Tom Lisanti's - Sixties Cinema

2010-03-02T21:32:00.002-05:00

IT'S THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

WLIW21 is airing for the first time on TV the uncut 1964 rock and roll concert The T.A.M.I. Show, the second movie filmed in Electronovision from producer Bill Sargent. The movie was shot live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in front of a crowd of 5,000 screaming teenagers. T.A.M.I. stood for Teen-Age Music International a foundation known for granting music scholarships. Popular singing duo Jan and Dean who topped the charts in 1963 with their huge hit "Surf City" were tapped to host and they sneak in a few songs including “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” and “Sidewalk Surfin.”

The eclectic array of rock acts assembled to perform come from the music worlds of R&B, Motown, surf music, the British invasion, garage rock, and girl groups. The concert opens with Chuck Berry and Liverpool rockers Gerry and the Pacemakers. They take turns performing and the crowd goes wild when Berry sings “Sweet Little Sixteen” and the Pacemakers match him with their hit “How Do You Do It?” They are followed on stage by Lesley Gore who sings some of her most popular tunes including “You Don’t Own Me” and then the #1 girl group at the time, The Supremes. Close-ups of Diana Ross singing “Baby Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go” are truly something to behold. They are followed by the British band Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, garage band The Barbarians, the Beach Boys (who rock on “Surfin’ U.S.A." and “I Get Around” amongst other songs), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and Marvin Gaye.

The fabulous James Brown & the Famous Flames is the second to last act to perform and they tear the house down with three songs including “Please Please Please." The closing act is the incomparable Rolling Stones who had not yet hit big in the U.S. Even still they drive the audience into a near frenzy singing such songs as “Time Is on My Side” and “It’s All Right” closing the show on a high note.

2010-02-26T07:10:00.002-05:00

GO-GO ON THE RADIO

During the sixties one of the most popular go-go girls on TV was Lada Edmund, Jr. who shimmied and gyrated on Hullabaloo. She went on to co-star in such films as For Those Who Think Young with James Darren and Pamela Tiffin and Out of It with Jon Voight. Click here to hear a recent internet radio interview with her.

2010-02-24T07:34:00.002-05:00

Van Williams Speaks

Click here to read a wonderful interview by Michael Barnum with sixties actor Van Williams most famous for playing The Green Hornet on TV. To me, he was one of the most handsome young actors of the decade and it is mind-boggling why he never became a leading man in movies.

He comments on working with a number of starlets including Fantasy Femme Diane McBain (pictured below with Van and Troy Donahue from Surfside 6 TV series) and Drive-in Dream Girl Wende Wagner.

2010-02-22T06:54:00.002-05:00

THIS FARMER PAINTS

Click here to access cult 60s actress Mimsy Farmer's new web site showcasing her art work and watch YouTube clip at bottom as she trips out on acid in Riot on Sunset Strip (1967).

This fragile-looking blonde began her career as the ingenue on television and on the big screen in Spencer’s Mountain (1963) and Bus Riley’s Back in Town (1965). She found more success playing a string of bad girls and misunderstood youths in such exploitation film classics as Hot Rods to Hell (1967), Devil’s Angels (1967), and The Wild Racers (1968). Farmer reached her pinnacle with More (1969), her first foreign film, which warned of the excesses of the counterculture as she played an American hippie who draws an innocent German (Klaus Grunberg) into the world of heroin and LSD on an island off of Spain.

She later relocated to Italy and worked steadily until the late eighties. She appeared in Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971), among many other European horror films.

2010-02-19T07:32:00.003-05:00

MUSIC TO LOUNGE BY

In 1966, sultry Pamela Tiffin fled an unhappy marriage and Hollywood to work in Italy where she appeared in almost 15 films only 3 of which made it to the shores of the U.S. Below are three songs performed by Piero Umiliani (whom I never heard of before) from L'Archangelo a 1969 crime caper starring Pamela and Vittorio Gassman. Such a cool sound. Where can I buy the CD soundtrack!?!

2010-02-17T07:20:00.001-05:00

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

Click here to read an interesting article on the recent Hollywood Show (the quarterly celebrity autograph fest) that just wrapped in Burbank.

