It was a warm day, uncomfortably warm, inside Cleo Johnson`s School of Charm and Modeling Agency on Chicago`s South Side.
Despite the lack of air conditioning, approximately 30 girls and boys 3 to 12 years old sat attentively before Cleo Johnson. The children, some wearing the latest formals and others in stylish casual wear, were all neatly dressed and groomed.
”Now,” Johnson asked in a calm, even voice, ”who can tell me what a professional model is?”
One of the older children rose and, with a clear, sure voice, her head held high, responded: ”A professional model is a woman or man who serves as a pattern worthy of being imitated or followed.”
”That`s right,” Johnson said. ”But there are qualifications. What are those qualifications?”
Another child stood. ”The qualifications are PPC: poise, personality and charm.”
Johnson, owner and instructor of the charm school, continued to speak about the importance of a well-controlled body, self-assurance and other qualities demonstrated by professional models.
”And now,” she said, ”let`s not just talk about these things. Let`s see them.”
Immediately several children jumped out of their chairs and assembled at one side of the room as Johnson walked to a record player. The song chosen to get the children in the mood: Madonna`s ”Vogue.” While the song is about
”voguing,” a form of dance where one strikes poses in time with the music, these children weren`t pretending to model by dancing. This was the real thing.
Next, Johnson asked each to demonstrate a walk. ”Walk like the (African) natives with baskets on their heads,” Johnson said encouragingly. ”Walk in beauty.”
One by one the children walked across the room, punctuating their paths with graceful turns and twirls.
”Beautiful,” Johnson said as the last child finished her walk.
Beauty is in every part of Cleo Johnson`s life. A former model, Johnson radiates beauty.
Johnson, whose school is now at 8445 S. Cottage Ave., has been teaching children and adults basic modeling techniques and charm for 36 years. Courses are tailored to her students` needs and may run six weeks to a year. A course consists of two two-hour classes per week for adults, one weekly two-hour class for children 3 to 12, and one for 13- to 18-year-olds.
A few of her students will go on to be professional models, doing print and runway work, even appearing on television. Others may choose careers unrelated to modeling, but they will apply what they have learned from Johnson`s classes to their lives.
The most important thing that Johnson teaches in her classes is inner beauty, Johnson says. Johnson stresses self-confidence and motivation, ”which greatly increase a person`s opportunities for success,” she said.
Johnson knows what it takes to be a success. She has made it her goal to pass this knowledge on to people in her community to aid them in achieving success.
”I`ve had some of every career type of person come through (this school),” Johnson said. Many types of professionals, from ministers to business people to journalists, have taken Johnson`s classes for self-improvement rather than modeling techniques.
Toni English, a journalist and former student of Johnson`s, says that Johnson helped her to improve her self-expression. ”She has taught me the right way to deal with people: If you can contribute something (to them)
that`s good, you get something good back.”
Johnson said that some of her former students are now modeling professionally in Europe. Another models for Fashion Fair cosmetics ads.
One of Johnson`s most successful models was the late jazz singer Minnie Riperton. Riperton was sent to Johnson by Epic records at the beginning of her singing career in the early 70`s. The company wanted Johnson to polish her image.
”She was truly a beautiful lady,” Johnson recalled. ”She was successful not because of her money-not that. She expressed herself, and she was determined.”
Determination is a quality that Johnson finds admirable because she herself is so determined. Without her vision and drive, many of her professional models would not have contracts-only dreams.
”I refuse to move, to go downtown. I`ve turned down a lot of money and
(business) offers to stay here on the South Side,” she says.
”When I started out, there was nobody out there trying to help these kids, so I said, `I`m going to help them.` And I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have.”
”I`ve learned a lot from Ms. Johnson,” says 13-year-old Velia Thompson. Thompson has been Johnson`s student for 10 years.
”I used to be kind of shy,” she says. ”I`ve learned to look at myself in a different way. She taught that I can do anything I want to do.”
Born in Louin, Miss., Johnson said her love for fashion began at a young age.
”Even as a child, I was so interested in fashions,” she said. ”I wanted to create and design-even at the age of 4! I didn`t have a lot of dolls, so I took (soft drink) bottles and draped fabric around them.
”I`d also always liked to be seen,” she continued.
”My mother told me that one day (my name) would be in lights,” Johnson said. ”All through my life, she was really the one that motivated me.”
After moving to Chicago and graduating from Wendell Phillips High School on the near South Side, Johnson married her husband Willie in 1947. She said he ”has been and continues to be one of (her) greatest inspirations” because of his dedication and support over the years.
With Willie`s encouragement, she began attending Taylor`s Trade School in downtown Chicago to learn dressmaking, but a small disaster with a blouse caused her to lose interest in that aspect of the fashion industry.
The instructor ”made me take out a blouse three times,” Johnson recalled. ”She always said, `If you don`t do it right, take it out.` I decided that was not for me.”
Johnson also began attending local fashion shows, which helped to keep her interest in fashion alive. She decided to become a model in a time when the demand for models of color was low.
