Scout has eye for female form

Polly Peluso has worked the kind of jobs any guy would love. From judging beauty pageants and managing models to scouting for Playboy bunnies, the Las Vegas woman is constantly surrounded by the finest of the feminine form.

In her current work as a newspaper and magazine columnist, Peluso rubs shoulders with the rich, famous and beautiful in Las Vegas and Hollywood.

Peluso's Hollywood career began in the Columbia Studios mail room. Service men would send in $1 and a request for a photo of Rita Heyworth. Peluso and the mail room staff would grant the requests.

Eventually Peluso was discovered in the mail room. She did a bit of acting and worked as Heyworth's stand in. The stand in's future career was jump-started when her kids got into acting.

The mother of three found herself working part-time, for free, for children's agent Lola Moore. With the agent's help, Peluso's daughters and son were featured in countless commercials from the first Cran-apple juice spots to the first Barbie doll advertisement.

The kids had guest shots on television shows such as "J. McPheffers," "Leave It To Beaver," "The Dinah Shore Show," "The Untouchables" and "Lost in Space," and daughter Joy had a lead role in the pilot for "Window on Main Street."

With all the experience Peluso gained, she and a partner opened a talent agency in California called Lane Peluso. Within no time, her reputation had expanded and she got a call from Playboy. They wanted her to help start a Playboy Models West Coast office. Peluso had never even peered between the pages of Playboy, but still she went for it.

Life in the Playboy empire was no picnic. Peluso was always afraid for her own safety and that of her girls. She constantly screened callers to make sure they had legitimate credentials, real offices and weren't after pornography.

Still, threats were common and one of the office secretaries was even kidnapped. Peluso recalled the day an irate fan came into the office and demanded she present him with a playmate.

"I'm a member of the Playboy club," he shouted, "I have a key and I know I have a right to any girl I please."

Peluso calmed the man and assured him he was right.

"Just let me go into the other room for a moment and get our model casting book. That way you can pick out any girl you like and I'll have her come over," she said. Peluso left the room, locked the door and called security.

"Judging pageants was hard too. When you're picking the winners and losers, some people have hard feelings," Peluso said.

When Peluso acted as a scout for Playboy on the beauty pageant judging circuit she suffered death threats and attempts on her life.

Through the years Peluso judged more than 1,000 beauty pageants from Miss America to Miss London.

"All the girls wanted to know me because they thought it would help them win the pageants and every womanizing man in the world wanted to know me so he could maybe get in good with some pretty girls," she said.

After her stint with Playboy, Peluso helped organize Cosmopolitan Model and Talent Agency.

"The man who put up all the money was the acting secretary of state of the state of California, Milton Shoong. His father founded China Town in San Francisco," Peluso said.

Model scouting hasn't been Peluso's only pursuit. Since she was already on the scene at so many Hollywood parties and had so many big-name friends, local California newspaper and magazine editors convinced her to write a few columns.

During her time in Hollywood she served as vice-president of the Hollywood Press Club. Her beauty pageant career was detailed on a California television series and she's been interviewed by everyone from Johnny Carson to David Letterman.

Her wildest adventure was publishing a book in Japan titled "How to Look Good After 62." Now that she's 77, the author has changed the title to "How to Look Good at Any Age."

When the Cosmopolitan agency closed, Peluso, then age 65, was convinced she was Hollywooded out, so she decided to retire and move to Las Vegas.

"I retired for about three weeks," she said, "Then I got a job at the Lenz Agency."

Peluso went back to talent scouting and writing. Even now she regularly writes for the Las Vegan magazine, Spotlight magazine, Society magazine, the Spanish language monthly La Rivista, Avista magazine and at least five California newspapers.


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