2010-02-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

BE MY BELATED VALENTINE

Celeste Yarnall looking lovelier than ever at this weekend's Hollywood Show in Burbank, California.

2010-02-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAROL LYNLEY!

There's got to be a morning after.

2010-02-12T07:14:00.003-05:00

PANTIES WHAT ELSE DO I NEED WHEN I CAN'T SWIM, NOT A STROKE

My Facebook friend David from Down Under created this image featuring my two favorite characters Carol Lynley as Nonnie and Stella Stevens as Linda Rogo from my all-time favorite movie, The Poseidon Adventure. I love it!

2010-02-11T07:33:00.002-05:00

DOUBLE THE FUN

Before Tina Louise spoiled her movie career by moving to Italy in 1960, she was a highly sought after actress as evidenced by her performances in The Trap with Richard Widmark and The Hangman with Robert Taylor all now available via Amazon-on-Demand.

In the meantime, enjoy the tribute to Tina below:

2010-02-10T07:34:00.001-05:00

YOU GO GIRL!

Click here to read an interview Lana Wood gave the Daily Mirror where she doesn't hold back in regards to Robert Wagner and the death of her sister Natalie Wood.

2010-02-03T07:23:00.002-05:00

FIRE SALE!

I am now selling autographed copies of the remaining books I wrote that I still have in my apartment. Priced at a discounted $25 plus shipping payable through PayPal. Click here to see what is available.

2010-01-31T22:15:00.002-05:00

GAIL GERBER READING CANCELLED

Gail Gerber's reading from Trippin' with Terry Southern scheduled for Monday Feb. 1 at the Von Bar in New York City has been cancelled and may be re-scheduled in the near future.

2010-01-29T07:46:00.002-05:00

CRAVING A HAPPY ENDING

No, not a Friendly's sundae but the 1969 film The Happy Ending that features Tina Louise in a supporting role unhappily married to Dick Shawn airing tonight at 12:45 a.m. on TCM. Directed by Richard Brooks, it stars Jean Simmons (Best Actress nominee) as a wife who walks out on her family to start life anew.

2010-01-28T08:06:00.000-05:00

GO DOWNTOWN!

Gail Gerber will be doing a reading from her memoir Trippin' with Terry Southern, co-written by me, on Monday Feb. 1, 7pm, at the Von Bar on Bleecker Street just off of Bowery. Her friend Darius James, a really cool dude and excellent writer is also on the bill.

2010-01-27T07:14:00.002-05:00

SHE JUST KEEPS ON GOING AND GOING AND GOING...

Former Bond Girl Lana Wood has just completed yet another movie, which is the complete opposite than her recent biblical film. She co-stars with Shawn Rougeron (pictured) and Terence Knox of St. Elsewhere and Tour of Duty fame in the horror suspense flick Renovation. Click here to access the the film's web site.

2010-01-25T07:49:00.003-05:00

TAKE YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF ME!

Afer Tim Burton's atrocious redo of the original, I never thought Hollywood would monkey around with these films again! Click here to read an update on the remaking of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

2010-01-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

CATCHING UP WITH SALLI SACHSE...YEARS AFTER THE BEACH PARTY ENDED

I interviewed former 60s starlet Salli Sachse about 12 years ago for my first book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema. Her name may not be familiar, but to fans of American International Pictures’ series of beach movies her face is easily recognizable. With her waist-long honey brown hair and adorable smile, Salli, literally plucked off the beach in San Diego, appeared in almost every beach party film beginning with Muscle Beach Party (1964) through The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) and everything else in between including Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965).

Recalling her time with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, Salli remarked, "Frankie and Annette were very easy going and a pleasure to work with but they weren’t real beach people. Frankie was raised in Philadelphia so I don’t think he ever saw a surfboard in his life! And Annette refused to wear a bikini. She would only wear a one-piece but I think that had something to do with her contract with Walt Disney. Annette was such a straight girl—a good Italian Catholic. Because we grew up on the beach, a lot of us thought we were so cool compared to Frankie and Annette. I remember that on one movie we were filming some beach scenes late in the afternoon. It was really chilly and we were fighting the light. Wrapped in terry cloth robes, a group of us huddled together to keep warm. Carl the prop man handed us a bottle of brandy. We were surprised when Annette took a couple of swigs. She got a bit tipsy and was clowning around. It was the only time I ever saw her let herself go wild.”

