‘Pet of the Year’ told her Dad ‘gently’

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 1

‘Pet of the Year’ told her Dad ‘gently’

Story and picture

by

LES BLOXHAM

How does a girl tell her dad that she is going to grace the centre pages of “Penthouse”?

“Very gently,” advises Tracey Wallace, the Australian “Penthouse” Pet of the Year.

The Sydney model, who is 23, passed through Christchurch yesterday on her way to Queenstown where today she will open the $750,000 extensions to the A-line Autoiodge. She was persuaded to model for the magazine by a friend who is one of Sydney’s leading professional photographers. “I didn’t want to do it at

first, but he finally talked me into it,” she said. The editors liked the pictures and decided to present Tracey Wallace as their “pet" for July. All that remained was for her to break the news to hei mother and father.. “Mum was behind me all the way, but .dad remained very quiet about the whole business,” she said.

“When the magazine came out he would not look at it until he had been assured by the rest of the family that the pictures were not really all that bad.”

Then in December, ’■Penthouse” announced

that she had been judged Pet of the Year. “Dad had warmed to the idea by then,” she said. “He even seemed to be quite proud of his daughter . .

Tracey Wallace immediately became a nationwide celebrity and. got contracts, cash, and prizes worth more than $60,000, including a Triumph TR7 sports car. However, in the hurly burlv of success, the vivacious blonde lost her boyfriend: “He became too possessiv:; we had to part,” she said. She now has “several” boyfriends, but is in no rush to get married. She has decided to buy a home of her own and wants to

sell the TR7 to provide the deposit. Career with a capital C is Tracey Wallace’s immediate aim in life. She believes that “Penthouse” has opened doors, for her as a model, although at this stage she is uncertain whether .she will appear again in the centre pages.

There is a chance, however, that she might be invited to the United States by the magazine’s founder and publisher, Mr Bob Guccione. “He asked to see the proofs and, from what I have been told, apparently he liked them” she said.

Meanwhile, the girl who once stood in the dole queues of Sydney has suf-

ficient contract work to keep her busy until October. ■ • . . ■

She revealed only one clue to her fame yesterday: a diamond-studded gold key pendant — the “Penthouse” symbol. Tracey Wallace will spend a week in the Southern Lakes district during which time she hopes' to fly to Milford Sound and to ride in a .jet boat. She was deprived of that chance by a flooded Rakaia River yesterday, _ The world champion jet boater, Mark Cromie, of Rakaia, had planned to taker her for a trip, but she had to be content, instead, with just sitting in the boat on dry land.