I’ve been trying to find a Playmate, but I’m not having much luck.
I don’t mean that in the generic sense. I’m talking about an actual Playboy Playmate.
Many, many moons ago, when the idea of putting clothes on centerfolds was incomprehensible, a woman from Akron made big waves. But nobody seems to know what became of her, including Playboy.
Let’s hop in Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine and dial up February 1966 — exactly 50 years ago.
The Playmate of the Month, a woman who gave new meaning to the term “buxom” (run a Google search), was identified as Melinda Windsor, a 21-year-old student at UCLA who was born in Akron, Ohio.
She got plenty of exposure, in more ways than one: At the time, Playboy was selling more than 5 million copies a month.
Things turned odd after a West Coast newspaper wanted to do a story about her. UCLA said it had no record of a student by that name.
Readers wondered what kind of stunt Playboy was trying to pull. The magazine responded by saying she was indeed a student when she posed in the fall of 1965, but she didn’t attend during the winter semester — and that she had used a pseudonym.
We are told she was born June 25, 1944. I’ll do the math for you: If she’s still alive, she’s 71.
I think it would be great fun to learn how she views that era now and how the rest of her life turned out. So would a lot of other people, apparently.
Believe it or not, there is a Yahoo group called “Melinda Windsor — a Tribute to the Loveliest Playmate of the 1960s” that has 3,988 followers.
You read that right. A Yahoo group honoring a centerfold who posed 50 years ago has 3,988 members.
Despite all that interest, nobody in the group has been able to discover what became of her.
They did manage to trace her farther than most, assuming their (oft-uncited) sources are accurate.
One frequent poster wrote that she completed her baccalaureate requirements in psychology but postponed her plans to attend grad school, where she had hoped to wind up with a Ph.D. in literature and become a teacher.
Windsor earned her undergraduate degree the hard way: She worked at an insurance agency during the day and took classes at night.
Her financial cause was aided by about $1,500 for the Playboy shoot — the equivalent of $11,000 today.
In 1967, Windsor journeyed to the opposite coast, becoming a Bunny at the Baltimore Playboy Club. After that, the trail turns cold.
Which might be just the way she wanted it. In addition to using the pseudonym, she doesn’t seem to have done any promotional work for the magazine.
So I’m asking you, my readers, all of whom are above average: Does anyone in her hometown know what happened to her, or at least know her real name?
If you do and you’re willing to share, my contact information is three-sixteenths an inch below where your eyes are right now.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31