The Economy Must Be Improving If People Are Being Paid To Watch You Tan

Before America got all Maude Flanders about skin cancer, we used to lionize golden-brown sun worshippers like George Hamilton, Georgio Armani, Zonker from Doonesbury. Then we all learned about melanomas and even the gays started getting spray tans. Well, grab the cocoa butter and Zinka, folks, because  the leather-skin days of yesteryear might be making a comeback.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the rooftop pool at the James Hotel in New York has its own tanning concierge:

[Harrison] Anastasio, a rising senior at Edward R. Murrow High School, is one of two attendants at the James hotel’s rooftop deck, where he’s paid $15 an hour to supervise the four-foot deep pool, serve water to guests, and ready lounge chairs for optimal sun or shade. A certified lifeguard, Anastasio is also the pool’s tanning concierge—a job the hotel created this summer in partnership with a sunscreen maker.

As concierge, Anastasio must ensure pool patrons remember to turn over at designated intervals to evenly brown their front and back sides.

If this was a gay porn from the ’80s, Anastasio would totally be played by Joey Stefano. (NSFW)