DMH Spotlight - Researching and finding the beautiful people in Diana Mara Henry's photographs! Fashion Week at the Plaza, 1973.....Every photograph available to view! Back

 

Rosemary Bischoff at left.

(Contact sheets with ALL the photographs available here.)


"Rosemary Bischoff epitomized modeling, elegance in Milwaukee"

By Amy Rabideau Silvers of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 22, 2008

"Rosemary Bischoff, whose name became synonymous with modeling in Milwaukee, was a model herself before running her own agency.

She was first hired in the mid-1940s by Dorothy Walters, then fashion coordinator of the Boston Store, to do informal modeling in the store's new Colony Room.

"At that time there were no modeling schools here, and in fact there were only about 10 models in town," Bischoff once recalled. "If a store's fashion director liked you, she hired you and trained you herself."

When Walters decided to open a school, she liked Bischoff enough to hire her and later offered her a partnership. The partnership dissolved in 1958, and Bischoff struck off on her own, creating the Rosemary Bischoff Studios and Models Agency.

"I was the teacher, the booking agent for model placements, the receptionist, I answered the telephone," she said of those early days. "As you can see, it was not the world's largest operation."

Bischoff died of lung cancer Feb. 13 in Scottsdale, Ariz. She was 84.

Her school and agency became a success, with Bischoff continuing to learn on the job. Her circle of contacts and friends expanded and her work included attending fashion weeks in New York.

The former Rosemary Babich grew up in West Allis. In 1947, mutual friends introduced her to Jack L. Bischoff at Bohmann's Bomb Shelter, a bar in West Allis. It took six months for him to ask her for a date, but then things got serious and they married the next year.

The two made a conscious decision not to have children. Both came from small families - he had no siblings and she had one brother.

"We were considered selfish," Bischoff said. She knew that raising a child was "the biggest job in the world" and she wanted a career instead.

So they filled their lives with work and with each other. Her husband was an attorney interested in real estate, also serving with the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority board.

"Our life was undomesticated," she said.

"She was always on the go," said good friend B.J. Rabb. "They ate out all the time. She was the first woman I ever knew who didn't cook."

Rabb was then a radio talk-show host who got to know Bischoff during her on-air appearances. She and other friends became part of a regular lunch group, dubbed the "Dutch Lunch Bunch" by Bischoff's husband.

The only purpose was for women to get together and have fun. Separate checks, please.

"Lots of them were her friends. She had friends all over," Rabb said. "When she moved to Arizona, she started another lunch group there."

A tall, slender woman, Bischoff remained elegant even as she could be earthy. Bischoff continued running her school and agency until 1978, when she sold the business, continuing as a consultant.

She and her husband retired to Phoenix and then Scottsdale. A fashion writer for "Exclusively Yours," she also wrote about fashion for "Trends" in Scottsdale.

Bischoff was long active with groups including Tempo for businesswomen and with the Milwaukee Press Club.

"She was so supportive of women at a time when no one was supportive of women," said Lorna Sorenson, who worked as a columnist for the old Milwaukee Sentinel.

"She was delightful to be around," Sorenson said. "She didn't gossip. She didn't get petty. She was bigger than life."

Bischoff's husband died in 1998. Survivors include her brother, Bill Babich, and nephew Paul Babic. A private burial service is planned in Scottsdale."

By Amy Rabideau Silvers of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 22, 2008

Rosemary Bischoff is one of the beautiful people that Diana Mara Henry photographed on assignment for [MORE] magazine in 1973, at Fashion Week/ The Coty Awards at the Plaza. She is working on id'ing many more that those listed below, who appear in her contact sheets.

Adri (Adrienne Steckling-Coen)

Mildred Alexander

Jean Arras

Ada Bartlett

Rosemary Bischoff

Mary Alice Bookhard

Cora Brooks Brant

Bob Brown

Virginia Chumley

Suzanne Dache

Eunice Farmer

Ada Gaffney

Vera Gawansky

                                                                    Henry Ginsberg

Nina Gordon

Ruby Graham

Ann Griffith

Madge Cooper Guthey

Toni Jackson

Vivian Kawatsky

Anne Klein

Lea Kolbert

Ralph Lauren

Bob Mackie

Yvonne Petri

Mary Brooks Picken

Oscar de la Renta

Clovis Ruffin

Milda Sarelstrom

Jerry Silverman

Hazel Stebbins

Sally Struthers

Vera Vida

Elaine Viets

Mildred Whiteaker

If you can help with the id's we will be happy to meet you in NYC! Or to send enlargements of the contacts if you are further away....

Email us now!

 


Photographs Copyright © 1973 Diana Mara Henry


The cover of [MORE] with Fashion week headline to DMH photographs, above, and Reliable Source fashion spread.


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