February 2015 Author’s Addendum: News recently broke that Helen Selby, now going by her married name, Helen Gumpel, has reemerged to join the ranks of Bill Cosby accusers.
The above 1981 TV commercial for L’eggs Sheer Elegance pantyhose (back when they came in the plastic “eggs”) features little-known actress and model, Helen Selby.
Besides doing commercials for L’eggs (the one that aired the year after this one would probably be deemed even more racist by today’s media standards) and a few other products, she appeared in a 1988 episode of The Cosby Show entitled “Bookworm” (covered pretty extensively at this blog dedicated to details on every Cosby Show episode from the premiere to the fourth episode into its seventh and next-to-last season), which is the sole credit on her IMDb page, and then she seems to have just disappeared from the public eye. She now resides in the “Whatever Happened to..? file.
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Helen Gumpel, formerly known as Helen Selby,
I remember this ad when I was a kid and was just searching for it. Thanks for bringing back a TV memory!
I remember this commercial. I remember this Cosby episode. Never did make the connection before seeing this.
I remember that episode of Cosby, and the beautiful Asian woman who was a member of Clair’s book club, but didn’t make the connection! Here’s a little more on her:
https://picturesofbeautifulwomen.blogspot.com/2019/11/model-helen-selby.html
I was talking with my husband about this commercial that we both remembered. He said it was Lucy Liu who was in it and I told him no way! A search for “asian leggs commercial” eventually led me here and proved him waaay wrong lol. Somehow, I don’t think this commercial would go over in today’s world. I can’t even remember the last time I heard the word “orient” or “oriental” instead or “Asia” or “Asian.”