, she may be overly made up if she is really into theatre makeup. Handle her gently but firmly to get it toned down for photos. Now, Pris, you know the portrait lighting pretty well and we’ll start with the standard blue backdrop, but be ready to move to the theatre backdrops. I think we’ll want one of the very dramatic drops like either the blue night reflection drop or the red spatter. Keep that in mind for where we want to go with costumes, too, Judy. Debbie, be creative. Find me some props that will challenge her to make sense out of. I want to see how good at improvisation she is. We’ll put all ambient light out during the shooting, so let’s draw the drapes.”

We were off and running. I liked what I was seeing. All six girls worked together to get the studio ready for our guest. We had a light lunch ordered from the Bar and Grill, and then met Cora at one o’clock. Guests were now coming up through the store instead of by way of the back stairs.

“Welcome to Attic Allure, Cora,” I said when I met her. She was a dynamo of energy. I’d have to say she was a size twelve personality packed in a size two dress. She had a few things with her and Ronda conducted her to the dressing room. She and Judy helped Cora get ready for her portrait and our model arrived center stage, ready to perform.

We got right to work with the portrait and I started teasing her into positions and expressions that would show a range of ability. We even got rid of the stool for a few shots and I photographed her full length, holding a pair of rubber boots. She got right into it and I got a picture of her pulling the boots on over her high heels.

“Cora, part of the Attic Allure style is to offset a very glamorous pose with a prop that you need to work with. You did a great job with the boots,” I said.

“I’ve got a pair almost like them,” she laughed. “I was raised on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. We needed boots.”

“That’s great. Now, honey, how much exposure are you comfortable with? Some models want extremely sexy photos with partial nudity. Others want a bare look, but no exposure. Some never want to wear less than a hoodie sweatshirt. Where are you on that spectrum?”

She looked around the room and saw the six girls who were my assistants. She nodded.

“I’ve got no issue with nudity. You learn to be pretty free with that in the theatre. I’ve had to strip completely in the wings and put on a new costume in a sixty-second change. Nearly everyone in the department saw my T&A. On the other hand, I don’t want my tits and pubes showing in any photos. So, if we get those in a picture, I’d like to have them cropped out,” she said.

“We can work with that. Let’s start with the classic formal scene. I’ll let Judy help you get ready.” I turned to Debbie, Pris, and Patricia. “I think this is going to go well against the red backdrop from hell,” I said. “Let’s see what we can do.”

We changed the drop and moved in a couple of the falling man silhouettes, which actually did look like they were dancing when they were hung upright instead of sideways. Pris adjusted the lighting and made sure we didn’t have shadows on the backdrop. Cora returned in a gown with a plunging neckline that showed me she had a lot more up top than her portrait outfit had indicated.

“Wow! You look tremendous,” I said. She walked up right beside me and whispered in my ear.

“Not that I’m asking to be molested, but Judy said the experience was pretty intense if I just put my body in your hands and let you pose me however you want. If you happen to touch things you normally shouldn’t, we’ll count it as just part of the scene.”

“I’ll try to be respectful,” I said. “But we might brush together a little. Now you’re in a lovely ball gown and we have some dancing partners here with you. Let’s dance you into position.”

I moved with her as if we were dancing and managed to stand her in a position that looked almost like she was one of the silhouettes herself. I took a picture and moved to a slightly different position.

“Ronda, could you dust the cleavage with a little powder? I’m getting such a shine off the right boob, it’s blinding.” She was right at it and I think Cora was a little surprised that the first one to touch her boobs was not me. I got Pris and Deb to reposition a couple of lights. When Ronda was done, I moved back to Cora and checked her out.

“Do you know how many photographers would have just let the light reflect off my boob instead of having to say anything about it?” she laughed.

“None that care about their subject. Believe me, I want to make this the most glamorous image you’ve ever seen until we set up the next scene. I want your breasts to enhance your sexuality, not detract from it.”

