sixties

COME SPY WITH ME
During the height of the ’60s spy boom, a few actresses headlined their own movies as female James Bonds. Most fans remember Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise, Raquel Welch as Fathom, and Doris Day as “the spy who came in from the cold cream” in Caprice.

Less remembered but equally memorable was former model Andrea Dromm in Come Spy with Me. Unfortunately the movie is not out on DVD but check out the trailer as it is fast paced fun and hopefully someday will be available.

The lithsome blue-eyed blonde was born in 1945 on Long Island, New York. She grew up in the upper middle class town of Manhasset. As age six she began modeling and progressed from department store catalogs to the cover of True Confessions. Modeling took a back seat to her education for awhile until she returned to New York City. She immediately became one of the most in-demand models and was earning close to $75,000 a year before graduating from print ads to TV commercials. Her most memorable ad was for National Airlines. Dressed as a stewardess, she asked the TV viewer, “Is this any way to run an airline? You bet it is!”

After appearing in the second pilot of Star Trek and making her film debut in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, Dromm was handed the lead in her next film Come Spy with Me (1967) co-starring fading matinee idol Troy Donahue. Since the film’s tag line proclaimed. “They Frug in the water…Swim on the floor…And blow up the Caribbean…Come blow your mind…Come Spy with Me” it’s no surprise the movie opens with a number of go-go boys and girls dancing in silhouette to the title track written and sung by Smokey Robinson. As secret agent Jill Parsons, Dromm (“I’m an agent not a spy!”) is sent to Jamaica to solve the murders of two Americans just before a big meeting of the world’s leaders aboard an aircraft carrier in the island’s waters. Financier Walter Ludecker (Albert Dekker) has been laying bombs throughout the ocean floor to destroy the cruiser and to create an international incident.

Parsons masquerades as a skin diver contestant in a competition hosted by swinging ex-surfer Pete Barker (Donahue) on his boat. She goes diving, does the new dance craze “the Shark” at a local discotheque and lounges by the pool. Oh and she also finds time to locate Barker’s kidnapped friend Samantha (played by Donahue’s then wife Valerie Allen, under 20 pounds of eye makeup), uncover Ludecker’s plot and defuse the bombs.

Regarding the on location work in Come Spy with Me, Andrea Dromm recalls, “ I had to learn how to ride a motorcycle, dive into the water and scuba dive for this. The thing is I thought the scuba diving was very dangerous. I didn’t take an official course and they had us go down in really quite bad weather as practice. They wound up using a double for me because I was really nervous doing it and I just didn’t want to take my life in my hands. When they shot the scene I think the regulators weren’t checked properly and one of the actors—it may have been Troy Donahue—got into some trouble under the water. One of the other actors, Martin Hewitt, who had taken a scuba diving course, had to save him.”

YUM YUM

After The Poseidon Adventure, Carol Lynley’s biggest hit and most recognized movie was the 1963 comedy Under the Yum Yum Tree starring Jack Lemmon as a lecherous landlord who only rents his apartments to nubile young things such as Glamour Girls Pamela Curran and Jane Wald. Carol played a coed who moves in with her boyfriend Dean Jones to live platonicly to see if they are “marriage compatible.” The running joke is then who will seduce the gorgeous Lynley first, as if either had a chance in staid 1963. Carol is amusing in her drunk scenes and supporting players Paul Lynde as the envious groundskeeper and Imogene Coca as his droll disapproving wife and Lemmon’s housekeeper deliver funny quips.

Under the Yum Yum Tree is now finally available on DVD but only as part of The Jack Lemmon Film Collection. The set also includes Phffft! featuring Kim Novak, Operation Mad Ball, The Notorious Landlady, and Good Neighbor Sam featuring Dorothy Provine. In addition, the bonus materials include a two-part documentary hosted by Chris Lemmon featuring intimate interviews with friends, fans, and colleagues.

Purportedly Lemmon disliked the movie because he hated his role as the voyeuristic playboy but Yum Yum went on to become one of his biggest hits at the box office and snagged two Golden Globe nominations for Best Comedy and one for him as Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical. Not a fan of these other movies, here’s hoping Yum Yum will be set free and soon available on its own!

IT’S GONNA BE A SWINGIN’ SUMMER!

Check out Polar Blair’s Den web site for an update on two of my Drive-in Dream Girls, Quinn O’Hara and Lori Williams. There are great screen shots of Quinn in the low budget Larry Buchanan directed In the Year 2829 (1967) and a recent photo of Lori who looks just fabulous.

Quinn and Lori co-starred together along with William Wellman, Jr., James Stacy, and Raquel Welch in the beach party knockoff A Swingin’ Summer (1965). Below is an excerpt from the book regarding what they thought of diva La Welch:

Reno Carell’s most infamous casting was that of Raquel Welch as Jeri, the bookworm who learns to groove. Hiring Welch was a boost for the movie but also caused many problems on the set. Prior to A Swingin’ Summer, Welch was the Billboard Girl on the TV variety show The Hollywood Palace and played bit roles in movies such as Roustabout (1964) and A House Is Not a Home (1964). She received “and introducing” billing in the credits. Welch showed up with her manager Patrick Curtis. According to William Wellman, Jr., “Patrick Curtis was doing everything for Raquel. He was telling her what she should do, what classes she should take, who she should talk to, who she should stay away from.” Curtis became such a presence on the set that he was offered an associate producer credit. “He was a nice guy but a pathological liar,” adds Quinn about Curtis. “I think he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to manage me but I told him to stick with Raquel.”

Welch meanwhile was not endearing herself to some of her female co-stars or the crew. Lori Williams remarked, “Raquel Welch was a problem on this movie and she was a major, major bitch. She wanted to have her signature bikini in the film. I had bought my bikinis before we got to Lake Arrowhead and she wouldn’t let me wear any of them. I had to go out and buy new swimsuits. Working with her was not a lot of fun.”

Quinn O’Hara adds, “I had no trouble with Raquel. But I heard about that bathing suit incident. I didn’t have a hell of a lot of choice of what to wear since I barely had time to get a wardrobe together. I thought Raquel is going to have to like it or lump it because I wasn’t getting another swimsuit.”

The headstrong Raquel also made enemies of the crew. “She did her own make-up and wouldn’t let the body make-up woman touch her,” recalls Quinn. “She swatted her hand away. The cameraman told me that she was going to look terrible with those windshield wiper eyelashes because they were so heavy and casting shadows on her face. I don’t think it made her look bad at all.” Lori Williams recalled, “She kept trying to get people fired. We lost two cameramen who quit because she was just wretched. For me, she was just the worst person I ever met during the time I worked.”

Coming from a different perspective, William Wellman, Jr. (pictured above dancing with Quinn) remarks, “Quinn O’Hara was very nice and a lot of fun to work with. Everybody got along wonderfully with Quinn. Lori Williams was very friendly also. But I don’t think Raquel Welch treated any of them badly, she just didn’t pay any attention to them. She kept pretty much to herself throughout the shoot. We shot this on location and a lot of the cast was partying most of the time. Raquel did not want to be a part of that. Her room was next to mine and I could hear her working on her dance routine. She was working all of the time. A lot of people who worked on the beach movies were there just for the good time. Raquel really took it seriously. I was married by this time and I wasn’t partying either.” Quinn O’Hara concurs with Wellman about Raquel, “Yes, Raquel did stay to herself. You didn’t really get to know her.”