Free Preview: Playmate of the Month July 1992 - Amanda Hope

Amanda Hope settles back onto a large green duffel bag in the middle of a sidewalk in London's Chelsea district. It is not even eight A.M. - damp fog still hangs in the air, a milk delivery truck roars by - but Amanda is already going a mile a minute. "My life's a dadgum circus," says Miss July in her native Texan drawl - and there is some truth to that. Twelve hours earlier, Amanda had been in Germany, where she plays music for a living; at the moment, she sits outside a London photo studio, waiting patiently for it to open. By noon, she will be gloriously naked in front of Playboy cameras. All that is missing is the ringmaster. <br><br> Amanda is in the U.S. Army, with the rank of specialist. She is stationed at Bad Kreuznach, Germany - 40 miles from Frankfurt, in the heart of vineyard country - where she is a clarinetist with the First Armored Division band. Admittedly, this is not your typical photo shoot (soldiers on leave usually don't spend precious R&R hours beneath hot studio lamps). Amanda, though, takes it all in stride. In fact, she insists, there's a certain similarity to being a soldier and being a Playmate. "For both, you need discipline, pride and confidence," she says. "You also have to maintain a high standard of appearance, do a good job and pay attention to detail. And, yes, you have to be all that you can be." Amanda Hope was born on August 23, 1969, in Austin, Texas, but was raised in the tiny city of Cameron. The eighth of nine foster children, Amanda...