Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Cathee


 Cathee Dahmen was a popular model in the '60s and '70s. She was half German on her father's side and half Native American on her mother's, but raised in Minnesota. She was the fourth of nine children. After her father died, her mother remarried. During her childhood and early teens, she was an overall good student until she became boy–obsessed, tattooing the name "Jim" in small blue letters six inches above her left knee when she was thirteen. She also tattooed her initials ("CVD" for Cathee Veronica Dahmen) on her left hand between her forefinger and thumb, and on each wrist she tattooed a tiny blue dot. She became pregnant at 17 but her mother gave the daughter (nicknamed Cricket) up for adoption in 1963. Cathee almost became a dropout, but she went to live with an uncle (artist George Morrison) in Rhode Island to complete school. She wrote poetry, modeled a bit, but was rather "plain" until she was discovered by Antonio Lopez (who became an acclaimed fashion illustrator) after he drew a cartoon of her, only with his own curly hair on her head. She liked the effect of the kinky hair and her own huge eyes, and decided to copy the hairstyle by getting a perm. She had to get a very low–brow beauty shop to perm her hair in the style of Clara Bow and Shirley Temple, which even Antonio (in an interview for Eye) admitted was a bit "ugly". Antonio introduced her to the fashion world in New York, starting with Eileen Ford and Richard Avedon. She hit the high point in her career in the late sixties, working for Ford Models and appearing in fashion magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Elle, and The New York Times. For a time, she was considered the main rival to Twiggy, but she refused this, saying "That's a touchy subject. I like Twiggy very much. She's very sweet and innocent . . . Twiggy's blonde, and her hair is straight. I have curly dark hair. And I'm taller. I'm 5 feet 7. They say she's 5 feet 7, but she's not . . . You know, she can't spell, and she's very... You know, she just needs Justin." Cathee's look advanced over the years, loosing her 'signature' hairstyle for a variety of looks, once even appearing without eyebrows.
  Cathee became very much a part of the scene in New York City, living in the East Side and hanging out at the famous Max's Kansas City and the Electric Circus nightclub throughout the seventies and into the eighties. She married British actor Leonard Whiting in 1971 and moved to London. They had a daughter, Sarah. In 1977 they divorced, and she married singer Alan Merrill, with whom she had two children, Laura and Allan Jr. Cathee retired from modeling in 1980, and passed away from emphysema 1997.
 Cathee on her look: "In real life, it's true I wear a mask just because I wear a lot of makeup. But psychologically, it's true also. People stop and look at my face. It's strange. It's a challenge. My hair, my eyes. It makes them stop and think. It makes them wonder. I guess that's why I wear a mask."



















































 With Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall






(Quotes from Eye Magazine, March 1968. Photos from Eye Magazine, Radical Rags, Youthquakers, and Cathee Dahmen Facebook.)

22 comments:

naivebones said...

she is so beautiful! lovely blog ^.^ xxx
http://naivebones.blogspot.com

beatlebuddy said...

wow! she is amazingly beautiful! good work as always.
Beatle buddy

Ambía Sachs said...

Cool! That's my boyfriend's mom! She was very beautiful. His name is spelled Allan not Alan, he also takes after her A LOT. The last picture is of her feeding him, very cute.

Kaitlyn said...

Joanne- How awesome!! Sorry for the misspelling, I think I got that information from his father's fansite actually. I can't imagine what a male version of Cathee would look like, hahaha. Glad you like the post. :)

Ambía Sachs said...

Yeah I was just showing him this post. He never saw some of the pictures here so thank you! He also says its true that she was a quiet person and extremely tough. I was thinking of posting up some family pictures of her and him on my blog. As of late we were thinking about making art influenced by their Chippewa culture. He remembers her making a lot of beaded things, as well as awesome story telling. Yeah he definitely looks like her, I always tell him he should model.

Suzie Smith Fedorko said...

Thanks for Curating these lovely photo's/storyline about my Mother.. She is stunningly beautiful and very versatile in her poses. She is graceful and always classic.

I wish that I had known her in life, although I am home with her family now after all these years.

Love from her family in Minnesota.
xo

Barb C said...

I am so honored to have known Catherine. I remember when she was just a kid, skinny and quiet. She wanted to hang out with her sister Elaine and I but we always ran from her.."too young" we'd aay. She became such a beautiful lady, I didn't see much of her after she moved to New York and made a name for herself. She lived with Elaine the last months of her life that is the last time I saw her. Suzie, you must be bursting with pride. It's a shame that you didn't get to know her in her living years.

Anonymous said...

cathee used to model for our illustration class at fashion inst.of tech. back in the day.i loved drawing her.

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Anonymous said...

I worked with Cathee in her post modeling career when she worked at a fortune 50 company. It was close to 30 years ago, and I still remember our conversations. I loved her stories and unique perspective on life. She was smart, interesting and humble given her great accomplishments. Im honored to have known Cathee. May she Rest In Peace.