Saturday 6 February 2021

Mamie, wonderful Mamie

Among another peculiar mix today of birthday boys'n'girls, including Queen Anne, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bob Marley, Rip Torn, Patrick Macnee, Natalie Cole, Denis Norden, Ramon Novarro, Gayle Hunnicutt, Leslie Crowther, Axl Rose, François Truffaut, Mike Farrell, Ronald Reagan, Eva Braun, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Tarbuck, Mike Batt, Rick Astley (who is 55) and our very own Madam Arcati...

...it's the 90th birthday of the "Blonde Bombshell" herself, Miss Mamie Van Doren!

From an article on the Salon.com site (via the Wayback Machine):

To understand why Mamie Van Doren is who she is and how she has held on to what she was, we first must examine the breasts. Lordy, those breasts. Fashioned by God and fondled by Elvis. Born during the New Deal and bloomed during Nagasaki. Coaxed Howard Hughes out of reclusion. Got action in the back seats of cars America hasn't made in half a century. Even brought down the house in Vietnam. Bigger than Marilyn's, more buoyant than Jayne Mansfield's - and they're still here.

Boy, are they still here - even though it's been decades since Mamie Van Doren was on Hollywood's A-list of pinup girls and B-list of movie starlets. They were showcased in a string of drive-in quickies and sexploitation films throughout the '50s, including Sex Kittens Go to College (subtitled "You Never Saw a Student Body Like This!") and Untamed Youth ("Youth Turned Rock 'n' Roll Wild and the Punishment Farm that Makes Them Wilder!") They were just about the only facet of Van Doren's career that stayed afloat during the '60s. They've outlasted - she's outlasted - not only her fellow '50s bombshells but the leading men who pursued them: Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, even Rock Hudson (who, she claims, left a Clinton-esque stain on her dress).

Yes indeed, if ever there was a girl whose reputation went before here, it's Mamie. And here are some prime examples of her - ahem - outstanding talents...

...and, finally, here's the "lady" herself - aged 80 - in a most (ahem) tasteful tribute to... her mobile phone!

Mummy, I'm scared...

Many happy returns, Mamie Van Doren (born Joan Lucille Olander, 6th February 1931)!

[And to the Madam, as well, of course - who I just know will love this trash-fest.]

13 comments:

  1. She's got a good wriggle going on in the gif, but it's not a patch on the mustachioed young man's in the previous post!

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  2. Coincidentally, I was singing "Mame" while I was cooking my breakfast this morning.

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    1. You coax the blues right out of the horn. Apparently. Jx

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  3. She's fantastic. Happy birthday mamie.

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    1. I must get a copy of her "tell-all" autobiography. Jx

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  4. About a month ago I fell across a movie she did called Slackers. Oh the poor dear. I couldn't even watch.

    Send a kiss to Madame Arcati!!!

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    1. One reviewer said of that film: "You suspect a movie is in dire straits when one of its heroes starts talking to a sock puppet on his penis - well at least somebody's pleased to see him. You
      know a movie is in dire straits when Mamie Van Doren - who is 71, for heaven's sake - bares her breasts so that the villain can give them a sponge bath."

      Sounds about right for her career, really. Jx

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  5. She can't die, well she can, but she can't decompose

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  6. Gosh I never knew so many interesting people shared their birthday with Me.

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    1. It's an eternally fascinating thing, to find out what a widely varied selection of individuals happen to share the same birth date... Jx

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