Mamie Van Doren has outlived all of them. One of many three heavy-hitter blonde bombshells of Hollywood’s golden age — the others, after all, being Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield — Van Doren is 94 years younger and residing a helluva life. On Labor Day weekend, she might be honored with the Legacy Award on the annual Cinecon Movie Pageant and current a screening of her underrated movie noir, 1959’s “Weapons, Ladies and Gangsters.”
Within the very definition of a wide-ranging interview, Van Doren spoke with IndieWire about her distinctive legacy, that string of films within the ’50s and ’60s, however principally her rollicking (and insanely fascinating) private life — a life that fairly actually has included encounters with nearly each large identify of the previous 75 years. I imply, everybody. One among her first Common Studios-arranged dates was with Rock Hudson. You realize, the Rock Hudson that was an extremely standard main matinee idol, the epitome of a manly man, solely to be outed years later after his tragic AIDS-related loss of life in 1985.
“With Rock Hudson, they mentioned he was homosexual on the studio… ‘You don’t have something to fret about.’ However that’s not true. That was not true in any respect,” Van Doren recounted. “He got here on to me, and in my e-book I instructed about having [on] a Crimmins skirt and him getting very passionate and rolling on the kitchen ground.”
I assume for these soiled particulars, we’ll must learn “Play the Subject,” her aptly-titled autobiography (she additionally wrote a second memoir about her pet cockatoo titled “China and Me”). Preserve in my thoughts, we’re speaking a couple of lady who was found by Howard Hughes. Sure, the one Leonardo DiCaprio performed in “The Aviator.” And, no, she doesn’t assume that film precisely captured Mr. Hughes.
“Is it correct? Uh… no,” she mentioned. “I met him, and he had a little bit bungalow on the Backyard of Allah [Hotel in Hollywood] when he was seeing me. He additionally had one up on the Beverly Hills Lodge, however the actual younger ones he saved up on the Backyard of Allah. And the swimming pool was stunning… I used to be taking my bathe after I acquired out of the pool, it was at evening, and he insisted upon me getting my hair moist within the pool, as a result of he had a task for me within the image that he mentioned that I needed to have moist hair. So, I get out of the pool… I had a bikini… and I bumped into the bungalow, showered, got here out, and I acquired towel round me. He’s laying in mattress.”
At that second she thought-about, “What do I do, Mamie?” She considered her idol, traditional Hollywood star Jean Harlow, and whether or not or not she would get into the mattress. “I know she did it,” Van Doren determined. So she acquired into the mattress with Howard Hughes.
“I jumped in mattress. I mentioned, ‘Howard… I’ve to have a rubber. You will have a rubber?’ I glanced underneath the sheet and there was already a rubber on him. Effectively, shall I say… I assumed that penises have been the dimensions of the person, — if he’s six foot 4 or 5 — the penis goes to be extra in step with the dimensions of the person. Effectively, that’s not the best way it really works,” she recalled.
Van Doren was born in South Dakota however grew to become a Los Angeles residence woman after her household moved to town in 1942, when Mamie was simply 9 years previous. In fact, in these days, she was Joan Olander, named in honor of Joan Crawford. She entered magnificence pageants, incomes the titles Miss Palm Springs and Miss Eight Ball, and that led to her contract with Hughes and RKO Radio Photos — of which he was the then-head. When she later moved to Common, she took on Mamie Van Doren — named after the then-First Woman Mamie Eisenhower. On the time, Van Doren was a Republican.
That didn’t final.
“I used to be a, I’d say, Eisenhower conservative. I idolized Eisenhower. I watched the warfare years — as a result of I used to be born in ’31 and I went by the warfare years, a really robust time in my life — and I used to be out right here, so I watched,” she recounted. “I knew every little thing that was occurring within the warfare. I watched it very carefully. It was a really robust time in my life. It’s an imprint in my thoughts of World Warfare II. After which Korea got here alongside, and most of the people, children my age, went to Korea and acquired killed, after which got here alongside Vietnam. After which I mentioned, ‘Effectively, hell, no one’s paying any consideration to those grunts on the market… and I acquired very concerned with Vietnam.”
