Racy Calendar by Older Women Gets Extinguished in Carmel

The Great Old Broads, as they are now known, produced a 2003 calendar, "A Celebration of Mature Women," for LifeSpan Services Inc., a nonprofit senior services organization. In the above cover photo, they were all nude. It inspired the move, "Calendar Girls," and dozens of imitators. Read original story...

Oct. 10, 2004 – The promotion of calendars featuring nearly-naked older women has been a growing fund-raising technique, but in California’s Carmel-by-the Sea a local effort to fund a firehouse has been extinguished.

The Carmel Fire Belles' calendar that hit the streets last month is selling like hotcakes, said calendar organizer and subject Patti Ross, according to the local Monterrey County Herald. The newspaper reports they have raised over $35,000. Ross and the others models want to give the cash to the city to help pay for retrofitting the downtown Carmel Fire Station.

But the city won't take the money. That's because photos of women up to age 84 in the calendar, inspired by the movie "Calendar Girls," are slightly suggestive.

Another problem, City Attorney Don Freeman told the newspaper, was that a portion of the calendar was produced in the city workplace, using city equipment and property as background in the pictures.

“I learned we were $2.2 million in debt and thought it would be a fun idea,” said Ross.

She also said she had obtained permission from the mayor to use the firehouse and its equipment as props.

The calendars are still being sold in Carmel and the money saved, hoping they can come up with a way to help fund the firehouse.

Actor Clint Eastwood was once the mayor in this vacation spot for the rich and famous.