Beverly Johnson broke barriers as the first Black model on the cover of Vogue, and faced ugly racism on her rise to the top of the fashion world.
The supermodel, 71 — who is starring in a new one-woman show, “Beverly Johnson In Vogue” — told Pvnew about one time when she learned that a hotel drained its pool after she took a swim, because of the color of her skin.
“I did not know until we all went to the Eileen Ford’s 90th birthday party,” Johnson recalled of the incident. (Famed modeling agent Ford died in 2014 at age 92.)
“All the models were there, and the very rich people, and one girl said to me, ‘Remember when they drained the pool?’ When you got in the pool at the so-and-so hotel?” Johnson recalled.
“I was like, ‘They did?’ And she said, ‘You didn’t know that?'”
Johnson added, “This was during the ’80s, I would not say the name of the hotel because I don’t want to get sued.”
Johnson is now celebrating the 50th anniversary of her iconic Vogue cover in 1974.
The author of “The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir,” told us, “So you get a lot of that. People draining pools, it was racist.”
She also said, “As a model, there were different kinds of things that would happen to me because I was Black.”
Johnson landed the cover of Glamour 15 times, and recalled one model who was always her champion.
“Lauren Hutton would go to photo shoots and say out loud, ‘Why isn’t Beverly on the cover of magazines? She is just as pretty.’ And at that time Lauren was on every cover. She was the it girl. So it was major for her to say that out loud at the time.”
“Beverly Johnson In Vogue” is playing at the 59E59 Theatre until Feb. 4.
Johnson is also set to appear with her daughter Anansa Sims, 45, in the WeTV reality show “Sims” with her fiancé, former NBA player Matt Barnes, 43.