Vietnam modified her perspective, even reworking her into a way more liberal activist.
“I went over there in ’68 and I did a number of golf equipment, and I acquired paid for the golf equipment and every little thing, however between golf equipment, I’d go to the hospitals and entertain. And it was a horrible, bloody 12 months. 1968 was the worst bloody 12 months they’d. We actually misplaced a number of younger males. And after I got here again residence, I simply felt actually terrible, and I watched the warfare very carefully, and after I noticed our pilots being marched in cages in Hanoi… I made a decision to go over there,” Van Doren mentioned.
It was a high-risk space to be. Mamie’s helicopter was even shelled. “I needed to be actually, actually cautious,” and she or he instructed the troopers who transported her that if taken prisoner, “Kill me. Don’t allow them to take me.”
As for her movie stardom, she appeared with nearly everyone, together with a sequence of movies starring rock ‘n’ roll idols making their breaks into cinema — Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Paul Anka, and Eddie Cochran amongst them. Her best-remembered position is probably going because the second lead within the romantic comedy “Trainer’s Pet,” starring Clark Gable and Doris Day. Her half, nonetheless, ended up a little bit extra slight than it was imagined to be.
“[Gable] noticed me at Warner Brothers within the commissary, and he wished me for the half that I acquired, and it was a bigger position after I learn it. After which after I went to see it, they reduce the scene out that I had within the dressing room, which was a really cute scene. It was a kissing scene, they usually mentioned that I appear like [Gable’s] grandchild or one thing silly. And why would he exit with Doris Day when he had me? Fortunately, somebody saved it, and I’ve this clipping of him kissing me,” she remembered. “If I had had the scene that I had… I believe I may have gotten in all probability an award or one thing of an acknowledgement, as a result of it was actually finished effectively.”
One among her co-stars in that film was Gig Younger — over whom she actually dodged a bullet.
“I had an issue with that one. I used to be very on the outs with my husband at the moment, however we have been nonetheless collectively, and I didn’t have any type of relationship with him then, however I spotted that he favored me,” Van Doren mentioned. “After which Merv Griffin had a present popping out of Las Vegas. [Young] was on the present, and I used to be on the present. Effectively, he was there, and he wished to take me out. And I didn’t need to exit with him. There was one thing about him that I didn’t significantly look after. I’ve a way that’s actually good. I’ve a extremely good nostril for horse flesh, that’s for certain. And I refused to exit with him. He acquired very upset and really mad at me, after which I heard later that he married any individual, and he shot her.” Younger, it needs to be famous, additionally shot himself after he shot his fifth spouse Kim Schmidt in 1978.
Van Doren didn’t ever play by the studio’s guidelines. Married 5 instances, Mamie had a son with band chief Ray Anthony, in 1956. That didn’t sit effectively with Common.
“It was onerous as a result of there weren’t any ladies on the studio… the lads ran the studio and ran every little thing. So I saved pushing and pushing, and generally I did issues I shouldn’t have finished, after which… I discovered myself pregnant, and I acquired married afterwards, after which that was remarkable. At the very least it acquired me out of my contract at Common,” she mentioned, explaining that Common didn’t need her to have the child.
With the ’60s bringing a brand new female splendid, Van Doren’s blonde bombshell fell out of favor. Monroe, a private good friend of Van Doren’s, died in 1962.
“Marilyn and I have been superb pals, and we favored one another. We went to the identical drama coach,” Van Doren mentioned. That coach was Natasha Latz. “I acquired to know Marilyn… I used to be 12 years previous after I first met her, she was on the Blue Ebook Modeling Company on the Ambassador Lodge, and I lived out again on the Ambassador Lodge. And after I was a child, and I’d go into the swimming pool on a regular basis, and I used to see her modeling on a regular basis. So I met her when she was 17 then and I used to be 12. We used to see one another on a regular basis at events, and I knew what she was doing on a regular basis… She actually had a tough time of it.
