Artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s naked truth: ‘I was the Playboy cover girl calling the shots’
Marie Jonsson-Harrison is now a well-known Australian artist but she also has a colourful past in modelling which included being on the cover of Playboy.
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Born in Sweden, Marie Jonsson-Harrison moved to SA in 1972. Two years later, she took the plunge by entering a beauty contest … and was signed with Tanya Powell Model Agency.
I won a Beach Girl Quest heat, The News took my photo and it was on page 3. At 17, that was so exciting.
Two days later, Tanya called me.
At the time, I was working at Saville Row as a receptionist/house model but I soon quit because Tanya was starting her agency and getting a lot of work.
I was modelling for Cox Foys, Harris Scarfe, John Martin’s, David Jones, Myer …
I was doing parades nearly every day, and photographs, manufacturing showings … By the time I was 20 I had moved to Melbourne to further my modelling career, and was also being booked regularly in Sydney …
I was travelling back and forth, but always came home to Adelaide to see my parents, Britt and Teddy.
There were parades, commercials and lots of magazine work with Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day …
When you’re a model you are sent on go-sees and in Sydney, I went to see this photographer, Denis Scott, an American over from the Playboy headquarters in Chicago.
He just, you know, fell in love with my portfolio.
I didn’t want to do any nude modelling, so I didn’t, but one of the photos he took of me ended up being a cover shot for Playboy.
I think it was the first time that had ever happened. (Askedwhat her parents thought about her Playboy cover, she says:) Mum and Dad were absolutely fine about it.
Let’s not forget that, being Swedish, they were a lot more broad-minded than I am!
They said, ‘Oh, you’re not doing the naked picture?’
The lead time on a cover was three-to-four months, which meant I was overseas modelling when the magazine came out, so I sort of missed the buzz about it.
Funny thing was, my husband, Bryan, who was my boyfriend at the time, was working as a carpenter, and he went to get lunch at a takeaway shop and there was my cover.
“That looks like Marie,” his mate said, and Bryan said, “Surely, not!”
Then they flicked through the magazine to see whether I was in any more photos.
Playboy then offered to double the fee for a centrefold to try to entice me but I still said no.
I did a lot of magazine shoots in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Spain, Japan … but while it seems like a glamorous world, when you’re there by yourself, you come home at night and feel a bit sad and lonely.
It is when you are in a group that it’s fun.
Once, we were booked to go to Sitges in Spain for a week – me and an American girl, a photographer, lighting person, hairdresser, make-up artist – and it was really fun.
Salvador Dali was there – he had this cliff house – and he had seen or heard of us.
He invited us to his house to meet him and have like a party, or cocktails, or something, and me and the model decided not to go. Our crew turned up and were turned away because they didn’t have “the models”.
I’ve heard lots of debauched stories about him, so it was probably quite lucky!
I came back to Adelaide and won South Australian Model of the Year, and Australian Photographic Model of the Year, and kept on working Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide …
There was a really well known model who was found dead, she had overdosed, it was so sad.
People were saying she was the “It girl” for a while, and then her career started to fade … I thought, “I don’t want to be someone who overstays their welcome. I think I’ll do something else.”
I wanted to be where my parents and boyfriend were, so I enrolled in Adelaide’s Heather Langton Academy of Beauty Therapy, after which mum and I opened a salon at Goodwood.
When we sold it, Bryan and I were living at Mallala, where we had bought a double-storey church.
I was pregnant with our first child, our son Kai – we also have a daughter Hilly. Uncle Jack, Tanya’s husband, who was my obstetrician, said my placenta was coming away from my uterus. I had to take it easy.
My brother, Matt, who is an artist, was the drummer in Clowns of Decadence, and I wanted him to do a mural on the nursery wall.
He did a really fantastic job, but only for a day or two, because then the band went on tour with Steady Eddy. I’d be calling him – “When are you coming back to finish my mural?” – and he was like, “Sorry, sis,” so I thought “I've just got to do it myself.”
I didn’t think I had any talent, but I kept going and suddenly I woke up one day thinking “I can’t wait to paint” and that’s how I fell in love with painting.
(Jonsson-Harrison went on to forge a successful international career as a naive artist).
Modelling is different these days because influencers are also on the scene.
I’m now an artist, influencer and ambassador for Henley Collections, an arty brand. It’s sparkly and bright … all the things that I love about art and life.
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Originally published as Artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s naked truth: ‘I was the Playboy cover girl calling the shots’
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