nancy Kwan Archives : Sixties Cinema

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD!

February 22, 2011 by sixties

Click here for some photos from the most recent Hollywood Show held in Burbank, CA. One of my childhood faves Marta Kristen from Lost in Space attended and she still is as lovely as ever as is Nancy Kwan another attendee.

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Sixties Cinema Books

1 week ago

Following up on Mike Poirier's superlative article on General Hospital pre-Gloria Monty, I thought I would share an excerpt from my interview with Valerie Starrett for my BearManor Media book, Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies. Valerie starred opposite burly William Smith in the hit biker movie, Run, Angel, Run (1969) before starting her soap career.

This is from a magazine article I wrote with more on General Hospital than what was in the book:

Valerie Starrett had a few TV appearances under her belt (Dan Raven, Death Valley Days, I Spy) when she wrote the screenplay and co-starred in Run, Angel, Run. Shortly after, also in 1969, she began her long run playing scrappy waitress-turned-nurse Diana Maynard Taylor on the popular soap opera General Hospital. “I was in my early thirties when I did Run, Angel, Run,” admits Starrett. “The only place—at least in my thinking—for me to work again and support a daughter was something steady. I had film offers, but when I was offered the soap I thought, ‘Okay, regular life. I can go back to the PTA.’ I would be able to raise my daughter and not have to deal with the film world again.”

Starrett quickly became one of the most popular actresses on General Hospital and in all of daytime television. Fans were enthralled by the trials of tribulations of her character who has an affair with married man Phil Brewer, becomes pregnant, and then enters into a marriage of convenience with another, Peter Taylor. After losing the baby to pneumonia, she is raped by Phil, becomes pregnant again, and tries to pass the kid off as Peter’s but he leaves her when the truth comes out. In 1975, Starrett’s Diana Taylor was one of five people suspected of killing that cad Phil Brewer in one of the series’ most suspenseful mysteries up to that point. For weeks, the audience was kept guessing who the killer was. Trying to keep the culprit’s identify hidden, each actor filmed a scene revealing that their character murdered Brewer.

Knowing she may be out of a job, Starrett remarked in the Los Angeles Times during this period, “A few years ago [Diana] had Hodgkin’s disease and at that time it was almost incurable. Well, when I read that in the script, I made all my preparations for leaving and finding a new job. Then we found out that that the diagnosis had been a mistake. The writers can work marvels; so I’ve been very fatalistic about my career her ever since.”

Starrett recalled that doing the show was hard. Low budget, it was shot like a live TV show and you couldn’t break tape. If there was a miscue or someone flubbed their lines you had to keep going. “I had one scene where Diana was being raped in the kitchen and I had to reach for a frying pan to hit the attacker over the head, “ she recalled. “The prop guy situated the pan incorrectly so the handle was not sticking out for me to grab. I was able to reach for the rim of the pan and beat him with the handle. Blood then ran down his face as planned. It was absurd.” Of course, they could not reshoot so that is what the audience watched.

In 1977, fans were outraged when Starrett was let go and the role was recast with Brooke Bundy. “I left—I love this term—because of creative differences,” laughs Valerie. “Tom Donovan replaced the producer I had always worked with and who I’d been the darling of. I was the antithesis of that with Donovan. It was amazingly bloody. I didn’t fall into the mix nor would I. I didn’t like the lines now being written for me. I remember being called to his office right before I was fired and he screamed at me, ‘You’re Marilyn Monroe!’ I yelled back, ‘You’re worse!’ It was not a happy relationship.”

Donovan did not last long at General Hospital when ABC quickly replaced him with Gloria Monty, the former producer of The Secret Storm, to shake up the show and boy did she deliver. To be fair, she had full support of the network along with a much bigger budget than what was previously allocated. Her pairing of Luke and Laura would change the dynamic of daytime television forever.

As for the character of Diana Taylor, she went from the show’s heroine to a grasping, desperate woman who would do anything to keep her adopted son from his biological parents. Four years after Starrett left the role, Diana was found murdered lying in a pool of blood in her kitchen. Valerie was so glad that she did not have to enact the character as she was now being written. And Valerie had a happier ending than Diana. After retiring from acting in the early 1980s, she became co-owner of a successful bookstore in Malibu, California. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

1 week ago

Yesterday we 1960s starlet fans received a double dose of sadness. We learned that stunning Leslie Parrish passed away late last year. After appearing in a few minor roles using her real name, Marjorie Helen, she landed the role of Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1959) and under advice changed her name to Leslie Parrish. This and her TV guest role on Batman playing Mr. Freeze's moll, Glacia Glaze, were my favorite roles. Her other films include Portrait of a Mobster (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), For Love or Money (1963, for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Most Promising New Actress), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Three on a Couch, (1966), etc. and many, many TV guest roles.

