Cynthia Albritton – famous for making plaster casts of musicians’ penises – has died at the age of 74.
Cynthia Albritton has died aged 74
The artist, known as Cynthia Plaster Caster, immortalised the members of rockers like Jimi Hendrix, Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley and the Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra.
Cynthia’s representatives confirmed her death on Thursday (21.04.22), revealing she passed away in Chicago following a long illness.
Albritton was born in 1947 and turned her attention to rock frontmen at art school during the 1960s – when she was asked to create a plaster cast of “something solid that could retain its shape”.
Hendrix was her first famous subject after he agreed to be cast while on tour in Chicago in 1968.
She recalled to Rock Scene magazine: “Jimi Hendrix was coming to town. He was my first real rock star that dipped his d*** and it was unbelievable.
“We were the groupies that got to the hotel first and we were the only groupies in Jimi Hendrix’s room. It wasn’t our very first cast. I had tried it on a few civilians first to be ready for Jimi.
“He’s my biggest. No, he’s not my biggest. There are ‘bigger-ish’ others. But, I couldn’t say whether or not he’s my most exciting. Because they’re my sweet babies and I am their mama and I’m very democratic with all my babies. I don’t like to play favourites. I love them all. The experiences were equally exciting and weird and different from each other.”
Cynthia was honoured in the song ‘Plaster Caster’ that featured on the 1977 KISS album ‘Love Gun’ although rock legend Gene Simmons was never one of her subjects.
It included the lyrics: “The plaster’s gettin’ harder and my love is perfection/ A token of my love for her collection.”
Cynthia’s career was immortalised in the 2001 documentary ‘Plaster Caster’ and she also featured in the 2005 BBC documentary ‘My Penis and I’ – created by the filmmaker Lawrence Barraclough about his anxiety over the size of his penis.
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