Yet another wonderful YouTube tribute to Carol Lynley, in my opinion one of the most beautiful actresses of the 1960s.
sixties
Drive-in Dream Girl to Poet
Fans of 60s actresses may recall sultry blonde Valora Noland. She co-starred with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in Beach Party (1963) as Rhonda and then was the first actress to essay the role of man-chasing Animal in the sequel Muscle Beach Party (1964). She then had a lead role in the stylish youth film Summer Children (1964), which was heavily influenced by the French New Wave of movies popular at the time. [see trailer below]
During her short career, Noland worked steadily on TV in lead guest roles in such popular series as The Donna Reed Show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Virginian, and Star Trek. On the big screen, she landed a supporting role in the Burt Kennedy-directed western The War Wagon (1967) starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. It was her last film appearance despite the mis-information that has been spread (including by me as I admit shame-faced in Drive-in Dream Girls) that she was in the bawdy comedy Up You Teddy Bear (1970) starring Julie Newmar and Wally Cox.
Valora left show business in the late sixties and today she is known as Valora Tree. She just published a book of her wonderful poetry entitled Water Lily Ponds.
NO MORE WAVES FOR TONY CURTIS
Handsome charismatic Tony Curtis pased away this week and most tributes to him rightfully named Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones, and Some Like It Hot as his most memorable movies. All were produced in the fifties. By the sixties, Curtis seemed to just be settling to play the romantic hero in a string of sex comedies. One of them was Don’t Make Waves (1968) a sort of late-in-the-cycle beach party movie for the adult set. Below are excerpts from my book Hollywood Surf & Beach Movies where actor/bodybuilder Dave Draper paid tribute to his co-star Curtis:
Curtis played Carlo, a newly arrived salesman in Southern California who loses his automobile and worldly possessions due to the carelessness of beautiful but self-absorbed foreign beauty Claudia Cardinale. She invites him to stay the night with her and he learns that she is the mistress of rich married guy Robert Webber who owns a pool company. He blackmails the boss into giving him a job and becomes involved with the wacky denizens of Malibu Beach including bodybuilder David Draper and his surfing skydiving girlfriend Sharon Tate. Don’t Make Waves is entertaining but it could have been better if it would have stuck to satirizing the Southern California lifestyle instead of turning into a typical romantic comedy. The movie succeeds most when poking fun at infidelity, cliff side houses (the ending with the main cast trapped in a house sliding down a cliff is quite amusing), skydiving, publicity stunts, trampolines, salesmen, astrology, and other traits of Southern California living. However, its portrayal of all surfers and musclemen as vapid airheads only interested in the quest of catching the perfect wave or developing the biggest biceps is a bit unfair but hey it’s only a movie.
Making things a lot easier for Dave Draper was a helpful cast. There were no ego problems on this set according to Draper. Both Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale were big movie stars but they did not act like it in the least. “Tony is a prince,” says Draper. “I liked him and felt equality with him, though I tended to kneel when he stood by my side. He was fun, honest and full of energy. He’s a friend.”
CASANOVA NO MORE
Vocalist Eddie Fisher passed away last week. I only knew him as the guy who dumped wife Debbie Reynolds for Liz Taylor who dumped him for Richard Burton. To me he was a funny looking Jewish guy but he purportedly romanced many a 60s starlet including Ann-Margret, Juliet Prowse, Sue Lyon, Carol Lynley, Angie Dickinson, Fantasy Femme Lana Wood, Glamour Girl Linda Rogers, and Connie Stevens who became wife #3.
I never heard him sing until I caught the clip of him below with Andy Williams and Bobby Darin performing “Do-Re-Mi” on The Andy Williams Show. He really did have a great voice. It is a shame that his love life over shadowed his sinnging.