We also lost Shelley Fabares yesterday. The Donna Reed Show made her a teen idol and her #1 song "Johnny Angel" in 1962 sent her into orbit. She quit the show in 1964 to restart her film career. As a platinum blonde, she starred opposite Fabian in one of the best (and my favorite) surfing/beach movies of the decade, Ride the Wild Surf (1964). She then, back as a brunette, went on to appear opposite Elvis Presley in three films: Girl Happy (1965), Spinout (1966), and Clambake (1967). Shortly after, she and many other popular actors from earlier in the decade fell out of favor with young audiences of the late 1960s for being too square. The hit TV-movie Brian's Song revitalized her career in 1971, and she never lacked for work again. I loved her most as, literally, a bitch on wheels in the late-night soap, Forever Fernwood.

I interviewed Shelley Fabares at her production company offices in Burbank during the late 1990s. She agreed to speak with me but with two stipulations, 1) I could not include her as a standalone chapter in any of my books but could do a magazine piece on her and use her quotes however I wanted to throughout any book I wrote. 2) She would only speak briefly about her personal feelings about Elvis but would talk freely about making those films. Who was I to say no to her demands?

Shelley was delightful and just as she appeared on screen. We sat on a couch in her outer office, and I put my microtape recorder down on the coffee table. A real pro, she said it probably wouldn't catch us clearly and suggested I hold it to my mouth when asking a question and then pass it to her for an answer. The cassette recorder went back and forth between us for over an hour. She was so sweet and open. Finally, after we were finished and I said goodbye, I was walking down the hallway to the parking garage when I heard her yell, "Tom! Tom! You forgot to get your validated parking receipt from us." I learned that in LA you never want to pay for parking if you can help it. However, even If I had to, it would have been well worth it for spending that lovely time with her.
R.I.P. Leslie Parrish and Shelley Fabares ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

3 weeks ago

So sad to hear of the passing of 1960s actress Joan Blackman. She was my favorite of the 4 1960s Joan starlets (Joan Freeman and two that I interviewed, Joan O'Brien and Joan Staley). She was a beautiful, fresh-faced actress with acting talent. Joan appeared opposite Elvis Presley in two of my favorite Presley movies the travelogue Blue Hawaii (1961), that set the pace for many future Elvis musicals with pretty scenery and lots of even prettier girls, where she was a half-Hawaiian tour guide in love with the King and the more serios drama with music, Kid Galahad (1962). With a less glamorous look, Blackman was excellent as the sister of boxing promoter Gig Young who falls with new boxer, Elvis, to her brother's chagrin.

Joan also worked with Tony Fanciosa in Career (1959), Jerry Lewis in Visit to a Small Planet (1960), Tony Curtis in The Great Imposter (1961), and Richard Chamberlain in Twilight of Honor (1963). She had a memorable role on the TV series Peyton Place as Marian Fowler the culprit in an infamous hit-and-run but after her film career unjustly slid into low-budget fodder like Intimacy (1966), The Destructors (1967) and Daring Game (1968) opposite Lloyd Bridges. She disappeared from the limelight for about 5 years before remerging playing character roles in a several 1970s drive-in and cult movies such as Pets, Macon County Line and Moonrunners before retiring from acting.

I tried reaching out to Joan Blackman several times for an interview for my books to no avail. She is one of several that I failed to speak with that truly disappointed me. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

4 weeks ago

Celebrate the 46th Anniversary of Texas!
Relive the cult soap with Texas: An Oral History of Daytime TV's Answer to Dallas—the definitive behind-the-scenes book featuring interviews with the stars, writers and production crew. A must-have for every soap fan! Available from Amazon and other online book sellers. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

1 month ago

My friend Nelson Aspen shared this stunning colorized publicity photo of Carol Lynley as Jean Harlow from Magna Pictures’ Harlow (1965). Harlow expert Darrell Rooney commented in my book Dueling Harlows that this was his favorite gown, designed by Nolan Miller, from either Harlow biopics. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

2 months ago

Celebrate 51 Years of Ryan's Hope!
Relive the Emmy-winning soap with Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap—the definitive behind-the-scenes book featuring interviews with the stars, writers and production crew. A must-have for every soap fan! Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

2 months ago

I have been concentrating so much on my soap opera books, that I glossed over these editorial reviews for Dueling Harlows. Better late than never, but thanks, Carolyn, James, and Louise for the kind words.

Editorial Reviews
"Full of details and on-and-off screen drama, this book will appeal to film historians and devotees of Hollywood's Golden Age."--Carolyn M. Mulac, Library Journal

"Dueling Harlows is one of the most interesting and entertaining books about film production, promotion, and distribution that this reviewer has read. Lisanti's skilled writing style, his vast knowledge, and his penchant for detail benefits this truly valuable study that includes exclusive quotes and many revealing surprises."--James L. Neibaur, author of The Mae West Films

"What a terrific book. Tom Lisanti gives a nonfiction tale the narrative arc, excitment, and tension I associate with a great novel. But its even more compelling because its not fiction. The people are real. The incidents did actually happen. And somehow he lets us see all of it. I got to know a lot of people whose names were familiar but I never met them. Now I feel that I did. That is one of the many pleasures of Tom's writing--he makes these people so available. I loved the book and enjoyed every moment of reading it."--Louise Shaffer, Emmy Award winning actress and author of The Three Miss Margarets: A Novel ...

Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen

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Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen

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