80s model Beverly Johnson, 71, reveals a hotel once drained water from their pool after she swam in it: ‘It was racist!’
Beverly Johnson recalled a racist incident she experienced at a hotel in the 1980s.
The 71-year-old supermodel revealed that a hotel emptied their pool after she swam in it, and said she heard this from her friends many years later in 2012.
‘I didn’t know until we all went to the [late modeling agent] Eileen Ford’s 90th birthday party,” she explained Page six in an interview published Saturday.
“All the models were there,” she recalled. ‘And a girl said to me, ‘Remember when they drained the pool? When you got into the swimming pool of such and such a hotel?’
The actress – who was spotted with her family the day before at her one-woman play off-Broadway – added: ‘I thought, ‘They did that?’ And she said, “Didn’t you know?”
Beverly Johnson, 71, recalled a racist incident she experienced at a hotel in the 1980s; She is pictured on January 4
The supermodel revealed that a hotel emptied the pool after she swam in it, and said she heard about it from her friends many years later in 2012; seen in 1998
The star – who secretly eloped with her financier fiance Brian Maillian in Las Vegas last year – declined to name the hotel or reveal its location.
“So you get a lot of that,” she said of the hateful experiences she faced during her iconic, decades-long modeling career. ‘People who empty swimming pools. It was racist.”
“As a model, there were different types of things that would happen to me because I was black,” she continued.
Despite being one of the most iconic supermodels, she still faced ugly racism, but the entrepreneur remembered a model who always had her back.
‘Lauren Hutton would go to photo shoots and say out loud, ‘Why isn’t Beverly on the cover of magazines? She’s just so beautiful.’
Johnson said it was especially meaningful for Hutton to advocate for her since she was the “it girl” at the time and could help her gain more modeling opportunities.
“Back then, Lauren was on every cover,” she continued. “She was the It girl, so it was important for her to say that out loud at the time.”
This year, Johnson celebrates the 50th anniversary of being the first black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974.
“So you get a lot of that,” she said of the hateful experiences she faced during her iconic, decades-long modeling career. ‘As a model, different things happened to me because I was black’; seen in the eighties
Johnson also recalled that fellow model Lauren Hutton always advocated for her, saying it was especially meaningful because she was the “it girl” at the time; Hutton seen in 1983
This year, Johnson celebrates the 50th anniversary of being the first black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974.
Over the years, she has graced more than 500 magazine covers and worked in theater and television. To commemorate her legacy, she is performing in her untitled off-Broadway play entitled Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE about her story; seen in 1977
Over the years, she has graced more than 500 magazine covers and worked in theater and television.
To commemorate her legacy, she is performing in her untitled, off-Broadway play entitled Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE.
According to the digital program, the show will explore not only her remarkable five-decade modeling career, but also “her unimaginably tumultuous relationships, the truth about Bill Cosby and her involvement in the #MeToo movement.”
She wrote her ‘live autobiography’ together with director Josh Ravetch, about her incredible and iconic modeling career, but also delves into her personal life story.
Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE plays January 9 through February 4 at the 59E59 Theaters.