Working Through College in the Nude

Working one's way through college is an honored part of the American dream. But generations and mores change. Most students in need may still wait tables in the student union or type theses on "The Eight-Octave Range in Yrna Sumac's Work," but not all, not all. Consider this report from TIME Correspondent David DeVoss in Detroit:

THE pink nude silhouette pulsates through the translucent blue picture window, beckoning the camera voyeur into the Blue Orchid photographic studio. Like dozens of others that have burgeoned in cities across the land, it panders to the new permissiveness. Rent a model-in-the-raw, only $15 for 30 minutes of poses of your choice, camera provided, film and processing slightly extra. But the Blue Orchid is a little different. In the orange-carpeted room where models await customers, the bookcase is filled with such unlikely tomes as Integrated Principles of Zoology and Quantitative Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Reason: of the roster of male and female models depicted in the Blue Orchid's well-thumbed selection album, 70 men and 140 women are students at nearby Wayne State University, working their way through college in the nude. -

Business is good, admits Owner Don Morgan, 26, himself a graduate of Wayne State --good enough to keep the Blue Orchid open 18 hours a day, seven days a week. "We draw a higher class of voyeur than the X-rated movie house," he says proudly, pointing out that his clientele includes five multimillionaires, one steel-company president, one automobile-company vice president, one prominent policeman and several professors. His female staff is equal in quality, he feels: one is a law student, one a medical student, one the daughter of a faculty member, and among the nonstudents he employs are 15 schoolteachers; 25% of the women are married. Says Morgan: "As a rule the men who come here are shy, timid and extremely polite. Some of them never even bother to take pictures. They just like to discuss their problems with an intelligent nude woman."

Why do the students do it? "The greatest thing about this job," explains a 21-year-old coed, "is that I can work when I want. Actually, it's not work at all.

Most of the men are real nervous, but I open them up and usually they just want to talk." Neither she nor her parents see anything especially wrong with her employ. "My folks know I work here, but they don't mind," she says. "I'm just being nice to lonely old men."

In general the girls work the Blue Orchid simply because it means easy money. They get to keep one-third of the fee (and tips); an attractive girl can earn as much as $100 a day, and $30 is average. Also, the job is as impersonal as nudity can be. The models do not use their names; they merely have numbers that clients can request. Business is strictly legitimate--hands off, no dates. Former prostitutes are allowed to work at the Orchid, but if they are caught soliciting they are asked to leave. A few girls think the whole idea is rather kinky. As No. 32, who has since quit in disgust, admits, "Working here did amazing things to my ego. I don't have that good a body, but men kept complimenting me. I had visions of being Raquel Welch. I had regular customers that I had to arrange classes around. I always came over here after lunch and work to catch the business lunch and rush-hour commuter trade." Says No. 144, as she waits for her father to take her home for dinner: "It is kind of exciting to know that a strange man at any hour of the day could be looking at your picture."

In fact, not many girls end up in private albums. Says Morgan: "Most guys take the pictures or film out the door and ditch them in the street." Some of the models are equally furtive. As one girl recalls: "There was a beautiful, rich, suburban teen-ager who came down one night.

There were five of us here that night, but she got every job that walked in the door. She was double-jointed and really turned them on." But she never came back.

The Detroit police take a dim view of the operation, but there is nothing illegal about it. "A lot of things we used to believe to be obscene are now considered art," says Inspector William Hart, chief of the vice squad. "We just try to stay on top of the situation and keep such places out of the residential areas." School officials are even less happy about the way some of their students are picking up money. As one administrator puts it: "It may take more time away from their studies, but we'd rather see our girls in a steno pool fully clothed than standing naked in front of a couple of high intensity lamps."

Says Hap Harbison, director of placement at Wayne State:

"Classical nudity is okay, but I won't advertise a job opening at one of those places.

Maybe I'm oldfashioned, but I'm not going to let my office become a clearinghouse for that kind of job." The models hardly need Harbison's assistance. "I saw the ad in the campus paper," says one. "When I found out that the Orchid paid four times as much as the school art department, I decided to work here. My husband came with me the first day, just to make sure everything was on the level." Adds No. 35: "I was bored with what I was doing, so I came here out of curiosity. I didn't need the money, but it sounded interesting. Some of the requests [for poses] are pretty gross, but I think it's exciting to take my clothes off."

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