This much I know

JOSEPH BRUNO, 78, FASHION DESIGNER TURNED SENIOR MODEL

My first love was theater. My dad, unfortunately, being a very strict Italian, said, "No, you can't be an actor. You're going to design school."

He was a steam fitter. Actors were considered bums. ... [My father] said, "I don't care what you want, you're going to design school."

In my second year in design school, I was awarded the best designer in the school fashion show and a job at the Boston Store, a department store here in Chicago.

I started designing for celebrities -- Betty Hutton, Ruth Roman, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Anna Maria Alberghetti. It was wonderful.

Then I decided I wasn't making enough money designing for celebrities. I started to design for catalogs -- Sears, JCPenney and Fingerhut.

[Four years ago], a friend said, why don't you do some modeling?

[At Ford modeling agency auditions in Chicago], there's 30 good-looking young guys there. It was very intimidating.

I went up to the people [in charge] there and said, do you hire senior models? They said, "We hire talented people who make money for us."

Lo and behold, out of all of these 30 good-looking guys, they picked me No. 1. I don't choose to compete with young guys. I don't kid myself.

[In commercials], I've been a cancer patient, a chemo patient, a radiation patient. That's the only work there is. Or, I'm the husband of the wife who is getting chemo. I'm the husband of the wife who is bringing cookies to the oncologist.

There's something missing here. I feel badly because is [actor] Wilford Brimley the role a senior must take? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with him, but I'd like to present another image.

I've used Dove Soap for the last four years. Why can't I do a Dove commercial? I've tried them. They only choose to use women. I would love to do a commercial for the Men's Wearhouse.

I know that younger men need work, and my heart goes out to them. I would like to bring back a bit of space for senior men. I'm saying, we need work also.

It's been rejection from Day One. They just don't want to use senior models.