Joan
Lucille Olander was born in South Dakota on February 6,
1931. Mesmerized by the distant glamour of the Hollywood,
Joan's farm family packed up and moved to Los Angeles in
1942.
Her
first acting job was at the age of 13 in one of the very
early television shows as Little Joanie, the Flower Girl.
Age 13 founder her to be already shapely. At the age of
15 she won several beauty contests and found herself not
only in the attention of the film studio RKO, but also in
the eyes of Howard Hughes, who was a connoisseur of the
feminine form.
Hughes
got her some small parts, but nothing very notable, and
in 1950 she spent the summer working in Las Vegas as a Showgirl.
It was during this time period she posed for a pin up session
with Alberto Vargas. Her portrait would grace the July 1951
publication of Esquire.
Still
Joan at this time, she became involved in many high profile
relationships, which would be typical of her life, two of
which were Eddie Fisher and Jack Dempsey.
She
returned to Los Angeles, and got her first real manager,
composer Jimmy McHugh. She gave a very sexy performance
in a L.A. production of Come back little Sheba, which landed
her a plum role in the film Forbidden, and a seven year
contract with Universal International. It was upon UI's
urging that she changed her name to Mamie Van Doren.
One
of Mamie's trademarks in her "starlet" days was that of
a brassiere known as the bullet bra. She was neither the
first nor the last to wear one, however she would come to
be identified with it, even after 35 years.
While
Mamie was constantly compared to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne
Mansfield, she was in true form, very unique. She was not
prone to playing the Hollywood game, and was in many ways
very ahead of her time in terms of women's liberation, and
the sexual revolution. She was also identified very early
on with rock & roll, and this association would give her
some of the greatest 1950's pop icon status.
UI
dropped her in 1957 shortly after the birth of her first
son, as her role of wife and mother did not fit UI's screeen
image of her. She made the film Untamed Youth, recorded
some rock hits, which was a huge risk at that time as rock
& roll was often looked down upon with the preacher/redneck
DJ's arena. Film studios looked at this, which made them
rather nervous.
She
made her first "A" movie in 1958 starring opposite of Cary
Grant in Teacher's Pet. From there she made a quite a few
films, some memorable, some not. But it was also at this
time she began to make some teen-exploitation flicks with
Al Zugsmith. The core of her films would give her the title
"Queen of the B's".
Mamie
was very well known for her saucy quips and quotes, and
her penchant for young men. "Mamie likes 'em young" was
a perpetual tag of hers.
Mamie
was very upset with the death of Marilyn Monroe, sensing
her days were numbered as a blonde bombshell, but nothing
was more shattering to her than the death of Jayne Mansfield.
The second seemingly cursed blonde of Mamie's peers. Unlike
her peers though, Mamie took very good care of herself,
she laid off the drinking and drugs, and did little late-night
carousing.
Mamie's
performance of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was held over in
New York in 1967, standing in for her in the run she couldn't
make was Jayne Mansfield in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was
just after this run, that Jayne would meet her untimely
death.
After
her Broadway performances, Mamie toured in Vietnam in 1968-1970
entertaining troops stationed during the war.
Mamie
Van Doren is still alive today, and looks fabulous. At the
age of 60 she decided to undergo some plastic surgery (her
first ever) to keep up her image of the blonde bombshell.
As Mamie put it, she is experiencing one thing that others
did not...old age. She has made guest appearances, performed
in nightclubs and even recorded an album in Germany in 1993.
Mamie Van Doren is certainly the last of the great blonde
bombshells, and long may she reign supreme.
Original
biography written by Dawn Marie, Bombshells.Com. Sources:
IMDB, VaVaVoom by Steve
Sullivan 1995.
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