Hoyt Richards Drawn Into Eternal Values Cult at 16 in 1978
Hoyt Richards was 16 when Frederick Von Mierers approached him on a Nantucket beach in 1978. hoyt richards later became the world’s first male supermodel, but nearly every dollar he earned went toward Eternal Values.
That money trail is the core of the story. Richards had a football scholarship to Princeton before he moved into modeling, then worked campaigns for Versace, Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Burberry while the cult drew him deeper into Von Mierers’ world.
Von Mierers and Studio 54
Von Mierers took Richards and others to Studio 54 and to afterparties at his East 54th Street apartment. He told them, “Only invite the beauties,” and some attractive followers, including Richards, lived there under his control.
The apartment ran on strict rules. Residents slept side-by-side on futons, ate restrictive diets of fruits and vegetables, took regular tanning sessions, and had to deep-clean the apartment. They were also required to renounce sexual activity, especially romantic love, while Von Mierers conducted ninety-minute “life readings” using astrological charts.
Gemstones and Arcturus
Eternal Values mixed alien UFO claims, drug-fueled sexcapades and an illicit gem business around a leader who said he was an E.T. from the star Arcturus. Followers were pushed to buy pricey gemstones from Von Mierers that were said to carry healing powers.
Richards said, “I was becoming a more evolved, better me,” in the docuseries. That line captures the trap more clearly than any outside explanation: the system did not look like a prison from inside it, which is why the financial drain and the rules could keep tightening at the same time.
Bring Me the Beauties June 1
Bring Me the Beauties is a three-part HBO docuseries premiering June 1. Directed by Chris Smith, it includes interviews with Richards and several other former Eternal Values members, plus archival footage of Von Mierers.
Smith said, “It took us about five years,” and that long production time fits the subject. The group existed before the internet left easy records behind, so the series now does the work of turning a hidden modeling-era cult story into something viewers can actually trace from the beach in 1978 to the apartment, the gemstones and the money that followed.
