Take a film director, add a pandemic, sprinkle in a legend in the fashion industry, a dash of supermodels discussing how their lives were affected by that person. Now take those ingredients and make a documentary of an hour and 47 minutes about an incredible life. The good news? Unfettered access to the subject and her archives. The tough part: She was the director’s former mother-in-law, who was near death.
For documentary director Jill Campbell, who grew up on Long Island and moved to Manhattan when she was 21, it was a dream that she had cultivated for a long time—to chronicle the life and times of Sports Illustrated Fashion Editor Jule Campbell. Jule’s main job for most of her 32 years at Time Inc. was editing SI’s annual Swimsuit Issue. A woman who lived on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village with her husband Ron and son Bruce (Jill’s former husband), Jule worked from the Mad Men times to the late 1990s, as feminism took root and became a large movement.
Jill had started doing documentaries in 2004, and later thought that Jule would be a great subject. Life got in the way for 15 years, but then it all happened. Ron Campbell had passed away, and Jule and Bruce Campbell were quarantining at the family farm in Flemington, NJ, and looking for company. The director came out frequently, started chatting with Jule, then started filming these chats on her phone. This was the start of the movie, which became real when Bruce and Jule green-lighted their approval for the project.
“She was a unique human being,” Jill Campbell told Straus News. “This was emotional for everyone. My goal is to show everything that she did.”
Jule Campbell passed away in Raritan, NJ, at the age of 96. She had come to Sports Illustrated in the early 1960s, and it was the legendary managing editor Andre Laguerre who first proposed a swimsuit feature to help the magazine in what was then the slow winter months when the winter sports had ended and the spring sports had not quite started. The first swimsuit feature appeared in 1965, but it was only six pages. Jule Campbell took over in 1966, and its transition into one of the magazine’s bestselling issues of the year was underway, often accompanied by a fair degree of controversy from some feminists as well as readers.
Jule Campbell navigated the controversies and also emerged as a pioneering feminist herself as the issue grew into a cultural phenomenon. It helped launch the era of super models with models who became name brands from Kathy Ireland and Christie Brinkley to Elle McPherson, Cheryl Teigs and Tryra Banks.
There were quiet moments when the camera was following her without dialogue but using a full scope of the surroundings.
Jill Campbell stated, “I like putting the emotional in. She was facing mortality head-on during those three years. There was a type of fear and emotional resignation to her passing away; I learned it from her bravery facing this issue. This wasn’t about the facts, but about the person as well.”
Jill also noted that former SI swimsuit model Kathy Ireland would call every Sunday, and send flowers as well. “She wrote me the most beautiful text saying I was the only one that could properly tell the story,” said the director, who also felt that Jule was a feminist in those times, who had helped women fashion designers, had only female assistants, and was always on location shoots to make sure that the mostly male photographers would behave themselves.
The original length of the documentary was 2 hours and 40 minutes. Cut by an hour, ultimately it is about celebrating women supporting women, and reflects on Jule’s legacy and mortality with grace and wisdom.
Jule Campbell’s memorabilia on the SI photo shoots numbered over 10,000 Polaroids, many, many slide pictures, and Super8 movies that should eventually find a home for all to see.
“Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue” will have a one day showing at the prestigious Newport Film Festival on July 17. Talks are underway with Tribeca Films for streaming the documentary sometime this fall; negotiations are in process for a coffee-table book.
Full Disclosure: Ralph Spielman worked at Time Inc and knew and worked with Jule Campbell arranging photo shoots but never knew Jill Campbell during those years.