Documentary turns focus on Jule Campbell, NJ woman behind Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue

COURTESY OF PHILIP JACHE

Jule Campbell, left, with “Sport Illustrated” swimsuit issue models Kathy Ireland and Carol Alt.

For more than 60 years, Sports Illustrated has had a swimsuit issue.

Somewhere along the way, though, they realized they had a swimsuit issue.

Wasn’t this a pretty obvious way to boost sales by marketing sexy pictures to horny men? Wasn’t the whole project just perhaps the most perfect example of “the male gaze,” the way that images in popular culture typically demean and objectify women?

The first answer is, yes, absolutely.

The second answer is … well, it’s far more complicated than that.

And far more interesting.

Because the first and longtime editor of that annual issue was actually a woman — a married mother with a farm in Flemington. And although Jule Campbell (who died in 2022, at the age of 96) worked hard to make the models look beautiful, she worked even harder to make them feel respected, valued and safe.

JILL CAMPBELL

The documentary “Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue” (see trailer below) will open on June 25 at The IFC Center in Manhattan before moving on to other theaters and platforms this fall. And so its director, Jill Campbell — who also happens to be the late subject’s daughter-in-law — took time out to talk about Jule, her career, and her quiet determination.

Q: When did you decide your mother-in-law needed her own documentary?

A: I had thought about it for a while — she was such an influence on me in terms of my work ethic, in terms of style — but it never seemed like the right time. Then the pandemic came. And I would visit her and just talk for hours and she was so authentic and so willing to share. I just felt like I needed to make a documentary about this woman. We ended up filming for two years. And there were times when she’d say, ‘No, I don’t feel like being on camera right now.’ But she never said she didn’t want to talk about something.

Q: The movie talks about what a “Mad Men” world the magazine business was like when that first issue came out in 1964. How did Jule change things?

A: When she started, models were still like mannequins. Very occasionally one would become famous, but by and large they were just these anonymous faces. Jule was the one who insisted, “No, we’re going to put their names in the magazine, and we’re going to write something about them in the captions.” And not only did some of these women become superstars, but they then took that fame and pivoted, and started these huge businesses. Cheryl Tiegs. Tyra Banks. I mean, Kathy Ireland is, worldwide, a billion-dollar business. There aren’t many other institutions in history that have nurtured these kinds of successful businesswomen.

From left, Jill Campbell, Jule Campbell and former Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue model Elle Macpherson.

Q: The film reminded me of Bunny Yeager, who shot a lot of the iconic Bettie Page pin-ups. And you can see the difference in her pictures, the way you can with the swimsuit layouts that Jule supervised. They’re sexy, but there’s also a sense of fun and power. Whatever the male gaze is, the female gaze is quite different.

A: I think the big difference is that, yes, Jule was working in a male-dominated atmosphere with mainly male photographers, but she was there for her models. She made them feel safe. She didn’t have final say over the photographs that went in the magazine, but she chose the ones that she submitted. Her models felt protected.

Q: She also used Black models. Which was taboo for a long time; I worked at Cosmo in the early ‘80s, and even then you didn’t see a lot of Black faces in most magazines, on the cover or even inside.

A: What’s amazing is that right from the beginning, she was photographing women of color. Of course she had to fight with these white male editors who had final say. They would argue with her: “Black models don’t sell magazines, that’s not what our readers want to see.” She would use them in a shoot and they wouldn’t get picked for the final layout. But she pushed and pushed and worked with many, many different women of color. And in her last year at the magazine, she got Tyra on the cover. So that was a nice way to go out

Q: How did she feel about the charge that the whole idea of a Swimsuit Issue was sexist?

A: Oh, she felt it was unfair. It frustrated her. She was a fashion editor doing shoots the best way she could. She worked hard to create these images of athletic, intelligent women. But she still can’t control what people see when they look at them. That’s true to this day.

When I would tell people I was working on this film, a lot of men would share these memories of being back in high school and staring at these pictures and … ugh, OK, I really don’t want to hear the details of your teenage fantasy life! And when I would tell women, some of them would just roll their eyes. But then they see the film. And you see these models — women who are living their best lives, feeling good about themselves, creating a career, even going on to build their own corporations. If you think that’s taking feminism back, the joke’s on you. As Paulina Porizkova says in the film, are pictures like these an objectification or are they a celebration? Well, why can’t they be both?

“Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue” will be shown from June 25 to July 3 at The IFC Center in Manhattan, with question-and-answer sessions at the 7 p.m. June 25-26 and 7:15 p.m. June 27-28 screenings with director Jill Campbell and models Roshumba Williams, Kim Alexis (June 25-26 only) and Leyna Bloom (June 25-26 only). Visit ifccenter.com.

For information about the film, visit julecampbell.com.

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