Businesslike Bruins Bare Money-Making Plan

A trio of UCLA graduate students in marketing were sitting around last winter at the student union talking boldly of their future over beer and pizza when the idea struck.

“Well, we were sitting there and we saw all these lovely girls running around,” Tim Devine recalled with a boyish smile.

And presto--why not put out a 1986 calendar displaying the best-looking student bodies on America’s college campuses?

The entrepreneurs, who have since graduated, did some research and found that there are nearly 30,000 college bookstores throughout the country.

“And then we priced it out and found that if we sell 100,000 of these calendars for $5.98, we’ll all make about $20,000,” Devine said.

Not bad for a few months of part-time work, not to mention the pleasurable hours of gazing at and selecting the best specimens of young America.

Campus Calendars Co. was born. Devine, the 28-year-old president, said this will be the first student calendar encompassing the entire nation.

To try for a spot in the production, one need only be a student in the United States. Two calendars will be produced--one showing male students and the other displaying the most beautiful college women.

Those selected to appear in Campus Calendar ’86 will share in more than $1,500 in prize money. And the one chosen for the cover gets $400.

Devine figures that the real attraction, other than the national attention, is that copies of the calendars will be circulated to film and television producers and modeling agents in Hollywood and New York.

So far, about 100 students have responded to press releases appearing in college newspapers and have entered the beauty competition by sending a color transparency that they are required to make themselves.

However, one Berkeley student, apparently guessing that he had no chance of winning, sent Devine a color shot of his cocker spaniel instead.

And one woman decided to submit an extremely revealing photo of herself. “I guess she just forgot to put any clothes on that day,” Devine said with a chuckle.

“Generally, we’re looking for them (women) to show us their sexiest pose,” Devine said. “We want them to look their most seductive. You know, we like them to be reading a book in their underwear.”

For the men?

“Hunky, masculine but not a big body-builder or anything,” Devine said. “And we don’t want any direct nudity.”

All his friends have asked to be judges when the winners are selected next month, Devine said. But the practical Devine said he intends to have his panel made up of a casting director, a television producer, a Hollywood modeling agent and, of course, himself.