Memory Lane: When the first daughter modeled at The Breakers

Over the years, Republican presidential primary campaign activity typically has touched down in Palm Beach in one way or another — this year’s frontrunner, of course, resides on the island. It was nearly 50 years ago that incumbent GOP candidate President Gerald R. Ford paid a visit after his teenage daughter took the island by surprise.

Downpours soaked the town the day Ford came in 1976 — the nation’s bicentennial year — as part of a motorcade swing through South Florida.

Making a brief stop at a rain-doused family carnival at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Ford greeted Palm Beachers under a dripping umbrella before an 8-year-old handed him a quarter.

That was the fee to sign a reproduction of the U.S. Constitution; the document was part of a church fundraising project.

By the time the president left the church 15 minutes later, more rain poured down and the soaked president’s “blue business suit lost its press,” an observer noted.

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But Ford — who would win the Florida Republican primary and then the GOP nomination against challenger Ronald Reagan — forged ahead with other Palm Beach County stops communities knew about in advance.

Days earlier, the first daughter’s Palm Beach visit had been unexpected.

Susan Ford, a blond and blue-eyed 18-year-old considered “an all-American beauty,” checked into The Breakers on Feb. 17 for a two-day modeling gig.

The president’s only daughter and sister to three brothers had been the queen of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia, before spearheading the first (and, to the day, only) high-school senior prom at the White House.

When a popular magazine at the time, Family Circle, asked the young Ford if she’d like to model casual resort/sportswear in Palm Beach for a photo spread in an upcoming issue, she jumped at the chance.

Susan Ford Bales, as she’s now known, remembers the experience to this day.

“First of all, I got to stay at The Breakers, and I had never been there at that point and it was such a treat,” philanthropist Bales told the Daily News by phone from Texas, where she lives. “And being the first daughter and sister to three brothers where everything is rough and tumble and sports, being asked to come and model in Palm Beach for a magazine was a privilege and a compliment.”

But the modeling gig was to be a secret because “that’s the way the magazine wanted it,” according to the press secretary of then-First Lady Betty Ford.

Even President Ford’s local campaign manager, Caldwell Robinson, told reporters he didn’t know about it until the last minute.

The first daughter’s unexpected visit “cost me 10 hours of hard phone work” to catch up with the situation, he said, noting, “She’s here to model, not campaign, you know.”

The fashion shoot for Family Circle, a publication then-described as “the homemakers’ magazine,” involved photo shoots around the pools, tennis courts and courtyards at The Breakers, as well as on a sailboat at the town’s marina on Lake Drive.

Forget haute couture: The clothes Ford modeled were casual warm-weather looks made from patterns by the staff at Family Circle.

To keep her blond locks bouncy, hairstylist Gregory Hauptner, then a Riviera Beach salon owner, was enlisted.

“I was just told to show up at The Breakers one day with all my equipment,” Hauptner, who arrived with blow-dryers and other goodies in two duffle bags, told the Daily News. “It was all a big deal. Once we started shooting, word got out that she was here and people actually hid in bushes to try to see and eventually meet her.”

Hauptner, 28 at the time, would go on to be a hairstylist for the now-gone Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Jupiter and for such celebrities as Farrah Fawcett before becoming involved in filmmaking and then in 2003, founding the G-Star School of the Arts in Palm Springs.

“The first modeling day with Susan Ford, we did some photos around The Breakers,” Hauptner said, “and then on the second day, we did photos on a sailboat at the marina and then more photos at The Breakers.”

The resort hotel, once a seasonal destination, had entered a new era at the time: It was now open year-round and was air-conditioned since 1971. Not that air-conditioning was needed during Ford’s February stay.  

“After the first day (of photo shoots), I gave her a correct haircut and styling and she looked wonderful,” Hauptner said. “For some reason I remember her telling me she liked Big Macs. I guess everyone did back then.”

“Everyone on the photo shoot was very professional and I remember thinking they worked well as a team,” Bales said.  “I think I got to keep the clothes, too.”

At one point, Ford and the crew went for reuben sandwiches at Peter Dinkel’s, a restaurant and watering hole on Royal Poinciana Way that later became the popular Chuck & Harold’s for years and then Nick & Johnnie’s before Almond Palm Beach opened in the space in 2020.

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Being in front of the camera wasn’t teenage Ford’s goal: She’d interned as a newspaper photographer and, after college, embarked on a career in photojournalism.  

For decades, she has carried on the legacy of her parents.

Among other things, she’s on the board of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (continuing the work of the 1982-founded Betty Ford Center for substance abuse) and has played an active role in advocating for breast-cancer awareness.  

She’ll be back in Palm Beach this March as a special guest at the Promise Fund of Florida’s annual major donors’ dinner and awards celebration; at last year’s event at Club Colette, she presented the inaugural Betty Ford Trailblazer Award.

Though the days of modeling in Palm Beach are long gone, she told the Daily News, “coming this spring to present this award is a wonderful reason to return.”