February Venus: Justine Greiner

 Justine Greiner for February 1982

We have just managed to get February's look at Playmates into the month itself.  An easy winner this month with the erotically charged Justine Greiner in one of Playboy's most overtly sexy centrefolds.

Justine is one of Triple P's favourite eighties centrefolds, not least because with her short, dark hair she goes against the archetype.  Justine is one of those Playmates who came and went without doing any extra work for Playboy.  She was one of the few eighties Playmetes who didn't appear in a Playboy video, for example. This may have been because her pictorial which had been photographed and was scheduled to appear in November 1982 didn't actually appear until February 1984.  Perhaps they lost touch with her.

Justine is a big, strapping girl at 5'9" and 36D-25-35 whereas many of the bigger busted Playmates tend to be on the petite side.  We do know that she appeared under her own name as her sister Corrine Lee (nee Greiner) is an award winning poet.  In the early mid-eighties Playboy pictorials started to get more explicit again having gone back to their early seventies style for some years.  1984 was the year when they pushed the sexual element perhaps more than ever before.  Triple P can still remember buying the issue with Justine's ecstatic hands down her knickers shot.

The strength of her centrefold, shot by Ken Marcus, is her bold gaze, fixed on the viewer whilst cupping and squeezing her monumental bust as she reclines spread-legged in boots and stockings.  Her top half is lit but in her bottom half the only light is a beam focussed on her pussy highlighting her thick bush.  It's not subtle but it is effective!

Sandy Cagle for February 1980

If it hadn't been for the obvious charms of Miss Greiner then this month's winner would have been Sandy Cagle from 1980 as photographed by Pompeo Posar.  Sandy is a real beauty (and not all Playmates are by any means!).  Her thick mane of hair and the fur wrap caress her skin but it's all about those thigh length boots and the enigmatic smile. 

Perfectly perky!

Sandy had been a Bunny girl at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin resort and had already appeared on the cover of Japanese Playboy four times in 1978 (August, September, November and December which must be some sort of record) before being chosen as Playmate.  She would at last appear as Playmate in the Japan edition the following month, March 1980.  Again, Sandy seems to have dropped off the radar since her appearance.

PJ Lansing for February 1972

For some reason all the February centrefolds we like for are mid to late period ones and this one, PJ Lansing (her first names were never given) is the earliest we have chosen this month.  PJ has very pale skin and the neutral pink background really helps to frame her with some colour.

The curled up pose works very well but the act of genius on photographer Pompeo Posar's part is the corner of the sheet over her shoulder.   It gives the impression that she has just emerged from under the bedclothes and is in a rare moment of calm after a lot of frenzied activity. In fact, Posar later said that photographing PJ and making her figure look attractive was a challenge.  Apparently in most poses she looked a bit "heavy" which is what led to this pose.  Contrast this similar attempt with the ceentrefold: same pose but far less successful.  PJ went on to be a Bunny at the Chicago club but other than that she too has disappered into obscurity.  What is it about the February girls?

Anne-Marie Fox for February 1982

Fast forward to the eighties again for the spectacularly leggy Anne-Marie Fox.  You need to have a really exceptional body to pull off such a pose but the aptly named Miss Fox looks fantastic.  A halo of light surrounds her perfect posterior and her skin shines like caramel sauce.  Delicious.

Really, just quite wonderful!

A little bit more is known about Miss Fox.  A dancer (as is obvious) at the time she posed she went on to do a degree in journalism and then went on to study photography at the New York International Center of Photography. She now works as a successful photographer having had work published in Esquire, Elle, George and Mademoiselle, amongst others.  She specialises in celebrity and movie stills work as well as travel and editorial.  She was partly brough up in Heidelberg and after her Playboy stint lived in Milan and Paris.

Kari Kennell for February 1988

Another spectacular centrefold by Pompeo Posar with Kari Kennell.  Kari's legs emerge from that blue dress like the stamens of a flower making you wish that you were a bee.

Kari went on to become a reasonably successful actress (mainly under her real name of Kari Whitman) in films and TV, appearing in shows like Baywatch (inevitably), The X-files, Murder She Wrote, NYPD Blue and Nash Bridges (she was the girlfriend of Don Johnson, the show's star,  for a time).  In 1994 she founded an interior design firm and gave up acting. In 2007 she had her own reality TV series Designer to the Stars: Kari Whitman where she redesigned rooms for celebrities.  She has worked for the likes of Jessica Alba and Martin Sheen and specialises in using eco-friendly materials.

Kimber West for February 1997

Our final February filly is a rare more recent one from 1997.  Kimber West photographed in front of a mirror by Stephen Wayda.  There is someting very Belle Epoque about this shot; from her corset to her splendid hat.

Kimber reminds Triple P of Jade Ewen or Mylene Klass somwhat and she has mixed Spanish, Dutch, Irish, Cherokee and Polynesian heritage which explains her exotic looks.  She has also gone on to do some acting particularly in the Roger Corman series Black Scorpion.