sixties

R.I.P. III

They say death comes in threes. Yet another Sixties Starlet passed away last week. Two-time Emmy winner and Tony nominee Lois Nettleton died on Jan . 18. Again not a favorite of mine, Nettleton nevertheless was a extremely talented and versatile actress (and super nice to boot per a friend of mine) who was a staple of TV movies during the late 60s through the 90s. My favorite performance of hers though was in the fluffy three-stewardesses-looking-for-romance movie Come Fly with Me (1963). Lois, (pictured at left) gives a classy performance as the level-headed one who falls in love with tycoon Karl Malden pretending to be poor while chain-smoking golddigger Dolores Hart becomes the dupe of jewelry smuggler Karl Boehm and naive Pamela Tiffin sets her marriage-minded ambitions on playboy pilot Hugh O’Brian.

I also remember Lois from the 1970 ABC Movie of the Week,Weekend of Terror where she, Carol Lynley and Jane Wyatt played nuns taken captive by thugs Robert Conrad and Lee Majors after the heiress they kidnapped accidentally dies trying to escape. They then try to pass off one of the nuns as the dead girl. I always found it odd that Carol would accept a secondary role in a TV-movie at this point in time when she was still a sort after leading lady on television.

HERE COMES BRIDGET

Click here to view a recent interview with my very first TV crush, Bridget Hanley of Here Come the Brides. As a very shy 7 year old I was just drawn to Bridget’s sweet Candy and Bobby Sherman’s shy Jeremy. They had such a wonderful chemistry. Adorable together, their tentative romance really touched me as a child. I loved the way the headstrong Candy would try to coax timid Jeremy out of his shell. To this day they are still one of my favorite TV couples of all time.

In the interview, the wonderfully droll Bridget Hanley, who has remained very active in LA theatre, shares wonderful stories about working on Here Come the Brides and her other hit series, Harper Valley PTA.

R.I.P. II

Her death never made any of the papers, but I am sad to report that beach party regular Mary Hughes passed away from Cancer two weeks ago. A sexy statuesque blonde in the tradition of Brigitte Bardot, Mary was the perpetual Sixties beach bunny and stood out from all the other girls on the sand due to her eye-popping proportions—standing 5-foot-9 and measuring 36-22-36. Her beauty was breathtaking.

Never having more than a line or two, Mary was a regular in all the Frankie and Annette fun-in-the-sun beach movies beginning with Muscle Beach Party (1964) through Pajama Party (1964) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and right up to The Ghost in the Invisibile Bikini (1966). After the beach movies had run their course, Mary became a Slaymate in the Dean Martin spy spoof Murderers’ Row (1966) and then an anonymous Elvis chick in the London-set Double Trouble (1967). There she met rock star Jeff Beck who wrote the song “Psycho Daisies” about his beloved blonde. Long retired from show business, Mary resided in Malibu where she told Vanity Fair magazine last year she still turned heads on the sand.

Farewell Mary Hughes. The beach party will be less fun without you.