Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies

by Tom Lisanti

Elvis Presley musicals, beach romps, biker flicks, and alienated youth movies were some of the most popular types of drive-in films during the sixties. The actresses interviewed for this book (including Celeste Yarnall, Lana Wood, Linda Harrison, Pamela Tiffin, Deanna Lund, Diane McBain, Judy Pace, and Chris Noel) all made their mark in these genres. These fantastic femmes could be found either twisting on the shores of Malibu, careening down the highway on a chopper, being serenaded by Elvis, or taking on the establishment as hip coeds. As cult figures, they contributed greatly to that period of filmmaking aimed at the teenage audience who frequented the drive-ins of America.They frolicked, screamed, and danced their way into B-movie history in such diverse films as Eve, Teenage Millionaire, The Girls on the Beach, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, Three in the Attic, Wild in the Streets, and Paradise, Hawaiian Style. This book is a celebration of the actresses’ careers. They have for the most part been overlooked in other publications documenting the history of film. Fantasy Femmes addresses their film and television careers, focusing on their view of the above genres, their candid comments and anecdotes about their films, the people they worked with, and their feelings in general regarding their lives and the choices they made. The book is well illuminated and contains a complete list of film and television credits.

Genres: Film

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Tom Lisanti is an award-winning author/film historian specializing in1960s/1970s film and television. He began writing professionally in 1998. His latest books are Texas: An Oral History of Daytime TV's Answer to Dallas from BearManor Media; Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen from McFarland & Company; and Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap from Citadel Press/Kensington Books.

In 2010, Tom co-wrote with former actress Gail Gerber her memoir Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, which won the Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal for Best Memoir of 2010. He recently made appearances on the NYC cable access talk show, The Diana Montford Show; PBS's Steve Beverly's TV Classics; The Playboy Murders; and co-hosted with Ben Mankiewicz a week of 1960s beach movies on TCM. Tom is also featured in the documentary The Green Girl. He has been interviewed on a number of YouTube Programs (The Locher Room, The Jim Masters Show, The Michael Fairman Channel, Soaps dot com, The Avrum Rosensweig Show); radio shows (TV Confidential, Nutmeg Chatter. The Online Movie Show with Phil Hall, WNYC's SoundCheck); and podcasts (Forgotten Hollywood, The San Francisco Experience, Forgotten Films; Junot Files; NitrateVille; Ticklish Films) talking about his books.

Tom also has written for such magazines as Cinema Retro, Cinema of the '70s, Films of the Golden Age; and Scary Monsters.

Follow Tom on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, and Threads. He resides in New York.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways a supplementary and complementary text to Lisanti's other work on Hollywood starlets (Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties). Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema uses a similar approach to consider the lives and careers of over twenty relatively minor female actors who were seen frequently in teen related cinema and episodic television during the 1960s. Whilst each of the actresses had interesting and to varying degrees successful careers on screen, they never rose out of the pack nor did they (arguably) ever receive consideration as serious actors. This book is in part a celebration of these women, and also a fairly affectionate look at a Hollywood that no longer exists...where studios would pump out beach films and biker movies and Elvis musicals that would play at drive-ins and low rate cinemas.

In terms of who is covered in this book and Lisanti's approach to his chosen subject there isn;t much to get either excited about or disappointed in. He takes a similar route with each actress that he profiles. looking at their early lives pre-cinema, then reviewing how they entered the film industry, notable roles and qualities, challenges they experienced during their careers and then a postscript that more often than not relfects their transition into a life away from minor stardom. There is some some extent a sameness about each study, and this comes from the women that the author selects; they are rather interchangeable thanks to their age. looks and film work. More often than not the way in which the actresses filled out a bikini, or their connection to specific genres or studios, ensures that for all their individuality they are also somewhat generic. The end result is both the personalities covered in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema and the text itself becomes a little monotonous.

One stylistic aspect of the text that annoyed me a little was the continued use of a day and month date for each actresses birthday by Lisanti, but he failed to include the year/ Perhaps this was something he decided was appropriate in that he was unwilling or unable to nail down exactly how old each actress was. It seemed rather silly to not include this information, particularly considering it would take barely one or two clicks to find exact borthday info online. If the 'fantasy femmes' were for the most part 18-30 in the 1960s then where is the harm in saying they were born in 1940 or whatever?

One of the better aspects of this volume is that each actress who is given an in-depth profile speaks to the production of their films as well as their cast mates. In many cases this allows the cinephile and movie historian to find some insights into the manner in which Hollywood operated 60 or so years ago. References to the likes of Otto Preminger, Elvis Presley, Roger Corman, and to production companies and studios like American International Pictures and the Zanuck-era Twentieth Century Fox are really interesting for those intrigued by how movies were made decades ago.

Anotehr positive about this book is that it represents the women who 'star' in the text in a positive manner, whilst also capturing them at a point in their lives where their careers can be seen in a more nuanced reflection. Underpinning many of the accounts offered in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema is thesocial politics of women's lives in America in the last 40 years of the Twentieth Century. The clash between family and career, the growing importance and influence of the sexual revolution in the lives of (American) women, and the mostly accepted patriarchial hierarchy that dominated post-war America is easily seen herein.

If one is fascinated with Hollywood cienma, if one has a penchant for beautiful actresses of yesteryear, if one has is interested in the likes of Pamela Tiffin, Julie Parrish or Deanna Lund, then Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema will be a rewarding read. It won't be a must read for those without an interest in cinema, and that's okay. If Lisanti has helped later generations learn about and want to see these 60s starlets and sex kittens that's not a bad thing.

[Chris Nersinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loaded with a surplus of trivia and behind the scenes....oh and Girls...lots of girls.

Filmmaking, the actors life and some of the most iconic starlets in By movie history. Tom Lisa to never disappoints. A plethora of hands on right from the source....the B-movie queens....

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has a tantalizing goal to begin with in that it strives to unearth 20 different ladies whose talent and physical attributes contributed greatly to 1960s movies (often beach, biker, horror, Elvis or some other soft titillation), yet ones who are not THE best known such as Ann-Margret, Raquel Welch and so on. What we get is a revealing series of articles/interviews with these gals who are each very forthright in their opinions and reflections of working in Hollywood and beyond at that time. Let's face it, as curious as we are about what ever became of these beauties, what we really want to know is what they thought of their more famous costars such as Elvis Presley, Annette Funicello, Paul Newman, Joan Crawford and many others. On this score the book does not disappoint. At this later stage, most (all?) of the ladies do not hesitate to offer their true and real opinions, though that isn't to say that the remembrances are overly dishy or negative, often they are complimentary. A couple of the gals seem to act as if one key role that they missed out on (allegedly, in some cases) provides the only reason why they aren't better known or had a longer career, but the sad truth is that in the movies, especially then, time is never the friend of a blonde, curvy starlet and she has to possess a lot more, and demonstrate a lot more, at every opportunity if she expects to proceed beyond her glory days. Generally, these ladies come off as themselves and, more importantly, as likeable people who are aware of their place in the pantheon of show business. As a bonus, the back of the book coughs up smaller segments for another round of ladies who didn't receive a full-on chapter all her own. It's a perfect book for reading in installments such as over lunch, on a park bench, etc... until it's finished.