Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies by TOM LISANTI Foreword by CHRIS NOEL ~<&'" &-.J IB' McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London l~~" ~ ~~__ ---_.._--,----~ LibraryofCongress Cataloguing-in-PublicationData Lisanti,Tom,1961- Fantasy femmes ofsixtiescinema: interviewswith 20 actresses from biker, beach, andElvis movies/ byTomLisanti; foreword by Chris Noel. p. em. Includes bibliographicalreferences and index. Contents:Joan O'Brien- DianeMcBain- JoanStaley- Jill Haworth- PamelaTiffin- FrancineYork- JoyHarmon- Eileen O'Neill- Julie Parrish- JeanHale- IreneTsu- Chris Noel LanaWood- CelesteYarnall- JudyPace- Salli Sachse- Deanna Lund- KarenJensen- LindaHarrison- Tisha Sterling- More groovygals. eQ ISBN 0-7864-0868-5 (illustratedcase binding: 50# alkalinepaper) 1. Motionpictureactors and actresses-UnitedStates-Biography. 2. Actresses-UnitedStates-Biography. I. Title. PN1998.2.L57 2001 791.43'028'0820973-dc21 00-64008 BritishLibrarycataloguingdata are available Coverimage: CelesteYarnall ©2001TomLisanti.All rights reserved Nopartofthis book maybereproducedortransmittedinany form orbyany means, electronicormechanical, includingphotocopying orrecording, orbyanyinformation storageandretrievalsystem, withoutpermissionin writingfrom the publisher. ManufacturedintheUnitedStates ofAmerica McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611,Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To my parents, Vincent and Joan, for all those wonderful summer evenings at the drive-in. b...-. Acknowledgments A number of people had a hand in for her legal help. My gratitude goes to helping me put together this book. First my colleague Barbara Cohen-Stratyner and foremost, I relay my thanks to the for her input and advice, to my former lovely ladies who let me interview them boss Robert Marx at the New York Pub andwho sharedtheir lives in Hollywood lic Library for the Performing Arts for with me: Jean Hale, Joy Harmon, Linda giving me the support and flexibility to Harrison, Jill Haworth, Karen Jensen, write this book, and to Bob Taylor, the Deanna Lund, Diane McBain, Chris curator ofthe Billy Rose Theatre Collec Noel,Joan O'Brien, Eileen O'Neill,Judy tion, for giving me unlimited access to Pace,Julie Parrish, SalliSachse,Joan Sta the collection. ley, Tisha Sterling, Pamela Tiffin, Irene I also wish to thank my family-my Tsu, Lana Wood, Celeste Yarnall and motherJoanLisanti,Joe and BethLisanti, FrancineYork.Ialsowishto thank Mitch Lorraine and Richie Nicolo (I spelled it ell Bard, BrendonBoone,ShelleyFabares, right!) and Donna and Mike Cates. Abig Laurel Goodwin, Sue Ane Langdon, hurrahto mynumber onefan onLongIs Carol Lynley and Dale Sheets for their land, Vincent Page. brief comments. Kudos to myfriends who haveprod This book and my writing career ded me along with their helpfulness and would never have come to pass if it encouragement-top billing must go to weren't for the encouragement from my my LA friend Shaun "Floyd Smoot" pool buddies and fellow authors Louis Chang and (in alphabetical order) Keith Paul and Heidi Stock (agroovy galin her Aden, Bill Benish, Anne and Chris De ownright). Thanks to MarkTolleson for Marco, Jeff Failla, Scott Hannibal, Pete his editingprowess. He now knows more Kaiser, Tom Kazar, Phil Lindow, Jeremy about "sixties gals" than he ever could Megraw, Alan Pally, TimRoberts, Mitch have imagined. Thank you to my long ell Soble and Kevin Winkler. time friends John Covelli and Teresa De Andlastbutcertainlynotleast,special Turris with a special thank you to Teresa thanks to a great guy named Ernie Delia. Vll l-- . Table of Contents Acknowledgments Vll Foreword by Chris Noel 1 Preface 3 Introduction 5 Elvis, Beach, Biker and Alienated Youth Films: A BriefSummary 17 Joan O'Brien 27 Diane McBain 40 Joan Staley 53 Jill Haworth 67 Pamela Tiffin 79 Francine York 92 Joy Harmon 108 Eileen O'Neill 120 Julie Parrish 132 Jean Hale 146 Irene Tsu 158 Chris Noel 170 Lana Wood 184 Celeste Yarnall 197 IX t ~,.. x Table of Contents Judy Pace 211 Salli Sachse 224 Deanna Lund 234 Karen Jensen 247 Linda Harrison 259 Tisha Sterling 271 More Groovy Gals 282 Bibliography 295 Index 299 Foreword The sixties were the highlight ofmy "01' Sixties Cinema Gals." We enjoyed life. While my high school friends had doing Elvis, beach and teenage movies. gone off to college, I hit New York City, These films were innocent fun. Nudity, where director SandyHoward castme in violence or foul language weren't neces his first film. I then went to California. I saryinthese films. Itwasn't until the late had always dreamedofHollywood. How sixties that we encountered this. exciting to be under contract to MGM Ilovedoursixtiesfilmculture.Ididn't and to become a working movie actress! go to movies orwork infilms thatcaused I learned my craft from successful, im nightmares from any violence or horror. portant actors. Having not attended act I experienced that visiting our troops in ing school, I studied by paying attention, Vietnam. Going back and forth from the being disciplined and working hard. glamour offilmmaking to the stark real Some of us worked mightily at being the ity of war later gave me nightmares. I best we could be in one of the most de wish for all the children of the world manding and desired of all careers. neverto have nightmares offright andvi Though we were competitive with each olence, whether from war or films. That other, we also liked one another. Actress is one reason I still like Elvis, beach and Eileen O'Neill and I are best friends teenage movies. They make me happy! today-almost like sisters. Author Tom Lisanti has the heart to understand, appreciate and applaud us Chris Noel 1 I" ~_'"