Here’s a bit of info about the ever-popular Teri Martine. I sure lots of my readers can add to this. I think Pamela Green and Teri Martine only met once. By the time Teri was modelling for George Harrison Marks, Pam had taken a back seat in the business.
Teri Martine was born in 1944, in Southend, Essex. In her late teens, she answered a modelling ad in the local newspaper The Southend Standard. At the interview in front of the lens, she felt awkward, but luckily she was very photogenic and it led to her first booking. It was an amateur camera club at the same studio she was interviewed in. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the photographers happened to be her dad’s best friend Peter Starling. He naturally assured her that he wouldn’t tell.
Teri Martine worked as an amateur model for a year and went under the name of Valerie James. By 1964, she was getting so many bookings as an amateur model that she quit her job as a manageress of a local boutique and went professional. Going professional at the age of 20 she changed her name to Teri Martine. Now, you may have wondered how she arrived at this name, the long and the short of it is she was engaged to two young men. One by the name of Terry and the other was Martin, the latter being her first husband. Teri also modelled under the alias of Julie Nash and Cleo Kane.
She joined the Rosaleigh Ann Model Agency run by a gentleman called Mr. Walker or as the girls called him ‘Granny Walker’. He liked the girls to sit on his lap when he was interviewing them. She worked for him for several months, when June Palmer approached her to join her agency. Working for Granny Walker and June brought in lots of work, which included amateur camera clubs, commercial advertising, magazines, auto shows and promotions. You name it, she did it. She became successful and extremely well known on the modelling circuit. Her first publication was on the front page of the Reveille.
George Harrison Marks met Teri Martine via June Palmer Model Agency in 1966. She did five stills shoots Harrison Marks between March and November. She really enjoyed what she was doing and it showed. George featured her in two of his 8mm films: Favourites of the Pharaohs (1966), which was filmed on the Egyptian set of The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1966), and the rather less ambitious Everything is Lovely in the Garden (1967). George and Teri dated for a while around this time.
One of the more peculiar jobs Teri got was for a photographer that made vinyl and latex garments. This kind of thing was increasingly popular and it wasn’t long before Teri was a regular feature in such magazines as Pussycat, Bizarre and Latex Nurse.
Teri went to the U.S. in 1969 and got married for the second time to a G.I., who she was pen pals with while he was in Vietnam. They wrote to each other for 3 years before she went to the United States. She worked at the Playboy Club for about six months as a ‘Bunny’ then answered an ad in a Chicago newspaper for glamour models. After several months working as a model, she was asked how she felt about being tied up and gagged. Assured it was all play-acting and a bit of laugh she agreed to give it a shot. She soon realised it was fine and above board and quickly carved out a name for herself as a bondage model.
Hopefully one of these days I’ll do a proper interview with Teri.
You should definitely interview her. Be interesting to hear some of the history of British Cheesecake firsthand!
Are you aware she is a regular seller on ebay ? She has some good older stuff, and also some more recent photos. She is in the process of writing her memoirs. Good luck with the interview plans.
Thanks. Have been in touch with her sometime ago. Need to make contact again.
Wonder what happened to Judith Wilson and Kim Stratton
Also was curious if Teri ever met any of the Beatles
I can’t help you with that one I’m afraid. Teri is still around. Sells a lot of pictures on ebay. You can contact her there. She may know what happened to Judith.
Nice! Thanks for sharing your thoughts…