Considering again on Monroe’s tragic loss of life, Van Doren noticed, “Marilyn all the time thought she needed to have a person together with her. She’s all the time on the lookout for a father, however she was loopy about [John F.] Kennedy. I believe they solely went to mattress one time, after which he handed her on to his brother. And he or she acquired hung up on Bobby [Kennedy], and she or he simply couldn’t stand rejection anymore.”
Even when she largely exited filmmaking way back, Van Doren has by no means left her expertise behind — a expertise that blossomed underneath the rigorous studio system of the Nineteen Fifties.
“My expertise was simply unbelievable. It got here very pure. As an actress, I didn’t have any downside. As a singer, I didn’t have any downside. All I did was vocalize and I may sing. As a dancer, I wasn’t pretty much as good as a dancer as a result of I’ve giant breasts, and that’s a number of work… I actually was fortunate. I acquired to learn to dance very well. I did a number of ballet at Common. They paid for all that. That was a part of my studio contract,” she mentioned.
Van Doren stays a permanent cultural icon, one that’s a part of a lineage of bombshells that has led to modern-day stars like Pamela Anderson. In 2006, Van Doren even appeared alongside Anderson in a titillating photograph unfold for “Self-importance Truthful.”
“I used to be very happy with myself,” she mentioned. “I assumed, I look simply as fucking good. I had my actual tits. There’s a number of issues I by no means needed to do something to enhance upon… and I felt very safe. I by no means get insecure with ladies. If there’s somebody that’s higher than me, I take my hat off. I really like stunning ladies. I actually adore ladies which are proficient, robust. I don’t have a jealous bone in my physique in the case of one other lady.”
Van Doren has additionally remained outspoken about causes expensive to her, serving as an early high-profile grand marshal for the LA Delight Parade in 1987 — on the peak of the AIDS Disaster.
“Elizabeth Taylor got here alongside attempting to say that she was the primary one which ever did something for the group. And it was a really dangerous shock… I wasn’t invited to something after that,” Van Doren defined. “So, the homosexual group acquired collectively and… put me within the parade and made me the queen.”
Van Doren mentioned that, after Taylor took on the duty of being a frontrunner within the marketing campaign to struggle AIDS, she and different advocates have been “iced out.” “Rather a lot folks — we have been all the primary ones — we’re all on the point of go to this charity factor that [Taylor] had, they usually known as us and instructed us that we weren’t wished. That was the tip of it. I need to make it very clear in historical past, she was not the primary one. She solely did it after Rock Hudson died.”
For Van Doren, it’s in regards to the tenet of simply being particular person… paying it ahead.
“I’ve acquired a few great angels on my shoulder. I actually imagine that, and I’ve a reference to God. And every little thing I do, there’s a cause why I do it. It’s to assist and be variety to folks. I’ve tried to be variety to folks even after they weren’t variety to me. And if I’m round somebody that’s very dangerous, I attempt to simply get away from it. I don’t wish to be round dangerous issues,” she mentioned.
And shortly, Van Doren will inform much more in a forthcoming third memoir, in addition to the documentary “Mamie Confidential,” at the moment in manufacturing. To say it’ll be must-see would seem like an understatement. Van Doren really guarantees will probably be a “lulu.” As for who ought to play Van Doren in a possible biopic, Mamie has a particular opinion: Sydney Sweeney.
“I’ve watched her films. She’s actress. She hasn’t had that one plum that she wants. And that one plum is my film known as ‘Mamie Van Doren.’ I’d like to have her play me,” she mentioned.
Should you’d wish to see what else Mamie Van Doren has to say, dwell and in particular person, try the 61st Cinecon Movie Pageant, which is able to take over the Writers Guild of America Theatre August 29-September 1. Among the many different honorees might be Ann-Margret and Juliet Mills… keep tuned for the IndieWire unique interviews with these icons, coming quickly.