sixties

ONE, TWO, THREE

TCM is airing one of my favorite movies of all-time on Sat. Sept. 1 at 4pm. It is Billy Wilder’s frenetic comedy One, Two, Three (1961) starring James Cagney as Coca-Cola’s harried man in Berlin hired to bring the popular soft drink to the Eastern Bloc. His wife (Arlene Francis) and family want to go back to the states; his mistress-secretary (Lilo Pulver) wants a raise; and his boss’ ditzy headstrong teenage daughter (Pamela Tiffin) has descended on him for a holiday and secretly elopes with a Communist (Horst Buchholz). Her antics elicited from Cagney’s character, “I’d rather be in hell with my back broken.”

James Cagney is a marvel to watch as he barks orders to his frazzled staff in machine gun rapid delivery. Gorgeous Pamela Tiffin and strikingly handsome Horst Buchholz make a super hot couple and hold there own against the pro. Pamela in particular won excellent notices as the impetuous, scatterbrained Scarlett Hazeltine. She was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for “Best Supporting Actress” and “Most Promising Newcomer – Female.” But her biggest rave came from the esteemed Billy Wilder himself who commented to Esquire, “She’s another Audrey Hepburn … she comes off on the screen even better than she looks and in this case that’s saying a lot.”

BEAT THE CLOCK

My new book Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood is due back from the printer on Oct. 3 according to my publisher. I am scheduled to attend the Chiller Theatre Convention in New Jersey Oct. 5-7 so it is a race to have the books there in time. Either way I still will be going despite the most uninteresting guest list in Chiller history. Check out their web site guest page. Yawn!

My friend (and co-author of Film Fatales) Louis Paul is hosting all the panel discussions at Chiller and he really will have his work cut out for him trying to distinguish these double D-cup bimbos from one another. Where are the Sixties and Seventies starlets!?!

TINA ON TOUR

Tina Louise has been traveling the U.S. promoting her new children’s book entitled When I Grow Up. [Order a copy through Amazon under “Groovy Books” from my E-store.] She made an appearance at Borders Books in NYC a few weeks ago but I wasn’t able to attend so I sent my partner Ernie (who went begrudgingly) to buy a copy for my nephew J. Thomas. I was bummed that I didn’t get to see her in person (though I ran past her a few years ago on the streets of Chelsea).

Thankfully, someone recently taped her appearance at another book signing and it is available on YouTube. Check it out. Tina stills looks gorgeous.

Convention Wars, Elvis Style

Former Elvis co-star Suzanna Leigh‘s ambitious and well-intentioned plan to reunite many of the King’s co-stars at the Night-of-a-Thousand-Stars convention during Elvis week in Memphis last week fell flat per first hand reports as the 1,000 stars dwindled down to 9. Most of the starlets slated to attend such as Sue Ane Langdon, Irene Tsu, Celeste Yarnall, Gail Gilmore (pictured with Elvis in Harum Scarum), Pat Priest, and Edy Williams dropped out. Can’t blame them as at the last minute the venue changed and they had to pay their own way to Memphis though promises were made to reimburse them.

Making matters even worse was that the convention drew the ire of the official Elvis convention, which was unhappy with Leigh’s event getting publicity. Suzanna was mysteriously banned from Sirius radio while some of her guests such as Victoria Meyerink who was advertised at one point on Leigh’s web site bolted for the Elvis convention joining Elvis co-stars Mary Ann Mobley, Chris Noel, Cynthia Pepper, and Darlene Tompkins.

Instead of trying to sabotage Leigh, maybe the Elvis people will smarten up and work with her next year to have one big official convention with his co-stars and maybe say talented authors who have written about them such as moi!