98 APRIL 2020 VOGUE.COM
I
grew up in Tennessee,
playing chase out in
the country and riding
horses from a very
early age. I won the
Miss Teenage
Memphis pageant when I was
16, though I didn’t even make
it into the finals at Miss
Teenage America. The woman
who took the crown did
the hula for her talent, and
I couldn’t compete! But it was
all based on how photogenic
you were, and two years later,
I won Model of the Year on a
network television pageant; I
was blessed. It was just a roll of
the dice that my face would be so symmetrical.
People in the industry suggested I come to New York,
but my parents and I both agreed that I should graduate
from high school first. My grandparents gave me a trip
to Europe before I moved because I’d never been inside a
museum before. And when I did arrive in New York, it
was just mind-blowing to be there. One of my first breaks
was Bert Stern shooting me for Vogue in 1969 (above).
I look very stiff in the photographs because I hadn’t
figured out how to move in front of the camera yet.
I didn’t have very many pictures in my portfolio, but I
kept going to the magazine offices—on “go-sees,” as they
used to call them. One time, late
in the afternoon, I was called in for
Glamour, and the photographer
Frank Horvat said, “She’ll do.” The
next morning we headed down to
Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West for what turned
out to be my first cover shoot. Back then, a lot of people
in modeling wanted you to pose: to put your hand on your
hip and hold your other arm out, almost like a teapot. It’s
so old-fashioned; no one does it anymore. But I remember
Frank saying, “Stop posing—just look at what you’re
looking at, and think what you’re thinking.” It simplified
Fo c u s
Fe a t u r e
At 70 , actress and
former Vogue cover
star Cybill Shepherd
reflects on a five-
decade career in front
of the camera, and
what it means to still
feel “Worth It.”
SWING VOTE
SHEPHERD, AGE 19, IN
HER VOGUE DEBUT,
PHOTOGRAPHED BY
BERT STERN, 1969.