When the beach films became passe during the turbulent late sixties, Salli graduated to playing a drag strip groupie in Fireball 500 (1966) to a biker chick in Devil’s Angels (1967) to her most famous role as the LSD freak-out girl opposite Peter Fonda in The Trip (1967) to playing a hippie paramour of rock star Christopher Jones in Wild in the Streets (1968). Unfortunately, along the way there was heartbreak when her husband Peter Sachse tragically died in a plane crash in 1966 while Salli was in Hong Kong filming The Million Eyes of Su-Muru.

Salli chucked her movie career in 1969 to concentrate on modeling then photography then studying art in Europe during the seventies. Returning to the U.S., she earned a Masters in Psychology and became a counselor for "at risk" teens.

In August 2006 Salli was reunited with beach party regulars the late Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, and Linda Opie for a photo shoot celebrating surf culture in the 1950s and 1960s for Vanity Fair. Below is a photo taken by Salli's friend while visiting the shoot. Pictured are Mary, Salli, Patti and Linda.

Today Salli Sachse has a new web site where fans can peruse pictures of Salli from her Hollywood and modeling days or purchase her beautiful art work. And she is currently working on her memoir, which should prove to be a very interesting read.

2010-01-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

NANCY CZAR...REDISCOVERED

Drive-in Dream Girl Nancy Czar, a former champion figure skater, was a platinum blond beauty (and dead ringer for actress Carroll Baker) who graced a few drive-in movies during the ‘60s. She played a dancer in love with guitar-playing hipster Arch Hall, Jr. in the exploitation cheapie Wild Guitar (1962); a bikini-clad bathing beauty ogled afar by Gary Crosby in Girl Happy (1965); most memorably a bubble-headed sexpot nicknamed Jonesy who joins William Wellman, Jr., James Stacy, Beverly Adams, Julie Parrish, and Linda Rogers to make a ski resort swing in Winter a-Go-Go (1965); and a backstage groupie who kisses Elvis in Spinout (1966).

After playing a coed in obscure youth flick The Wild Scene (1970) Czar disappeared from Hollywood without a trace. Click here to discover what became of the former starlet.

2010-01-20T22:02:00.003-05:00

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

It is sad that Dennis Hopper is on his deathbed however click here to read the mess his personal life is in with regards to his wife, adult daughter, and his will. Considering how he and Peter Fonda screwed Terry Southern all those years ago on Easy Rider, it's fun to see his heirs try to screw each other (and him)!

2010-01-17T08:31:00.004-05:00

AND THE GOLDEN GLOBE GOES TO...

My favorite award that used to be bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press was for Most Promising Newcomers. From 1954 to 1964 there were multiple winners in the Male and Female categories. Beginning in 1965, there was only one winner in each and then in the early Eighties, the category was changed to New Star of the Year with both actors and actresses vying for the award. The award was scrapped soon after Pia Zadora's husband alledgedly "bought" the award for her as she won for Butterfly over Kathleen Turner, Elizabeth McGovern, Rachel Ward, Craig Wasson, and Harold Rollins.

Below are the winners and other nominees during the "Starlet" years:
1957
*Sandra Dee - Until They Sail
*Carolyn Jones - Bachelor Party
*Diane Varsi - Peyton Place
Good choices as Jones and Varsi went on to receive Oscar nominations for their performances and Dee did become a major star. My quibble, Jones was no newcomer and had been working in films since 1953.

1958
Joanna Barnes - Auntie Mame
*Linda Cristal - Perfect Furlough
*Susan Kohner - Big Fisherman
*Tina Louise - God's Little Acre
Carol Lynley - Light in the Forest
France Nuyen - South Pacific
Anybody's ball game with this batch. Kohner and Louise were excellent choices but Cristal hada disappointing movie career though 10 years later she scored on TV in The High Chapparal.

