Sadly, I just learned that Cynthia Myers, of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls fame, passed away on Nov. 11th. She was only 61 years old. Below is an excerpt from my profile on the former Playboy Playmate in Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood:
At age eighteen, Cynthia Myers, a 5-feet-4 dark-haired beauty with a tantalizing figure measuring 39-24-36, became Playboy’s final Playmate of 1968. As Miss December, she graced the cover as a Christmas tree come to life (bet Santa never had it so good) and posed nude kneeling on a white rug alongside a teddy bear. She immediately became one of the most popular pin-ups for the GIs stationed over in Vietnam and the magazine received the second largest amount of fan letters regarding her centerfold. Strangely, she failed to be selected Playmate of the Year. That honor went to Connie Kreski. Instead, movies beckoned and Myers played a bit role as one of the marathon dancers in the depression-era drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) starring Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin. She also made appearances as herself along side Hugh Hefner in his syndicated variety series, Playboy After Dark in 1969.
That same year, Myers was brought to the attention of director Russ Meyer who was searching for three newcomers to play the leads in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls billed as the first rock, sex, musical. Since she was a 39DD cup, the bosom master flipped over her and cast her as Casey the guitar-playing lost soul of the group—a powerful senator’s daughter who having been used and abused by men falls in love with Lesbian clothes designer Erica Gavin. After the Carrie Nations hit it big about ten minutes after arriving in Los Angeles from playing a senior prom back East, Myers and her band mates Dolly Read and Marcia McBroom become emerged in decadent Hollywood complete with drugs, sex, debauchery, sex, violence, and even more sex. Myers sleeps with the band’s former young manager David Gurian who is trying to prove his manhood after being called a “fag” by Edy Williams’ porn star Ashley St. Ives. Myers winds up pregnant angering her girlfriend who immediately suggests an abortion. She goes through with it but pays for her wanton ways when at the film’s climax she has her pretty little head blown off by John Lazar’s crazed Z-Man who reveals a set of knockers to rival any Playboy Playmate as he goes off the deep end as Super Woman also slaughtering Gavin, Michael Blodgett as a studly gigolo, and his German manservant. Myers gives a sympathetic performance ala Sharon Tate in the original and doesn’t let her male fans down by exposing her breasts and shapely derriere in loves scenes with both a man and woman. To help promote the movie, Myers joined Dolly Read and a host of bit players who posed semi-nude for the Playboy pictorial “The Dolls of Beyond the Valley.” Below is link to trailer:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QoofxBm-IA
After Gilligan’s Island wrapped its second season, Tina Louise jetted off to Italy to co-star with Ugo Tognazzi in the colorful social comedy, Il Fischio al naso (1967). Below is the trailer. The full movie (in Italian with no subtitles unfortunately) is also available to watch. Tognazzi plays a philandering married businessman whose nose whistles, so he enters a toney private hospital to get cured. As he recovers, he moves up floor by floor where each one is less elegant and the people working there less attractive. Sexy Tina is one of the doctors treating him. She is beautifully photographed and never looked so stunning.
