Dolores Del Monte
Like many of the early Playmates, Dolores didn’t know she was one for quite a few years. 25 in fact! Her modeling career was quite short, but it seems that she had some pretty awesome jobs afterwards.
The name Dolores Del Monte is said to be a pseudonym, but she was born in Spokane Washington on March 15, 1932. According to her official website she moved to Los Angeles in 1950 to pursue her acting career. She became a model for Bruno Bernard, or Bernard of Hollywood, who in turn sold the photos to the Baumgarth Calendar Company in Melrose Park, Illinois. Hugh Hefner relied heavily on the Baumgarth Calendar Company for his early photos, and purchased Dolores’ to publish in his fledgling magazine.
Dolores also lived with artist Zoe Mozert who sold her pinups to the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company for a period of six months. Finally in 1952 she married her high school sweet heart Roy Card. The two lived in San Bernardino California. Dolores was pregnant with her first child, Greg, in 1953 when she received a letter asking for permission to publish her photos in Playboy. She hadn’t heard of the magazine, and thought the photo in question was one of her in a leopard print bathing suit. She signed the offer and thought nothing more of it for 25 years. The photo was actually “Radiant Beauty” and appeared in the March 1954 issue.
Dolores Del Monte in “Spider Pool” with Bettie Page, photo likely taken by Zoe Mozert
Her husband, Roy, was involved with the Titan II Missile Project. Work moved the now five member family to Arizona, Michigan, the Philippines and then Thailand. Roy also happened to be a Landscape and Portrait photographer, and with the help of Dolores, exhibited his work in Thailand. The family moved back to Spokane in 1969 and Dolores became a scarf and scarf clip demonstrator at the Crescent Department Store. After breaking sales records she was promoted to a supervisory position where she toured throughout Western Canada to hire and train personnel in the companies stores.
In 1974, divorced from Roy, Dolores was hired by the U.S. Department of Commerce where she supervised tour guides at the 1974 World’s Fair Expo in Spokane Washington. After the fair ended, she transferred over to the U. S. Commissioner General Officer’s Lounge where she organized, directed public relations, and escorted important guests.
By 1978, married to an insurance broker, she moved to Beaverton Oregon (known as the location of Nike.) In 1979, twenty-five years later, she finally discovered that she had been a Playmate. Her son recognized her name while looking through Playboy’s 25th Anniversary Edition. After the death of her second husband, she moved back to California in 1987. She kept working in public relations and event management, eventually joining up with the Playboy family again where she attended Glamourcon 33, and hosted events and charities with other Playmates.
As of this writing, Dolores Del Monte is still going strong, she even posed for a pinup at the age of 82 for New York Magazine as part of a retrospective on Playboy Pinups.
Dolores at 82 for New York Magazine
