Diane Webber


Marguerite Diane Webber Marguerite Empey was an American model, dancer and actress.

Early life

Born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., the daughter of Marguerite, a Hollywood actress and former 'Miss Long Beach' beauty contest winner, and Arthur Guy Empey. She received her formal education at the Hollywood High School. As a child she received ballet lessons from Russian ballerina Maria Bekefi.

Modeling career

In the early 1950s she found employment as a chorus girl at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, while developing her professional modelling career. As the decade progressed she modeled for many professional photographers, including Peter Gowland, Bunny Yeager and Keith Bernard, appearing in a multiplicity of men's magazines such as Esquire, and commercial advertising imagery.

''Playmate of the Month''

Under the name Marguerite Empey she was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in May 1955 and in February 1956. The photo-shoot for the 1956 publication was shot by Russ Meyer.

Pop-music cover model & screen appearances

Webber featured on the cover-art of several pop music vinyl record albums in the late 1950s-1960s, including Satin Brass by George Shearing, Les Baxter's Jewels of the Sea, Sea of Dreams by Nelson Riddle, Marty Paich's Jazz for Relaxation, Chilie con Cugie by Xavier Cugat, Otto Cesana's Sheer Ecstasy, and the R.C.A. Japanese release of Seiji Hiraoka & His Quartet's Bedtime Music.
In the 1960s and 1970s, she appeared in the movie Mermaids of Tiburon, and an episode of the television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea entitled The Mermaid. She also appeared in the cinema film The Trial of Billy Jack.

Nudism

In the mid to late 1960s, as a part of the counter-culture movement in the United States, Webber became involved with Nudism and appeared in numerous Nudist publications advocating the lifestyle such as Naked & Together: The Wonderful Webbers by June Lange. In 1965, she traveled to Sioux City to give evidence at the request of a District Attorney's Office in a court trial involving the sending of allegedly obscene Nudist publications into the State of Iowa, but on arrival, instead of proving the prosecution's case, on taking the witness stand she gave a spirited defense of the principles of the life-style.

Middle-Eastern dance

From 1969 to 1980 Empey's professional career was as a bellydancing instructor at the now defunct Everywoman's Village in Van Nuys, California. She occasionally performed this dance accompanied by some of her better students to the accompaniment of Middle-Eastern music in public places in and around Los Angeles. Empey founded Perfumes of Araby, one of the first Middle-Eastern dance companies in the United States. Empey's dancing shows were sensual but they didn't pander to a male audience, women and children often attending the performances.
For several years Empey led and co-ordinated these outdoor shows with up to forty performers taking part.

Retirement

In her final years, she was a librarian and archivist for a law firm in Santa Monica.

Cultural references

Her iconic status among the Playboy models is referenced in Gay Talese's non-fiction book Thy Neighbor's Wife. Talese had published an extensive article in the August 1975 issue of Esquire in which Diane is considered as an object of fantasy as well as an actual person. Two nude photos of her appear in the article, and one is on the cover.

Private life

She married Joseph Webber in 1955, from which came a son named John.

Death

Empey died on August 19, 2008, in Los Angeles in her 76th year from complications following surgery for cancer.

Filmography