Connie Brighton

Connie Brighton is an all-natural blonde from Wichita Fall, Texas, but her surname comes from across the pond. Connie met her promoter husband, Ian Spero, who recognized the same star quality in the model that we did. The Englishman and co-owner of Spero International Co., advised Connie that if she wanted to make it big, she needed a name that says she’s going places. “He gave me a choice for three English towns: London, Sussex or Brighton,” recalls Miss Brighton. Our Playmate of the Month had been trying to break into the entertainment industry for years before she took on her husband’s advice. Connie, with the help of her mother, began performing as a toddler and had high hopes of becoming the next big child star like Shirley Temple. “My mother put me into a performing dance school when I was three, and by the time I was six, I was a trained, professional dancer,” says our busty Miss September 1982. “In my seventh year, I was performing in a Miami Beach hotel, dancing and singing in two shows a night. I even had my own little solo. What I remember most about my childhood is those mornings during the school year when my mother had to wake me up and dress me and feed me, because I was so exhausted from not having had enough sleep. And I never got to go to the beach and play with the other kids, because I was performing or going to dancing class or singing class or acting class. I've always thought that my mother must have had a very frustrated performer inside her.” Even though Connie considers her upbringing to have been less than ideal, she wouldn’t change any aspect of it. All those performances taught her the true meaning of hard work, dedication and poise—qualities that set her years apart from her competitors like when she auditioned to be part of actor Telly Savalas’s, from the hit television show Kojak, dance troupe. “I was 17, and I went to New York to do a one-night show at the Waldorf and decided to stay in the city for a week to look for work. My friend told me she knew a choreographer who was putting together a troupe of girls for Telly's act,” recalls Connie. “So I went to the address she gave me and auditioned. While we were all taking a break, Telly came in. I'd been there since early that morning, so I said to him, ‘Hey, you're late. You've kept me waiting for a while.’ I guess he liked that. Anyway, he noticed me. And I was hired” Who would be able to not notice a gorgeous dancer like Connie Brighton?