Nadine
Chanz

"Ja," says miss October. "I used to say, I am shy for this. I am a girl who wears a T-shirt on the beach!" Yet the blonde beauty from tiny Algermissen, a hamlet in norther Germany, has never been timid in any way about pursuing her dream - to make it big in America. In 1993 Nadine Chanz was a student at a beauty college back home. On a whim and a dare she entered - and won - the Miss Hannover pageant. She then conquered her shyness long enough to pose for the German edition of Playboy. During a visit to the U.S. last year, she brought her Playboy Germany issue to our Los Angeles offices and demanded attention. "My goal is to be an American Playmate," she told us. After one look, how could we say nein? This month we're proud to introduce Miss October, whose beauty, humor and ambition make her as American as an apple strudel.

Nadine is already a celebrity in Germany, shere she co-hosts a TV quiz show, Pack die Badehose, or Pack Your Swimsuit. Lucky guests win trips all over the globe. Her own journey began in swimwear: "At first I couldn't bring myself to pose nude for Playboy Germany, so I wore my swimsuit." Eventually she relented and took it off, averting riots among readers. "Now I enjoy this," she says, laughing. By the end of her U.S. photo shoot, Contributing Photographer Arny Freytag, who is of German descent, was saying "Guten Tag" and "Danke, Nadine."

During visits to America Nadine sometimes misses her homeland - particularly barreling down the autobahn at 140 kph - but then she reminds herself that this is the land of her dreams. "I love America. Everything is big. Everyone is friendly - not worried and shy like us Germans." As for American men, "they know what they want, but they are too fast," Nadine says. "They say hello and then want you to go home with them!" Miss October hasn't yet mastered the quirks of the English language - she worries about prudes back home "saying bad things after my back" - but she feels more comfortable every day. "I've arrived," she says.