By Barbara Nordin

This week, while being assaulted by our culture's round-the-clock advertising blitz, pay attention to the models. How many are gorgeous, youthful, svelte? And how many are ordinary, graying, or overweight? If you're living in the same culture I am, the gorgeous will outnumber the non-gorgeous about a thousand to one.

So it may surprise you to learn there's an industry that makes its money on the premise that most models aren't gorgeous, and that senior citizens are really hot. How do they do it?

The same way all scam artists do it, whether the scam is three-card monte or modeling for the masses. First, they give you reason to think you just might win; then they pocket your money, secure in the knowledge that when you realize you've been taken, you're not likely to fight back.

But bless those souls who do. "Alice Stone" is one of them, and though it took almost four years, in the end she prevailed. I wish I could say I'd predicted her victory, but I can't; from the beginning, I thought Stone's chances were almost nil-- which makes reporting her triumph that much sweeter.

In February 1997, when she was 60 years old and size 16, Stone paid Pro Images Studios $300 for their guarantee of three paid modeling assignments within the next year. She had heard the company's spiel at the Boar's Head, filled out an application, and posed for a picture. After that, even though Pro Images' handout had stated that she would receive a confirmation letter and fact sheet, nothing happened.

Three months later, she wrote the company at their international headquarters in Riverdale, Georgia (not to be confused with their national headquarters in Charleston, Illinois), to say she'd never received either document and that she'd paid her $300 "in good faith, based on your... [representative's] statement... that senior citizens had a 98% chance of being selected for modeling assignments."

The documents arrived the next month, in June 1997, but no modeling assignments followed. In October, Stone let me know that Pro Images was again coming to Charlottesville, and I attended a session at the Days Inn. By then I had heard Stone's story and was curious to see how the company operated.

The presentation was slick, but when I confronted the salesman with Stone's experience, the cracks started to show-- and no one hung around to give him any money.

By then, Stone had written the company again, and this time Model Director Kimberly Grooms sent her a brand-new contract, dated October 31, 1997, that guaranteed three modeling assignments. Yet again, nothing happened.

Stone wrote to complain for a third time in June 1998 and received a startling reply. First, the letter stated, her photograph had appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of Model Look International (which, although this was not mentioned, is a Pro Images publication). And second, Pro Images had actually sold Stone "advertising space"-- which, by appearing in Model Look International, she had received.

Advertising space? What about modeling assignments? Well, those were still possible: If Stone hadn't received three bookings by October 31, 1998, she could just pay more money and re-up for another year.

Naturally, nothing happened. Her lawyer wrote the fourth letter and, among other things, pointed out that "Pro Images Studios and their named representative... are neither registered with the State Corporation Commission nor doing business under a fictitious name certificate in this locality." The gloves, in other words, were off.

Pro Image wasn't quite ready to forfeit, however. Finally, in October 2000, Stone took them to Charlottesville's small claims court and won. The next month she received a check for the $300 fee plus court costs, along with a rather sour note from the company's lawyer.

Apparently Goliath-- even in the guise of the international headquarters of Pro Images Studios-- was no match for a well-aimed slingshot.

If you've had first-hand experience with outfits like Pro Images or the group I wrote about last week, Models Net International, I'd like to hear from you: perhaps together we can diminish Charlottesville's charms for this particularly low brand of huckster.

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