Sixties Posts

Carole Wells is a gorgeous gal with big green eyes and long silky flaxen hair. She once rightly told a magazine reporter, “When you’re a blonde, people always notice you.” Talented and charming with just the right movie star look, she should have become a superstar but contractual TV obligations, her interest in singing, and her commitment to her family seemed to get in the way of big screen stardom. Instead, Wells co-starred on television in the family drama series National Velvet with Lori Martin and the wild and woolly sitcom Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats with Ann Sheridan. The film comedy Come Blow Your Horn (1963) should have gotten her much notice as the girlfriend of swinging bachelor Frank Sinatra’s younger brother Tony Bill, but most of her scenes were excised due to the running time. Drive-in fans remember Wells for playing the blonde tease who vamps college student Doug McClure in the hot rod film, The Lively Set (1964) co-starring Pamela Tiffin and James Darren. She was off the big screen for close to ten years when she surprised her old fans by accepting a part in the cult horror film The House of Seven Corpes (1974). But in her next feature Wells faced an even more terrifying ogre Barbra Streisand when she accepted a supporting role in Funny Lady (1975).

You can read my interview with Carole Wells in my book Drive-in Dream Girls in which Carole graciously wrote the foreword.

I was perusing some of my Amazon reviews for my older books and came across two posts from former actresses.

Linda Thorson from TV’s The Avengers and later One Life to Life commented on the Gail Gerber memoir Trippin’s with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember:

“Gerber was a wonderful story teller and she saw it all first hand. Told without sentimentality and subtle humor, I loved every minute of this book which evoked many memories of my LA days in the late 60’s and 70’s. Sadly Gail passed away last year. She had an interesting life and as a fellow Canadian, I admire her gumption, getting out and about in the world, expanding horizons but keeping her appreciation of who we are, how we were raised and the blessing it clearly was.”

Vicki London of Village of the Giants fame whom I interviewed for Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood wrote:

“I loved being included in Tom Lisanti’s fun book. Today, I especially remember this time in my life. A time I very rarely talk about. Tom checked the facts and handled my involvement in the Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnapping case respectfully and with great care.It was 1963. I was a teenage girl totally smitten with a teenage boy. A gifted boy. A musical prodigy. Sweet, introverted and so talented. Then, one night everything changed. We were talking on the phone, laughing and fooling around, when I heard a loud knock on the door. Frankie said “Hold on. It must be room service.” Then I heard voices and scuffling and the phone went dead. The next morning the Feds were at my grandparent’s front door questioning me since the hotel’s phone records showed I was the last call Frankie made before he was kidnapped. From that moment on, my life were reporters getting all the facts wrong, being subpoenaed, refusing to show up, so the court “police” came and pulled me out of a rehearsal I was doing for a musical country revue, dragging me to the trial dressed in a cowgirl’s getup. It was surreal, embarrassing and frightening. How can one ever forget such an incident?”

After her appearance on TV’s Land of the Giants in 1970, Francine York told an interviewer, “I can’t escape playing the big parts. Why can’t I play the girl next door?  It seems I’m always blowing up the world or something.” Standing 5-foot-8 and measuring 38-23-35, it is no wonder the statuesque dark-haired beauty was usually cast in bigger-than-life roles. Francine made her film debut in the cult low-budget Secret File: Hollywood.  She then progressed from featured roles in the early sixties opposite Jerry Lewis, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley to starring roles in such cult drive-in movies as Curse of the Swamp Creatures, Space Monster, and The Doll Squad.

On TV, Francine York held the Robinson family captive on Lost in Space, vamped the Dynamic Duo on Batman, beguiled Robert Conrad on The Wild, Wild West, and became the living goddess Venus de Milo on Bewitched. Francine became so adept at playing these types of roles, that years later when the casting director of the seventies Saturday morning series Jason of Star Command asked her if she could play the evil queen, she replied jokingly, “I am the queen!” Always a pro, York had the ability to command and dominate the screen with her poise and confidence. She has energetically played so many different roles wearing a variety of wigs and using an assortment of dialects (Italian, French, British, Southern, etc.) that she became somewhat of a chameleon in Hollywood. No one ever criticized her for giving a lazy performance. And in a business that can be cruel, especially to older actresses, the self-determined Francine continues to act today.

Read my interview with Francine York in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema and keep an eye out for her upcoming memoir!

https://youtu.be/gvf55tSFJUA