Meet Sylvia Chao, Frazetta’s Muse for "Battlestar Galactica - Scramble."
In the 1970s, Frazetta painted four oil paintings for a spotlight appearance in TV Guide promoting the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. While creating the artworks, Frazetta was visited by art director Henry Lehn and at the time, his wife, Sylvia Chao. Sylvia Chao reached out to us in 2020 and shared her memories of meeting and modeling for Frank Frazetta for this specific job.
Sylvia Chao, in her own words:
“Henry was told by ABC that Frazetta did not like visitors and did not like to do any work that he cannot keep and that they were only allowed to use the prints of his paintings. ABC was very upset and at first, did not want to go with the idea of using Frazetta. Henry felt very strong about it and ABC finally let him go visit Frazetta. I visited the estate with Henry and actually did a little modeling for Frazetta. That is my booty in the painting, “Scramble.” He had asked me to pose which way and that’s how it turned out! I posed for most of the images and luckily I was wearing boots with my jeans. We spent the whole afternoon laughing and talking. I was nervous that I was doing something wrong, Frank exclaimed “you are really a Frazetta girl”. I laughed and said but my breasts are not big, he said doesn’t matter! He autographed a piece of paper that day. He was a true man’s man, so to speak. I have many fond memories of our motorcycle trips up to his home.” After the paintings were finished, Frazetta had painted nipples in the uniforms and ABC wanted them out. They also did not like the buttocks but again there was a big fight over it and I remember at one point Frank said “fuck them I’ll just keep the paintings and fuck your picture.” Henry was able to convince him to go ahead with it. In the TV ad they did soften the nipples. Such prudes!”
- Sylvia Chao © 2021
Clearly…..inspirational!