1959
Diane Baker - Best of Everything
*Angie Dickinson - Rio Bravo
Carol Lynley - Blue Denim
Yvette Mimieux - Platinum High School
*Janet Munro - Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Cindy Robbins - This Earth Is Mine
*Stella Stevens - Say One for Me
*Tuesday Weld - Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
Dickinson was no newcomer and had appeared in over 10 movies since 1954. Lynley became the only actress to get a second shot at the award and should have filled the 4th spot over Munro. Even with 8 nominees Millie Perkins was still snubbed for Diary of Anne Frank and deserved a nod over Robbins or Mimieux.

1960
*Ina Balin - From the Terrace
Jill Haworth - Exodus
Shirley Knight - Dark At the Top of the Stairs
*Nancy Kwan - World of Susie Wong
*Hayley Mills - Pollyanna
Julie Newmar - Marriage-Go-Round
Kwan and Mills were the popular choices but Knight should have won out over Balin though for me Miss Julie Newmar should have won over all of them.

1961
*Ann-Margret - Pocketful of Miracles
*Jane Fonda - Tall Story
*Christine Kauffman - Town without Pity
Pamela Tiffin - One, Two, Three
Cordula Trantow - Hitler
What the hell were they thinking!?! Pamela Tiffin was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress catefory for her performance and should have won over Kauffman. What the hell is a Cordula Trantow?

1962
*Patty Duke - Miracle Worker
Dahlia Lavi - Two Weeks in another Town
*Sue Lyon - Lolita
Janet Margolin - David and Lisa
Suzanne Pleshette - Rome Adventure
*Rita Tushingham - A Taste of Honey
Good choices though since the Foreign Press liked to bestow one award on a foreign actress I'd take Lavi over Tushingham any day.

1963
*Ursula Andress - Dr. No
Joey Heatherton - Twilight of Honor
*Tippi Hedren - The Birds
Leslie Parrish - For Love or Money
Maggie Smith - The V.I.P.s
*Elke Sommer - The Prize
Foreign Press blew this with giving award to Andress who was dubbed in the spy classic and choosing all over Maggie Smith. Have no idea how Parrish got in there with a supporting role after playing leads beginning with Li'l Abner (1959).

1964
*Mia Farrow- Guns at Batasi
*Celia Kaye - Island of the Blue Dolphin
*Mary Ann Mobley - Get Yourself a College Girl
Save for Mia Farrow, after these ridiculous choices (didn't anyone hear of Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins?), the category was changed to one winner.

2010-01-13T06:50:00.002-05:00

THE SECOND TIME AROUND

I interviewed a number of 60s starlets over the years that appeared on the very popular spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and not one of them had a bad word to say about David McCallum (pictured with Glamour Girl Danica D'Hondt and Film Fatales Sharon Tate and Kathy Kersh). All said he was very nice and friendly unlike his more aloof co-star Robert Vaughn.

So it is great that he has been enjoying a second go around with TV fame on NCIS. Click here to read an interesting interview with him regarding the differences of being on a hit TV series, then and now.

2010-01-12T07:34:00.002-05:00

WHO'S SHE?

One of my favorite web Blogs is Cinebeats by Kimberley Lindbergs who has a wonderful tribute to Ursula Andress in She. Check it out.

2010-01-10T09:33:00.002-05:00

TYPECASTING IS THE LIFE FOR ME

The New York Times has an entertaining story about actors who become much too identified with their former TV roles. Among the actresses interviewed are Miss Julie Newmar, the only Catwoman for me, and Barbara Eden of I Dream Of Jeannie. Dawn Wells is also interviewed and if you read between the lines her comments are just digs against Tina Louise. Amazing, over 40 years after Gilligan's Island eneded, she still is in competition with her co-star.

2010-01-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS!

In honor of Elvis Presley's birthday, Turner Classic Movies is running an all-day marathon of his movies on Friday January 8. Below are comments from his former co-stars whom I interviewed for my various publications:

6:15am Harum Scarum
Elvis goes Arabian as a singer kidnapped on tour in the Middle East and goes from swingin' with dancing gypsies Brenda Benet, Gail Gerber and Wilda Taylor to falling in love with a princess, Mary Ann Mobley.

