Sixties Posts

A TOAST TO TINA!

Before Tina Louise became stranded on Gilligan’s Island , she tried to carve out a dramatic career in Hollywood. She won a Golden Globe Award for her movie debut in God’s Little Acre, and went on to appear in a string of less-than-successful dramas opposite Richard Widmark, Robert Taylor, and Robert Ryan. Disenchanted with the roles being offered her (she turned down Operation Petticoat and Li’l Abner) she hightailed it to Europe. Check out this wonderful CLIP of Tina at the Cannes Film Festival where she once again proves she was one of the sexiest Sirens of the Sixties and that there was more to her than just playing Ginger Grant.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Celebrating upcoming birthdays are Starlets Arlene Martel, Maureen Arthur, and Melody Patterson. Arlene was a busy actress who was all over the small screen during the Swinging Sixties playing a variety of roles including Spock’s intended Vulcan wife on Star Trek and a Russian spy on The Monkees. Check out a clip on YouTube.

Maureen is best known for her role as the busty gold digger Heddy LaRue in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. She also sang the title tune and co-starred in the low-budget James Bond rip-off, A Man Called Dagger. Check out a tribute on YouTube. Maureen will be featured in my upcoming book, Pinups in Sixties Hollywood.

Finally Melody (pictured) is warmly remembered for playing shapely cowgirl Wrangler Jane on the comedy series, F Troop.

Brrrrr

April in New York City has been colder than January. To keep the straight boys warm at night, they’ll need the ski honeys from Winter a-Go-Go. Check out the trailer on YouTube and watch Jill Donohue, Nancy Czar, Julie Parrish, Beverly Adams, Linda Rogers, and Arlene Charles shake and shimmy to an icy cool beat. You can read more about the latter three in my upcoming book Pinups in Sixties Hollywood.

FRANCINE YORK

One of the most talented and hard working Glamazons of the Sixties was the gorgeous Francine York. She was at her best playing the bad girl such as the noble Niolani (pictured at left) who imprisons the Robinson men on Lost in Space.

In 1973, York, in a change of pace role, played the ass-kicking heroine and leader of The Doll Squad whose members included another man-basher Tura Satana. It is Grade-Z grindhouse cheese but you wouldn’t expect anything less in a film with Francine in the lead from the director of The Astro-Zombies. Check out the trailer on YouTube.