A STAR FROM THE WRISTS DOWN; FOR 40 YEARS, VETERAN MODEL HAS TAKEN HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE TO NEW LEVELS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

If you've thumbed through a magazine or watched television in the past 40 years, you've seen Linda Rose's work dozens - maybe hundreds - of times.

But you may never have seen her face.

That's because the South Pasadena resident, now 62, made her mark on the advertising world as a hand model, pouring wine, displaying nail polish and caressing perfume bottles for $1,000 a day - often doubling as the hands of Lauren Hutton, Cybill Shepherd, Florence Henderson and other stars.

You've seen Rose dropping a perfect pearl into a bottle of emerald green Prell shampoo, twisting open a jar of Taster's Choice instant coffee, scrubbing a sink with Comet cleanser, stirring up a treat using Kraft cheese, placing a Revlon pressed powder compact just so as the television camera zoomed in, reacting with surprise in a Palmolive dish-soap commercial when told, ``You're soaking in it.''

From the wrists down, Rose was a star. But she never minded being anonymous from the wrists up.

``I got used to being introduced, `This is Linda Rose; she's a model, but she just does hands,' as if to explain why I wasn't better-looking,'' the former model said with a laugh. ``But although I did over 5,000 commercials and print ads as a hand model, I did another 150 with my face. It's just that nobody recognizes my face.''

Despite her age, both her face and hands look remarkably youthful - the result, Rose believes, of good genes and a new line of hand-care products she retired two years ago to develop and market, now selling them in stores in 11 states and the District of Columbia, and mail-ordering to 34 countries around the world.

Becoming a cosmetics queen - even a budding one - didn't happen overnight, or even on purpose. A last-ditch effort to find potions and lotions that would keep her much-in-demand hands soft and smooth for the camera led first to the lab, then the department stores.

Success in the world of cosmetics just kind of happened, like her career as television's first hand model.

Rose was 18 and working as a junior model, showing off department store clothes to earn some extra money while attending Vassar College in 1954 when she was recruited by Lux to double - from the wrists down - as actress Gene Tierney. The soap company wasn't happy with the look of the actress's hands, so Rose was chosen to sign off with a giant autograph, supposedly penned by Tierney herself.

``They knew I had good legs, and they thought I might have good hands,'' Rose recalled. ``So they hired me.''

When she penned the graceful signature, she had no idea it would be the beginning of a 42-year career in front of the cameras.

For many years, part of the modeling ``stable'' of both the Ford Agency and TRH Talent Agency, Rose was hired by dozens of clients to show off their products. She ``burped'' Tupperware, broke apart pie crust to show its flakiness, fondled jewelry, dabbed makeup on other women's faces.

``I even got to hold hands with (actor) Rossano Brazzi for a whole day while doing a commercial for Lux soap,'' Rose said. ``He was very charming.''

One of her triumphs was shaking a bottle of Bufferin so only two tablets rolled out, into the center of her palm, with both B's facing the camera. Another was writing the word ``slow'' in Heinz ketchup - in letters of exactly the same size and thickness - to emphasize the product's thick tomatoey goodness. Both feats took days of practice to get them just so.

Rose was famous throughout the advertising world for not only the beauty of her hands, but their steadiness and her ability to do just about any task for the camera and look graceful while doing it, said Martha Robertson, president of TRH.

``She really was the first million-dollar hand model,'' Robertson said. ``She came along at a very golden time in the evolution of commercials. Sponsors would hire stars to show off their products, but the stars usually didn't have pretty hands. And here comes Linda to the rescue, standing behind them, putting on their lipstick and powder, combing hair, as if it were the star's hands. Nobody could tell the difference.

``She could still work if she wanted do,'' Robertson said. ``She's absolutely amazing.''

Although Rose's hands helped send that buy-me message on the television screen and in print ads, most of her photo shoots were just hard work.

One of the worst experiences she can recall is an art director deciding to paint her nails with gold paint, convinced it would show up better on-screen than nail polish. But the paint never dried, and Rose needed an assistant to feed her lunch and help her in and out of her clothes - including a skin-tight girdle - so she could go to the bathroom during the daylong shoot.

``It wasn't always glamorous, but I learned how to do so many things,'' Rose said. ``I baked bread, and I was not a cook. I did 26 gourmet cooking segments in one day for Wesson oil.''

While other models babied their hands, Rose married and mothered two young sons, washed dishes, dug in the garden, played baseball, dusted and cleaned - sometimes with gloves, but never fearing that using her hands would mean the end of her career.

And, no, her hands never have been insured.

``I decided long ago that I wasn't going to live my life wrapped in cotton,'' Rose said. ``I used my hands. That's what they're for, for heaven's sake. I always hurt my hands getting out of the car. I skin them pulling stuff out of the oven. I'm always breaking nails, but I've gotten really good at fixing them so you can't tell unless you're looking really closely.''

In 1958, she broke her right wrist ice skating, but rather than hire another model, Revlon waited until the cast came off to film a commercial for Love Pat compact makeup.

And once, she sliced into her right hand making sandwiches for her kids' lunches. She showed up on the set the next day, her hand bandaged, and suggested that they call another model. But the director improvised, shooting only her left hand, which she says is her ``best side'' anyway.

The only person who hasn't been glad to see Rose seems to be late-night talk-show host David Letterman, who had read about her and invited her on his show a couple of years ago. He wasn't happy with what he saw when he met her, though, Rose recalled with a laugh.

``He was really mad,'' she said. ``He wanted a real ugly beast with 10 perfect fingers. He was mad because he said I looked too good.''

Now, her only guest appearances are at department stores, introducing her hand-care products. It was a leap of faith to forgo a lucrative modeling career to develop hand-care products, but Rose said she chose to do it because there was nothing on the market she felt comfortable using - or endorsing.

While working with chemists to develop exactly what she wanted, Rose did some acting, some free-lance writing and produced her own radio show, which aired on KWNK, all the while emptying her bank accounts and maxing out her credit cards to pay the lab bills.

But the sacrifice paid off.

``It took three labs and 15 formulas, but I got what I wanted,'' Rose said triumphantly.

About a year ago, she took the first supply of her hand-care products to Takashimaya, a posh New York boutique, and sold eight kits the first day. ``The next day, four people came back and bought four or five for gifts. By the end of the month, mine was the best-selling product in the store.''

Since then, she's helped open several Neiman Marcus stores across the country, talking to women about their rough, red hands, their dry cuticles. And she beams when customers use her products and come back again to show off their smooth, soft hands.

``It's a wonderful feeling,'' Rose said. ``It's like being told your children are beautiful.''

For Los Angeles-area locations where Linda Rose hand-care products are available, call [phone] or check the Web sites www.lindarose.com or www.myhands.com.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

PHOTO (1) Linda Rose has made her mark on the advertising world as a hand model.

Tina Gerson/Daily News

(2 -- 4) Whether adorning hair or opening a jar of instant coffee, during four decades Rose literally had a hand in drawing attention to a wide variety of products.

(5) ``I got used to being introduced, `This is Linda Rose; she's a model, but she just does hands,' '' the former model says with a laugh.

Tina Gerson/Daily News