"Elvis was intelligent, quiet and very sweet. But at that time, he seemed like a young man in turmoil—sort of like a ‘Who do I have to fuck to get off this picture’ kind of thing. Elvis was a tortured guy who obviously hoped for, and deserved, something better than the movies he was getting offered to do like Harum Scarum." - Gail Gerber, Trippin with Terry Southern

7:45am Kissin' Cousins
Double the Elvis as a serviceman torn between bare-footin' hillbillies Yvonne Craig and Pamela Austin and his distant look-a-like hayseed cousin who flips for WAC Cynthia Pepper.

“With Elvis, it was always fun. He didn’t hang around much but he would stand there behind the camera if you had to do a take for a close up. He wouldn’t leave—unlike some other stars. He was also very gentlemanly. A number of times he offered me his chair when he saw me standing.” - Cynthia Pepper, Drive-in Dream Girls

9:30am Spinout
Race car driver and singer Elvis zigs and zags to avoid marriage-minded rich girl Shelley Fabares, author Diane McBain, and drummer Deborah Walley.

“I’ve just always felt that, since Elvis never talked about himself when he was here, it wouldn’t be right for me to discuss him now. I will say that he was a wonderful person—kind, sweet, and funny. Doing those pictures with him were some of the happiest experiences I ever had, professionally or personally." - Shelley Fabares, Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema

11:15am Roustabout
Carnival time with Elvis as a roaming reckless roustabout who is out butched by its owner Barbara Stanwyck.

“I thought Elvis Presley was very nice and very, very polite. It was ‘Yes, Sir, Yes, Mam.’ To me it was ‘Yes, Madame’ because I played Madame Mijanou. He’d say it with that little giggle of his. Elvis also liked to tease me and thought I’d be a good ‘business woman’ in some ‘house’ somewhere. Despite that little joke he was a very shy, Southern gentleman." - Sue Ane LAngdon, Drive-in Dream Girls

1:00pm Girl Happy
Elvis is where the boys are on spring break in Fort Lauderdale secretly chaperoning a mobster's daughter, Shelley Fabares and her friends Chris Noel and Lyn edgington.

“I loved Elvis. He was wonderful. However, I had a problem with him one day when he stuck his tongue in my ear. I was sitting in a chair on the set watching them film a scene. Suddenly, in my right ear is this wet tongue. I automatically yelled, ‘Lay off!’ I turned to my right and there was Elvis. I was flabbergasted. Of course, when I look back I think ‘Oh my God! I should have said, ‘Elvis do it again and again and again!'" - Chris Noel, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies

2:45pm Speedway
Speedster Elvis racing to get to the finish line first and away from I.R.S. agent Nancy Sinatra.

"He was very much a Southern gentleman but always surrounded by his entourage. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to him or get to know him. I got the impression that he was uncomfortable in his own skin and maybe not comfortable doing movies. I don’t know why but it felt this way to me." - Victoria Carroll, Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood

4:30pm Blue Hawaii
Elvis goes Hawaiian as a rich boy who rather guide such nubile babes as Jenny Maxwell, Pamela Austin, and Darlene Tompkins around the islands then work on his father's pineapple plantation.

“The movie’s success really, really surprised me because it was done so lighthearted. We had so much fun just filming it nobody expected it to as big as it was. You’d think if a movie were going to be such a hit you’d put your blood, sweat and tears into it. But on Blue Hawaii we just had fun.” - Darlene Tompkins, Drive-in Dream Girls

6:15pm Viva Las Vegas
On screen Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret heat up the dunes of Vegas while off-screen rumors abounded they heated up the sheets.

"I was cast in Viva Las Vegas but I couldn’t do it. I was raised in a family that said dancing was a sin. I had a cameo part and had to dance with Elvis [who she knew and liked]. I actually broke down and started crying on the set. I said, ‘I can’t do this.’ The director said, ‘Yes, you can.’ I just couldn’t do it so they gave the part to someone else." - Ann Morell, Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood