THE LOVED ONES
Click here to access Mike Golden’s online magazine Smoke Signals to get a sneak peek at Gail Gerber’s memoir Trippin’ with Terry Southern. A portion of the first chapter entitled “The Loved Ones” is up where Gail describes how she met Terry on the set of The Loved One in 1964 and how their romance progressed during the making of the movie.
MOTORCYCLE MAMA!
Looking as if she would be more comfortable on the runway of a Miss America pageant than straddling a hog, Diane McBain took on the lead role of a vile biker chick in the camp classic The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968). Take a look at the trailer and then read Diane’s comments about making the movie from my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema.
“I wasn’t an obvious choice to play this part,” agrees McBain. “I think I was just the person with the recognizable name. That’s what the producers were looking for.” Described as “hog straddling female animals on the prowl,” The Mini-Skirts included Patty McCormack and Sandra Marshall with Jeremy Slate, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ronnie Rondell as their boyfriends. “After I agreed to do this movie I went out and learned how to ride a motorcycle,” remembers McBain. “A big motorcycle. When I arrived on the set they gave us these tiny scooters. It was the silliest bike you ever saw. I thought it was ridiculous to have this Mini-Skirt Mob on these small bikes. I knew then I was in trouble.” [Laughs]
“What attracted me to do this film was the role of Shayne,” says Diane. “I thought it would be fun to play such a sadistic killer because women don’t usually get to play these sort of roles. The part also required me to do my own stunts. I rode my own motorcycle. I actually hung off the mountain attached to a cable. And I did the fight scenes with Sherry. We had been roommates at one time so we were fairly friendly. We had no problems doing those scenes. Actually, all the actors got along nicely which was great because we shot it on location. Patty McCormack was very nice. Jeremy Slate was friendly and professional with me but we didn’t get close or anything. He often plays the tough guy because he has those distinct features. Harry Dean Stanton was such a character, very intense with a spark in his eye. It always looked like he was keeping some funny little secret.” Though she has the highest regard for her co-stars, The Mini-Skirt Mob is not a film McBain is very proud of because “I didn’t think it is a very realistic movie. Girl gang members didn’t wear mini-skirts! It was just AIP’s way to cash in on the popularity of mini-skirts and biker films.”
A DANCING DIVA
One of the most iconic film images for us fans of Sixties Starlets is sultry Pamela Tiffin’s diving board shimmying in the hardboiled detective drama Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman as the weary gumshoe investigating the disappearance of Tiffin’s millionaire father and Robert Wagner as the father’s playboy personal pilot.
GERBER ON THE BEACH
Click below to see the wild trailer for The Girls on the Beach (1965) starring Gail Gerber with the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, Martin West, Noreen Corcoran, Aron Kincaid, Lana Wood, Linda Marshall, and the dreamy Steve Rogers (that is him on the left with West and Kincaid).
Gail talks in length about the making of this movie in her memoir Trippin’ with Terry Southern. These girls on the beach did not play nice with each other when the cameras stopped rolling and Gail reveals her disdain for having to shake her bod to the Beach Boys’ music, which she thought was Godawful.