Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue History in Los Cabos
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue history includes a chapter that most people never connect to Los Cabos. However, the January 18, 1965 issue, only the second Swimsuit Issue in the magazine’s history, was shot entirely on the empty beaches of Baja California Sur. At a time when the world had absolutely no idea what or where Los Cabos was, a New York fashion crew packed up a DC-3 and headed south into the complete unknown.
Hunting for the End of the Earth
In 1964, Sports Illustrated ran its very first swimsuit feature in Cozumel. It was a hit. So for the second edition, senior editor Jule Campbell wanted something completely different. Instead of a lush Caribbean backdrop, she wanted stark, dramatic contrast.
Campbell had heard whispers from Southern California yachtsmen and private pilots about a mystical, completely undeveloped Land’s End at the tip of the Baja peninsula. It was a place where towering desert cacti met white sand beaches and deep turquoise water. Intrigued by the idea of a raw, untouchable frontier, she booked the shoot without ever seeing the location in person.
The Journey Down
Getting to the tip of Baja in late 1964 was an expedition. There was no Transpeninsular Highway, no international airport, and no infrastructure of any kind. The crew flew from California to La Paz, then caught a rattling twin-engine Douglas DC-3 south. They touched down on a clearing of packed earth that served as the primitive airstrip for San José del Cabo. To reach the various beaches, they relied on open-air jeeps and powerboats, bouncing through arroyos and desert brush.
Shooting at the Edge of the World
When photographer Jay Maisel and the crew arrived, Los Cabos was a scattering of tiny fishing villages and a handful of fly-in lodges catering to Hollywood names like John Wayne and Bing Crosby. They shot across several pristine, completely empty beaches. The iconic cover captured 19-year-old California model Sue Peterson standing on the sand in a black-and-red cut-out swimsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich, framed by the golden desert light that Maisel was famous for.
For the handful of locals living there at the time, seeing a New York fashion crew setting up reflectors on beaches that usually only saw fishermen was nothing short of surreal.
Basecamp at Hotel Cabo San Lucas
The crew anchored at the Hotel Cabo San Lucas, which had opened just three years earlier in 1961 overlooking the waters of Chileno Bay. Developer W. Matt “Bud” Parr and aviator Luis Cóppola Bonillas had built the 62-room resort by shipping lumber and supplies on boats from Manzanillo, while Cóppola flew in staff and provisions on war-surplus DC-3s from his regional airline Trans Mar de Cortés.
Using the resort as a base, Jay Maisel and Jule Campbell spent days navigating dirt trails, shooting near the Twin Dolphin area, the beaches around Hotel Palmilla, and all the way down to the arches of Land’s End. On one side of the hotel, an avant-garde New York fashion crew was shooting Rudi Gernreich swimsuits on empty beaches. On the other, rugged American sportfishermen were chasing black marlin on private planes. It was Los Cabos right on the cusp of everything.
KT, Your Insider Guide
When Jule Campbell and Jay Maisel landed their DC-3 on that dirt strip, they were looking for total isolation. What they accidentally did was hand the international travel world a treasure map. That single magazine cover did more to put the tip of Baja on the map for regular travelers than a decade of tourism marketing ever could.
The landscape has transformed since 1965. However, that same magnetic pull is still here. And the people who feel it earliest always make the best decisions.
Discover the Los Cabos that still feels like a secret at cabosfinest.com
