Utah's got cold fusion, the promise of a winning Ute football team and a shot at the 1998 Olympics.
But it doesn't have a lucrative market for models. Not yet, anyway.Despite the several small modeling shops, two busy and intensely competitive agencies and Utah's growing reputation as a good location for commercials, films and catalog shoots - it's tough to make a living as a model here.
Utah's models are as bright, attractive and hard-working as models anywhere. Maybe even more so. "Utah is a wonderful, raw marketplace," said Craig Dye, president of Uno modeling agency. "It is full of raw beauty. National and international agencies have really liked what they've seen here. They think Utah has got some beautiful people."
Utah has certainly sent its fair share of young models to national and international agencies where they do all the things international models do: travel the world, make fabulous money and retire young.
"Top national and international models are making $10,000 a day now," Dye said. "Mediocre models make anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a day. But you can't make near that kind of money in Utah."
That's an understatement. Utah's busiest models are lucky to make $10,000 in a year, much less a day. Suzy McCarty, the grand dame of modeling in Utah, estimates her 200 adult models make an average of $7,500 a year. "It's a part-time market here, so most models supplement their income with other jobs," she said.
McCarty started Utah's first and largest modeling agency - the McCarty Agency - in 1974. There were several modeling schools operating at the time, she said, but hers was the first booking agency.
"I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you the way it is: We created a market in this area. We opened it up for other agencies. We set the pace."
One of the agencies catching up with McCarty's aggressive pace is Uno, a smaller agency that opened in 1982. Initially under the direction of Susan Kent, a former model with international experience, it is now being run by Dye, also a former model who has worked abroad.
Both agencies run schools or training courses where prospective models are taught how to behave in an interview, walk down a runway, move for a camera and enhance their looks.
McCarty stresses the difference between legitimate modeling courses and fly-by-night operations that bilk hopeful teenagers out of hundreds of dollars.
"It's so important for people looking to get into this business to find out the facts. Nowadays you have to have great skin, great teeth, great bones, wonderful height and a great personality."
McCarty often sees hopeful mothers tow in plain daughters clutching useless portfolios some school charged them several hundred dollars for.
"The schools make all kinds of promises they can't keep," she said. "There are no licensing laws here. No ground rules or guidelines. Anyone can put a sign on their door and say they are a modeling agency."
Check out all schools thoroughly, she urged.
Despite their years in the business, Uno and McCarty both work hard to keep their hold on the market. "It's a hard business. It's a hustling business," Dye said. "You've got to get your name out there, establish a reputation for yourself and keep it. It takes finding out who all the advertising agencies are, meeting with them personally, letting them know who your talent is and continually staying in touch.
"You have to find out if there are any films coming into town; get hold of the directors of the films; and convince them you can do the job you say you are going to do."
Both agencies have turned increasing attention to movies. McCarty first opened as an agency that supplied acting extras. Models came later. But Utah's growing movie business has pulled McCarty further into the acting business and prompted Uno to move in that direction as well.
"We've had 18 films shot in Utah in the past 18 months," McCarty said. "It's been really busy." Another film year like 1989 could provide many Utah actors will full-time work, she said.
Her agency filled many feature and supporting roles for the films, McCarty said. "We're not talking day players. We are talking two or three week parts." Actors can make a hearty wage during those brief parts. Pay starts at $414 a day - a minimum set by the unions, she said.
"If they were in a major market, they would be making over $5,000 a week. Here I've only been able to get them up to $3,000 or $4,000 a week."
Uno's 1990 goal is to attract its own pool of actors to round out its modeling pool, Dye said.
But those occasional $4,000 weeks aren't enough to keep Salt Lake's several hundred models and actors busy. Old reliables like ZCMI's catalogs do that.
"Nobody comes close to ZCMI in its volume of print work," McCarty said. "They are heads and tails above everybody. If we didn't have ZCMI and Nordstrom here, there would not be a big enough market here for someone to make a living."
ZCMI and Nordstrom book models every week, she said. Other stores may book models five or six times a year, and many not at all.
The business has changed little over the decades. Models hoping to be picked up by national agencies must still be tall, thin and young. National agencies want models who are a minimum of 5'9", wear between a size six and size eight and are under 20 years old, McCarty said. Both agencies have their stories of local models who made good on the national and international scene.
But there is a growing demand for older models in local and regional markets. An aging population and the success of magazines geared for older people - like Lear's - allows models to work longer than ever before.
"Really good runway models work way into their 50s," McCarty said. "There's an emphasis on older women now. There's buying power in that age group. The industry would be fools to ignore it. I have a lot of models in their 50s and 60s who work a lot."
"I would like to have more older models," Dye said. "Nordstrom and ZCMI will use an older, sophisticated and very classy lady quite a bit."
Dye and McCarty both love the transformation that takes places in people's lives as their modeling careers take off. The story of Debra Varner is one of McCarty's favorites.
"When I met her, she was a teenager who had just had a baby." McCarty said. Varner's uncle sent Varner to McCarty during McCarty's first year in business. "She was skinny as a rail - anorexic. She had horrible teeth. In fact, she talked with her hand in front of her mouth so you couldn't see her teeth. She had stringy hair. But she became our top model.
"We had her teeth done. We even bought her her first shoes for modeling. We got her hair colored. We got her a great cut. We taught her how to walk and told her she was wonderful."
Varner is now Debra Varner Chapman, a successful Los Angeles model who is breaking into acting.
"It's easy to find people who have `the look,' " McCarty said. "But there aren't too many who have what it takes mentally to do it. It takes more than looks and height. It takes sheer personality, attitude and persistence."