Brains AND Beauty Too?
By Don Mueller
I know what a lot of you guys are thinking. You see a beautiful woman, and you probably say to yourself, "She's sure nice to look at, but I'll bet her measurements exceed her IQ." Then there's a few that might argue that beauty and brains go together. For example, "She must be very smart to know how to look that good!" Well, let's do some research on this. The Rocky Mountain News has a column called, "No Kidding!" One of the columns had this to say:
Six Members of MENSA (the High IQ society)
--Actress Geena Davis
--Boxer Bobby Czyz
--Attorney F. Lee Bailey
--Hard Copy anchor Barry Nolan
--Dilbert creator Scott Adams
--Playboy's Miss February '87, Julie Peterson
(Source: Rubenstein Associates, inc)
Then, just a week later, came another "No Kidding" column:
IQ's of five famous people:
Madonna --- 155
Doors lead singer Jim Morrison --- 149
"Ask Marilyn" Vos Savant --- 228
Sharon Stone -- 154
Quentin Tarantino --- 160 (high school dropout)
Source: World Features Syndicate
Ok, let's consider a few of the names here. I didn't know Actress Geena Davis was a member, (she apparently hasn't come to any of our own general meetings) but, she is certainly a fine addition to the organization. And she's tall-----a 6 foot Mensan who probably has to make a decision whether to go to a Timberline club meeting or a Mensa Sig. Sharon Stone is another well known actress who obviously has beauty and brains. I knew Madonna was known as a "Marketing Genius", hence her healthy IQ. And an even healthier bank account. And, then we have Playboy's Miss February '87, Julie Peterson. If she's ever come to one of our general meetings, I didn't recognize her, since Denver Mensa requires clothing at most of our functions. But if not, the two staples across her midsection would've probably given her away! I wonder what Julie's accomplished with her high IQ since 1987? What would it be like to talk to a person who was both a Mensan and Centerfold?
Let me tell you of an experience I had. Years ago at some trade show I met a beautiful, red-headed Penthouse centerfold who certainly had her physical geography well defined. When she was autographing a picture for me, she mumbled that her contacts were bothering her. She explained that she had to take them out for swimming or something. I said that "somebody oughta invent prescription swimming goggles". She quickly pointed at me, and said, "Say, that's a great idea!! We should go in business together!" I found out that she was involved in computer programming, and we started talking technical. It was interesting-- I completely forgot that I was talking to a beauty queen, and now we were relating purely on a mental level, something that until then I would've thought impossible.
You remember the beautiful Julie Newmar, who had a TV and movie career in the '60s. She was also known for her IQ, and had a write-up in the Mensa Bulletin some years ago. She wasn't actually a member of Mensa, (I asked her myself about that, and wrote an article about her last year in the Matrix) but, she was smart enough to play roles that featured both beauty and brains. She recently had a movie named after her (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar) which got it's name from how she signed a photograph of herself in a Chinese Restaurant. She signed a photograph for me, too. It said, "Don, You're wonderful, Julie Newmar". I told ya she was smart......
While I'm on the subject of beautiful women, I'll have to admit, I do have an eye for pulchritude that sometimes exceeds my own common sense. Recently when I took a video of a high school reunion, I was criticized by the reunion committee for featuring too many of the beautiful women there too long on camera. Well, I promise that the next time I take a video, I'll throw in a few more ugly people to balance the whole thing out!
I once dated Playboy's Miss March of 1969. Well, I THINK I did. I don't know for sure to this day whether she was putting me on, but, she seemed to have a lot of inside information about the Playboy empire that nobody else would've known. Of course, by the time I had gotten to her, a little bit of time had passed since the centerfold, and her topography had made a bit of an outward shift, but hey, in the dark it doesn't make a lot of difference, does it? Of course, her real name was different than her centerfold name. And her real name by pure coincidence was a term that is sometimes used to describe certain species of the dog family. That's probably why we stopped dating, now that I think about it.
Monique St. Pierre was the Playboy centerfold of the Year of 1979, and she visited the radio station where I worked at the time. Naturally, since I had my camera with me, I quickly arranged for us both to appear in a picture together. It turned out nice. It's on my wall. I was going to send her a copy of it so she could put it on HER wall, but....uh.....well...... there I go off into Fantasyland again.
Now, I'm not a proponent of the Playboy philosophy, but, I'm not above doing research when the situation calls for it. Like, when I tried to stow away in Hugh Hefner's private airplane once! Let me explain this one. A couple of decades ago Hugh had just shelled out big bucks for the "Big Bunny", a private plane painted entirely black, except for a white bunny on the tail of the plane. During a stopover at Stapleton, Hugh had a little showoff press conference, and gave newsmen a tour of his fine, flying facility. With my radio news presscard in hand, I fully took advantage of the tape and photo opportunities. (well, SOMEBODY'S gotta cover these things, ya know?) Hugh showed us the round bedroom with the waterbed in the plane. He had a huge video tape recorder, so that he could tape his girlfriend's favorite soap operas. (this was before they invented VCRs for us common men) And, as Hugh stood with his girlfriend at the time, Barbie Benton, he signed an autograph for me, and I had a few words with the big guy himself. And, of course, all of the bunnies from the Denver Playboy club were there in costume, to sort of, uh, help out in showing off his 9 million dollar mode of transportation. I guess you would call that rabbit transit? In my "Famous People I've Met" slide show, for some reason my airplane slides seem to be the hit of the whole presentation, I had no idea that so many people in my audience had such a great interest in airplane technology!
So, where was I? Oh yes, beauty and brains. One last story. At an annual Mensa Holiday party a few years ago, I spotted this gorgeous slim brunette walk into the party, near the end of the proceedings when the band had just finished it's last set. I knew that I had to at least try and talk to her, before she would walk out of my life forever. She wasn't wearing a nametag, (beautiful women never seem to, for some reason) but as I was trying to figure out what my first words would be, she said, "Hi, Don". As I'm picking up my jaw from the floor, I'm cogitating quite hard trying to figure out how she knew my name! Oh, yes, of course! From my nametag! Uh, no, I wasn't wearing it, I had taken it off earlier. After telling her that I would've danced with her if the band hadn't of stopped playing, and trying to be cordial, I went home a very confused man. How did this beautiful woman know my name? Finally, it surfaced into my mind. I actually had met her some months earlier at a Mensa after-the-General-meeting-get-together once. Only then, she was wearing glasses, no makeup and jeans, and didn't look nearly as impressive as what I saw at the dance. So there's the secret-- good looking women look that way BECAUSE they're intelligent!!
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