“Have at it!”

And that was the way the afternoon went. We worked for three hours, until we were all pretty much exhausted. There had been a few touches here and there as I positioned her in different scenes. At one point she pretended to be a doll and I had to move her in every minor way I wanted her. I’d lifted a boob playfully and then let it go. Of course, it just went back to its natural position.

“I take it you can’t control these,” I sighed. “We might need some duct tape.”

“That’s cruel!” she cried. “But might work. Do you want to tape me up?”

I didn’t at the time, but I held the idea in reserve.

You’d think that now that I was in the same town with three of my girlfriends and a part-time fuck buddy, I would be having sex all the time. But we all lived with our parents. Patricia came home with me for dinner Thursday but didn’t stay the night. We still had a really nice time.

Kat had one more week of school, but she was finished with her big art project. She was wondering if, now that we were all home, she could have some of the other girls as models. I had to explain that we were supposed to be working full time to prepare what we were going to do in Las Vegas, but I supposed that on days we didn’t have a model client she’d be welcome to come to the studio and try to convince one of them.

I kissed Patricia goodnight and she went home. I took Toni for a dance around the living room and got her ready for bed. It was nice that I had a crib in my room. I would have preferred to have Patricia in the bed with me, but she really needed a night off. She, Anna, and Ronda were going to meet up with Cora and have malts in Huntertown. And I loved taking care of Toni. She was a sweetie and once I’d fed her, she’d sleep for at least four or five hours before she needed to be changed. I got her to sleep and collapsed in bed myself.

“We’re going to move to some more artsy shots this morning,” I said. “Let’s use the abstract backdrop and start with the fainting couch draped in red satin. Judy, I’d like Cora in a black corset and FFNs. High heels and ... Deb, can you find that old top hat upstairs? Pris, let’s go for maximum drama. Wrinkle up the satin so we have lots of folds to catch the light and Ronda, she’ll probably need heavier eye and lip makeup to come across in this scene.”

We all went to work. Anna was at the big table sorting through the proofs from yesterday and marking what we wanted to print today. It was working well to have her processing film as soon as I got it out of the camera. She’d been in the darkroom with me for a while after the shoot the day before, learning how to pull a proof sheet. That would speed the process up immensely.

We got to work and we had a couple of lounging poses on the couch when I told Cora to spin around and put her feet up over the back. I held her as she leaned back with her shoulders and head over the edge. I checked to make sure she could hold the pose for a couple of minutes and she was good. I was afraid if I kept her there too long it would put a strain on her neck, but she was pretty strong.

I borrowed the powder from Ronda and lightly brushed her boobs and upper chest with it, then ran back to catch the picture. When that one was taken, I began stripping the pieces off her, one at a time. The bolero jacket came off, then I unlaced the corset. When I laid her back into position, I was pleased to see that I wouldn’t need to tape her boobs to keep them from collapsing to the sides. I did take a minute to make sure there were no shiny spots anywhere around them, and that the nipples were stiff and upright.

It was a good set and we moved on to the next. We managed four scenes Friday morning and then called it quits.

“Thanks so much for all the hard work, guys,” Cora said. “The proofs look magnificent. I can’t wait to see the final set.” She hugged each of the girls and then gave me a deep and sincere kiss. “Next time, all nude. I’ll have more areas for you to powder,” she whispered.

“I’ll look forward to that. Drive carefully getting home.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the darkroom with a rotation of naked girlfriends—and friends—in it with me. We managed a good set of fifteen prints and I made a second set for the gallery. We all enjoyed rubbing against each other, but we didn’t do any fucking.

Saturday morning, we had a truck to unload. Levi had sent a pretty good selection of the backdrops, costumes, and props to us from Chicago. He didn’t empty the Chicago studio by any means, but we’d be taking a bunch of our favorite things with us to Las Vegas. Don pulled up to the studio and Theresa, Cassie, and Leanne piled out of his car to help us unload and sort things into proper categories. The Tenbrook girls all loved meeting the Chicago girls. When we had the truck unloaded, the girls were shown their rooms in the hotel.

