BRUSSELS SPRITE
our travel-happy Belgian-born Playmate wants to send the whole world packing
If that adage about travel softening one's prejudices has any validity, then June Playmate Hedy Scott couldn't possibly have a biased bone left in her attractive frame. The daughter of an American profe
...ssional soldier and a Belgian actress, 19-year-old Hedy ("I'm actually twenty, if you use the European system of figuring a person's age") was born in Jodoigne, Belgium, and spent a typical Army-brat childhood wandering from base to base with her family. As she recalls it: "We changed mailing addresses the way most people trade cars. By the time I was seven, I'd lived in Paris, New York, St. Louis and Los Angeles, with plenty of stopovers in between. Living out of a suitcase like that is supposed to be bad for most kids, but I found it exciting. Seeing so many new places at such an early age only made a confirmed travel bug out of me." Our peripatetic Playmate's youthful wanderlust was sadly curtailed in 1953, when her father was killed in Korea and she returned to Belgium with her mother. "We lived in Brussels for the next seven years," Hedy told us. "and Mom managed to eke out a pretty good living, taking small parts in local theatrical productions and making occasional European television commercials. Living in Europe was exhilarating at first, but I couldn't have been happier when we packed up the old trunk and moved back to California in 1960."
Following in her mother's talented footsteps, our artful June miss has had her fair share of initial success as a part-time model and actress since she recently moved into her own Hollywood digs near the Los Angeles Playboy Club. Despite weekly assignments as a fashion model for L.A. designer Charles Gallet and her appearances in television (Mr. Novak, Ozzie and Harriet) and films (Harlow), the Belgian-born beauty continues to eschew the possibility of a show-business career. "Sure, I've managed to pay the rent and keep up the installments on my '56 T-bird," says Hedy, "but I have no illusions about my acting ability and no desire to become just another Hollywood hopeful. What I'd like to do, someday, is open up my own travel agency and find a lifetime partner to help run it." A position for which there'll surely be many applicants.
