Tuesday Weld campaigned mightily to play ditsy Southern belle Scarlett Hazeltine in director/writer Billy Wilder’s frenetic hilarious political satire One, Two, Three (1961) starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz, but he cast Pamela Tiffin instead who went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Read more in Pamela Tiffin: Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974.
Joan O’Brien stepped in as Cary Grant’s leading lady in Operation Petticoat (1959) after Tina Louise passed due to the “boob jokes.” The WWII comedy co-starring Tony Curtis and Dina Merrill was a blockbuster and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay boob jokes and all. Read more in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema.
See below press release for my Indianapolis radio debut this Friday April 7, 2017 on Lakeshore Public Radio. If any one is in the listening area there will be 2 autographed books from me and Arlene Charles aka Charlie Smith to 2 winning random callers.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS & GUESTS:
FRIDAY, APRIL 7 — 1:00pm – “A LOOK AT THE ARTS”
Guest: Book Author TOM LISANTI & Sixties Actress CHARLIE SMITH
A well known name to fans of 1960s Pop Culture — TOM LISANTI — has written several books on the topic and in the process of writing those, has interviewed numerous stars, starlets, models and heartthrobs of the era.
Tom Lisanti has a newly release book “TALKING SIXTIES DRIVE IN MOVIES” of which the title says it all! Were you catching the latest beach movies or Elvis flicks back in the day at your favorite neighborhood Drive-In Theater? Then you will want to check out his book — chock full of some folks you saw up on those silver screens between handfuls of pop corn and backseat smooching. Joining Tom on this program is one of those bikini beauties from back in the day — CHARLIE SMITH — a Northwest Indiana native professionally known in those days as Arlene Charles, while popping up in films alongside stars like Elvis Presley, James Stacy, Frankie Avalon and Vincent Price, to name but a few!
Soft cover edition of my new book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies is now available on Amazon.
Talking Sixties Drive-in Movies is a collection of profiles, interviews, and tributes about actors and films popular with the drive-in movie crowd during the sixties. Interviewees include Arlene Charles, Nancy Czar, Gail Gerber, Christopher Riordan, and Irene Tsu talking Elvis Presley musicals; Bobbi Shaw and Steven Rogers talking beach party movies; Jan Watson and Diane Bond talking spy spoofs; Nicoletta Machiavelli talking spaghetti westerns; Mimsy Farmer, Lara Lindsay, LAda Edmund, Jr., and Maggie Thrett talking alienated youth movies; and Valerie Starrett talking biker films. Some of the chapters center on one movie or a genre while others are career profiles with a main focus on one or two drive-in movies.
First official review is in from Library Journal (link to full review):
“Recommended for film lovers everywhere.”
More raves from the interviewees:
“A lovely book…amazing. Quoted me exactly. Not what I am used to.”—Lara Lindsay
“I just love it [and] think it’s great! I am very pleasantly surprised at how detailed, correct, and complimentary.”—Jan Watson