Don took Chrystal into Dubuque and they got back to Tenbrook before dinner time with a twelve-passenger bus. If we needed or wanted to all go someplace, Chrystal would drive us. The first place was to dinner at the Greek place in Huntertown.

“It’s nice to have transportation like this,” I said, “but this is not going to be comfortable for the trip to Las Vegas. I think I’d rather drive my microbus.”

“This is local transportation,” Don said. “You have way too much stuff to transport to Vegas to use something this small. We’ve got a charter bus scheduled for the trip. It will be like taking Greyhound, only the bathroom is clean. They’re big comfy seats that lay back so you can sleep. You’ll have two drivers, so even though they’ll take regular rest stops along the way, it will be a straight through trip. We can make the drive in two days.”

“Sixteen hundred miles? Wow!”

“These guys are used to long haul transportation,” Chrystal said. “I worked with them on a rock band tour and it was nothing to have a thousand miles between gigs. And those band guys travel with a lot of crap and more roadies than bandmembers.”

“Who all is going to be on the bus?” Ronda asked.

“Well, you are the band and the roadies all in one,” Chrystal laughed. “You’ll have the two drivers and me. And I understand the baby’s grandmother is coming, too, right?”

“That’s right. So, fifteen and the baby. How does our crap get transported?” I asked.

“The bus will pull a trailer that’s long enough to put your drops in. Really, guys, you are getting the rock star treatment,” Chrystal said.

Anna and I spent Saturday night in the microbus. Ronda and I were in it Sunday night. During the day on Sunday, we were all at the studio just getting to know each other and trying to organize everything. Chrystal was handling the logistics of how we were getting to Vegas, but we ended up giving the logistics of what was going to Cassie. She was brilliant at it and I was happy once again that we’d hired her. The girls all got along great and when they saw Patricia take her clothes off for her weekly photo with Toni, they all stripped.

Kat wasn’t at all fazed when she came in and saw them all naked. She simply went straight to Ronda and asked her to pose in her corner of the studio. I didn’t get Ronda to pose for me unless we were completely alone and the pictures were just for the two of us.

The next week, the camera crew for atmosphere shots came into town. We stayed dressed in the studio so they could record a kind of mini documentary about Attic Allure. Each of the girls did their spiel about how they became involved and what being an Attic Allure model had meant to them. That ate up the better part of two days before we moved into the street. They wanted pictures of everything they could get in the town and toured every place of business and every street and avenue. They even got us to show them some of the popular make-out places where we went to be alone. We all had to sign special releases for them to film us during the week. I noted Chrystal had edited the releases so they were strictly limited to what we did this week.

Since graduation had been the previous Saturday, Lisa and Jon were out of school and acted the part of high school kids. They even took the camera crew out to Jon’s favorite fishing hole behind his property, where he and Lisa went skinny-dipping. On camera! They also came up to the studio with the rest of the calendar committee and showed the calendar. They talked about how they’d come to Attic Allure to get their senior portraits done and the sexy shots for their calendar. I was privileged to be one of the only people who had a copy of the calendar who wasn’t a member of the Class of ‘69. But I’d also seen every girl in that class naked and had touched most of them intimately.

“Chrystal, why are they going into such detail on profiling the town and interviewing people?” Anna asked. “It seems like they’re doing a lot more than gathering atmosphere shots.”

“A movie has to have a set. Now, none of us know yet what the actual plot of the movie is, but the production company is in negotiations with the village council to set the movie right here. Of course, it would be presented as a fictional town, like Barnstable, Missouri. But they have to have actual streets and storefronts. I doubt that any actual footage they shoot this week will make it into the movie, but there are likely to be some local characters who are given bit parts. Movies need extras to be shopping in the store or walking down the street.”