Mamie Van Doren
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Mamie Van Doren (born February 6, 1931 (some sources say 1933) is an American actress and sex symbol.
Early life
Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, the daughter of Warner Carl Olander [March 30, 1908 - June 4, 1992) and Lucille Harriet Bennett (January 21, 1912 - August 27, 1995). She is of three-quarters Swedish ancestry; the remainder is mixed English and German. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford. In 1939, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa. In May 1942, they moved to Los Angeles.
In early 1946, Joan began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered beauty contests. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles "Miss Eight Ball" and "Miss Palm Springs".
Joan was discovered by famed producer Howard Hughes on the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for several years. Hughes launched her career by placing her in several RKO films.
Early career
Hughes provided Van Doren with a bit part in Jet Pilot at RKO, which was her motion picture debut. Her line of dialogue consisted of one word, "Look!" and she appears uncredited in the film. Though production of the movie was from 1949 to 1953 (delays by Hughes), it was not released until 1957. The following year, 1951, she posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous "Varga Girls." His painting of Van Doren was on the July cover of Esquire magazine.
Van Doren had been married for a brief time at seventeen, when she and first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage dissolved quickly, upon discovery of his abusive nature.
Van Doren did a few more bit parts in movies at RKO, including His Kind of Woman (1951) starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and Vincent Price. About her appearance in that one, Van Doren has said, "If you blinked you would miss me. I look barely old enough to drive."
Van Doren then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York City in Monte Proser's nightclub version of Billion Dollar Baby. Songwriter Jimmy McHugh discovered her for his musicals, then decided she was too good for the chorus line and should have dramatic training. She studied with Ben Bard and Bliss-Hayden. While appearing in the role of Marie in a showcase production of Come Back, Little Sheba, Van Doren was seen by Phil Benjamin, a casting director at Universal Studios.
Early motion picture career
On January 20, 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal Studios. The studio had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the same kind of success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe, the reigning sex symbol of the era. Van Doren, whose signing day coincided with the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was given the first name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower. A prominent and noted family of American intellectuals, the Van Dorens included two Pulitzer Prize winning brothers, Carl (biographer) and Mark (poet), and Mark's wife Dorothy, an academic and historian. Ironically, in 1957 Mark and Dorothy's son Charles Van Doren made front page news both by winning $129,000 on a television game show, then admitting the program was rigged. The publicity around this scandal kept the name 'Van Doren' in the newspapers and tabloids.
Van Doren's first movie for Universal was Forbidden (1953), playing a singer. She then made All-American (1953), playing Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (1954) starring Tony Curtis and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith.
Van Doren starred in several bad girl movies that later became cult films. She also appeared in some of the first movies to feature Rock & Roll music and became identified with this rebellious style, and made some Rock records. In the film Untamed Youth (1957) she was the first woman to sing rock and roll in a Hollywood musical (Eddie Cochran did the music for the film). This film was later featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000's 'Untamed Youth' (1990).
Some of Van Doren's more noteworthy movies include Teacher's Pet (1958) at Paramount, Born Reckless (1958) at Warner Bros., High School Confidential (1958), and The Beat Generation (1959), the latter two at MGM. But Van Doren was just as well known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girls Town (1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (1959), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) and Vice Raid (1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles.
Many of Van Doren's film roles showcased her ample curves, and her on screen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring (for the era) swimsuits. While she and other blonde bombshell contemporaries as Cleo Moore, Sheree North and Diana Dors did not attain the same level of superstar status as Marilyn Monroe, Van Doren did become a very famous star and notable Hollywood sex symbol. Marilyn, Mamie and Jayne Mansfield were known as the "Three M's." But by comparison, where Monroe succeeded in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Mansfield had a big success with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, (a part that was originally written for Van Doren who turned it down), Universal stuck Van Doren with Francis the Talking Mule in Francis Joins the WACS.
Film career in decline
As Van Doren's career progressed, many of the productions she starred in were low-budget B-movies. They are largely unknown to later generations, though some have gained a following for their high camp value.
In 1959, Universal chose not to exercise the option in her contract. Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work. Some of her later movies were foreign and independent productions, such as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), The Candidate (1964), The Navy vs the Night Monsters (1966) as well as Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who used the pseudonym 'Derek Thomas' for the film.
Personal life
Van Doren has been married five times; sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman (married 1950-divorced 1950), bandleader, composer and actor Ray Anthony (married 1955-divorced 1961), baseball player Lee Meyers (married 1966-divorced 1967), businessman Ross McClintock (married 1972-divorced 1973) and actor Thomas Dixon (married 1979-present).
She and Anthony had one son, Perry Ray Anthony (born March 18, 1956).
Van Doren's early 1960s highly publicized on-again off-again engagement to baseball player Bo Belinsky broke off for good in 1964. In her tell-all autobiography, she acknowledged numerous affairs, including ones with Clark Gable, Howard Hughes, Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds, Jack Dempsey, Steve McQueen, Johnny Rivers, Robert Evans, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Tony Curtis, Steve Cochran, and Joe Namath. Claiming fidelity to each lover, of Hollywood life she said, "I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone."
In 1963, twice she posed for Playboy to promote her movie Three Nuts In Search of a Bolt (1964), though she was never a Playmate. By this point in her career, her voluptuous figure measured 38DD-26-36 (self-described in 1997). Of her curves she said, "I don't even want to say double-D, because they're even bigger than that."
In 1964, Van Doren was a guest at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California when The Beatles were at the club visiting with Jayne Mansfield, and an inebriated George Harrison accidentally threw his drink on her when he was really trying to throw it on some bothersome journalists.
Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did a lot of live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theatre.
During the Vietnam War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam, for three months in 1968 and again in 1970. In addition to United Service Organization (USO) shows, she visited hospitals, including the wards of amputees and burn victims that many other celebrities stayed away from.
Van Doren's guest appearances on TV include The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$, and L.A. Law.
In the 1970s, Van Doren did a nightclub act in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Second career in later life
Van Doren's autobiography, Playing the Field, brought much new attention to the veteran sex symbol and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting.
At age 60, she underwent cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has consistently denied ever having breast implants. In 2006, Mamie posed for photographs for Vanity Fair with Pamela Anderson as part of their annual Hollywood issue.
In 2006 - at age 75 - Van Doren and her husband, Thomas, maintain her popular and controversial website http://www.mamievandoren.com. Here she sells autographed "nipple prints" and homemade short films starring herself, such as 'A Girl and Her Banana'. Her contemporary topless and nude photos and outspoken political views have helped create a larger fan base than at any time in her remarkable career, arguably the longest career of any Hollywood sex symbol, with the possible exception of Mae West, Van Doren's childhood idol.
Van Doren has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Van Doren was referenced in an episode of The Simpsons, Mona Leaves-a, Episode Number: 419 Season Num: 19 - Mr. Burns: I've seen your wife and she's no Mamie Van Doren.
Filmography
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External links
- Official website
- Inside/Out, Mamie Van Doren's blog
- Official page at My Space
- Mamie Van Doren at the Internet Movie Database
- Mamie Van Doren - Unique 1956 Photos
- Bombshells away, at Salon, Karen Abbott, July 19, 2000
- Mamie Van Doren interview by Sandra Bernhard
- Mamie Van Doren Interview with South Dakota Watch, Feb. 7, 2006
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