In 1950 she enrolled in the now defunct Academy of Charm, at that time a small school in downtown Chicago, to learn modeling techniques. There she met the woman who later would become one of her greatest inspirations: the late Lois Etzold, the school`s director.
Even though Johnson had her beauty and Etzold`s helping hand, she says that there was one adversary that she had to overcome: the racially divisive attitudes of the `50s.
”When I was (growing) up, I wanted to be so many things,” she said. ”I wanted to be a designer, I wanted to be a nurse. And people kept saying to me, `You can`t do that because you`re black.` I got tired of that. I got tired of those words: `because you`re black.`
”So I said to myself, `I don`t care what people say,` ” she said.
” `I`m going to be a top professional model.` And I started out.”
”The charm school was segregated,” she recalled, ”and the owner of the school didn`t want Ms. Etzold taking up too much time with blacks, and told her so. She told him that he could not tell her what to do.
”Ms. Etzold was a very prominent woman (in Chicago), and she would come to the South Side and help out with fashion shows because we had started giving our own fashion shows. The owner told her if she went out to the South Side again, she would lose her job,” Johnson recalled.
Etzold continued to go to the South Side, and as the owner promised, she was fired. The school closed six months later (in 1951).
Johnson began doing runway modeling shows for clothing stores such as Lane Bryant and Mason`s. She became well-known through her print work, which included modeling for Lucky Heart cosmetics and appearing in other
advertisements in Ebony and other major magazines.
A few years after Etzold left the school, she called Johnson to help her give a lecture at the Ida B. Wells housing project.
”There was a huge hall, with about 40 women,” she says. ”She took 20 on one end and I took 20 on the other. We taught them walking, sitting, different charm and beauty techniques.
”After it was over, Ms. Etzold said, `I`ll never work with you again. My group was not interested in me, they were interested in what you were doing.` ”Then she said, `So now, you know what I want you to do? There`s no one out here (on the South Side) that`s interested in these black kids. So you have to open up a school.`
Johnson, then in her 20s, agreed. Thus the Cleo Johnson School of Charm and Modeling Agency was born in the basement of her house in 1956. Her classroom was equipped with a 6-foot mirror and 6-foot ramp, which her husband constructed. Her first class consisted of three of her neighbor`s children and two of her nieces. The fee for a one-year course was $100.
Within a few years, the number of students had grown so much that Johnson relocated to an office on the second floor of a building on 47th Street.
In 1960 Johnson helped organize the Modeling Association of America, International, a worldwide organization of more than 100 modeling schools. Based in New York, it was formed to help new models get more exposure through competitions at its annual convention in New York.
Johnson`s models have won numerous awards at the organization`s convention. This year, 14 of her models competed with more than 250 others from schools across the country. Of the hundreds of awards given, Johnson`s models brought home 37 and a few of them received contracts to model professionally.
By 1962, Johnson`s modeling school was well known in Chicago and students began to come from many areas of the city. She also expanded the classes to include adults.
Word of Johnson`s school also reached some executives at the Merchandise Mart downtown.
According to Johnson, the late John Lewis, one of the first African-American executives at the Merchandise Mart, told her some businessmen there wanted to talk to her. They wanted to buy her name and have her run a chain of beauty salons around the city. There was one catch: She could no longer have her school.
”They told me that they were ready to write me a down-payment check for $25,000. Now, I was paying $200 per month for rent (for the school). I didn`t even have that, and it was due then. And they had a $25,000 check in their hands for me.
”So after telling me all of this, they said, `So what do you think about it?` I said, `Oh, it sounds beautiful-for somebody.` ”
The executives couldn`t believe that Johnson had rejected the offer.
”Now, there was a hole in the floor where (one man) was sitting,” she recalls, ”and he looked down at it and said, `You`re turning us down for this?`
”And I said, `Yes, sir, I am. And I`ll tell you why. If a little black child comes to my door, and wants charm, and needs charm, and doesn`t have one cent, I am going to bring her in and give it to her.
” `What you`re asking me to do is cater to the rich. But that`s not me,` I said. `I have a goal in mind, and I am going to stick to it.`
Today, Johnson gives lectures on charm for organizations, businesses and schools all over the city. Illinois Bell and Soft Sheen are among the many businesses for whom she has held seminars.
Her school remains her first priority, and nurturing her students to ensure their success has been her primary concern. Her achievements and success stories outweigh the opportunities she has passed up, she said.
”Modeling and beauty are really my life,” she said. ”But what I stress most is self-esteem. Self-motivation. I want (the models) to believe in themselves.
”You have to have a mind of your own,” she continued. ”Because out there, people tell you this and that, and if you don`t have a mind of your own, you`re going to fall right into the trap that they`re in.
”If you try, if you believe in yourself, the color of your skin doesn`t mean a thing. Your knowledge, your abilities and what you feel about yourself- that`s what`s important. And that`s more important than any turn or walk that I teach my models.”
