He’s the Kind of Guy 500 Cosmo Girls Could Love
He’s not the kind of guy who’d call himself a hunk.
But tell that to the 500 women who think Tony Grayson is one yummy dude.
Six months ago, Grayson was minding his own business--professionally, as the owner of Fine Wood Finish in Huntington Beach, and personally, as a guy who dates occasionally. Frankly, he enjoys being with his family or out on the high seas with Petey, his Amazon parrot, on the 42-foot sailboat he built.
Then the manhunting staff at Cosmopolitan magazine tracked him down. They had an all-points bulletin on Grayson via a letter and photo sent by one of his employees. Along with 100 other bachelors, Grayson was anointed one of America’s “sexiest, smartest, funniest, most passionate, ready-to-commit (well, most of them) men for you to woo, cuddle, love (and possibly) marry” in a special issue called “All About Men.”
Life for the 34-year-old single guy has never been the same.
Women of all ages and backgrounds, including grandmothers and a minister’s daughter, want to bag the 5-foot-11-inch, 180-pound, blue-eyed, brown-haired Grayson and take him home.
They’ve phoned and written the sailor-surfer-boater-furniture refinisher-licensed rescue diver--who also cooks a mean pasta and sausage dish and above all else is a hands-on kind of guy.
How do we know?
“I like working with my hands,” he says.
Apparently, women go goofy over that.
Love letters, many doused in perfume, photos of lingerie-clad bodies and offers to float his boat have kept Grayson occupied.
He has answered every letter and is in touch regularly with at least a dozen women he met through the magazine article, including a beauty pageant queen from Alaska. He has visited two--one in El Salvador, the other in Belize, where he owns property. And he’s planning a trip to Canada to meet a woman who shares his love for the Caribbean.
Still, the worldwide attention hasn’t slowed him down on his own turf: Tonight Grayson has a special Valentine’s Day date planned, beginning with tickets to Cirque du Soleil at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
“I was very surprised when the gal from Cosmopolitan called. I kept saying, ‘Are you sure you have the right guy? I’m no hunk.’ And then she kept saying, ‘The letters are going to flood in so you better get a P.O. box.’ ”
Never second guess a Cosmo editor, he says.
Every Friday when Grayson picked up his mail, his box was crammed with letters from women who agreed that the combination of his boyish good looks, adventurous spirit and family values added up to a 10 on the boyfriend Richter scale. It didn’t hurt that Petey was perched on his right shoulder in the magazine’s photo. “Animal-loving women definitely thought that was a plus,” he says.
“Some of the letters would make you turn red,” he says. Others were just plain sweet, especially those from grandmas who wrote, “ ‘You look like a real nice guy’ and then tried to set me up with their granddaughters.”
He says it was easy to choose the women he wanted to meet--they’re tomboy types.
“Tomboy girls are a lot more fun. You can wrestle with them, take them sailing, camping. They’re not afraid to pull in the sails and bust a nail doing it. They don’t look into the mirror every 10 minutes.
“I don’t want a girl who can whup me. I want a girl who is not into this fake, Hollywood, Southern California attitude where looks are so, so everything.
“Beauty starts on the inside. That’s where the real human connection is made. Feeling feelings. Talking. Walking. A quality woman deserves a man’s time and attention. If he isn’t ready to make her the most important woman in his life, then he shouldn’t get serious with her.”
He says his fleeting moment of fame has lead to a reassessment of his life.
Before his appearance on page 49, he says he was becoming a borderline workaholic, not dating much in the past four years because of his business as well as spending three-day weekends building his getaway house on Roatan, an island off Honduras noted for its diving. He hopes to retire there to charter his boat or start a bed and breakfast.
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“When you are self-employed you become selfish, you’re looking at your interests. The letters really showed me that being with people, socially, is important. There’s a much bigger picture than just me, me, me,” Grayson says.
Still, he can’t quite figure out this hunka-hunka burning love hunk thing.
“Even my mother was quite surprised to see me in a hunk magazine. Where does that come from, that hunk stuff?” he wonders, mainly because he says he’s a romantic at heart, a guy who also digs classical music (as well as alternative rock), ballet and the theater, whose idea of the perfect date is a helicopter ride to Catalina for the weekend (which he did a couple months ago) to spend time talking, walking and sharing.
“In the beginning it’s about friendship,” he says about dating. Of the women who have written to him, he says, “If I don’t find the gal of my life, at the minimum I’ve got some really good friends and interesting people to visit.”
But, he believes that “something serious will happen.” If, on the chance that a love connection turns into a commitment, Grayson says he’s no disappearing act.
“I’m ready for a commitment. I’m not afraid of that.”
Neither are 500 women.