"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Girls of the Day - Elvis' Girls

For a kid like me who grew up in the 1960s, Saturday TV meant watching a lot of Elvis movies.   I suspect that most are unwatchable today, but at the time I thought Elvis was extra cool (didn't every extra cool guy break out into song spontaneously, with the added advantage of an unseen orchestra?).   So I thought I'd look back at the more obscure girls from some of his movies as my girls of the day.

First, there's Joan Blackman from Blue Hawaii:


Next, we have Anne Helm from Follow That Dream:



And here's Laurel Goodwin from Girls Girls Girls, with Elvis:



Next, here's Joan O'Brien from It Happened at the World's Fair:



Finally, here's Yvonne Craig from Kissin' Cousins:


If there's a pattern, I guess I'd have to say that someone was very consciously casting girls who were attractive in a wholesome way, but not so attractive that they would ever ever upstage Presley.   Joan O'Brien I remember vaguely from another movie, Operation Petticoat, where she played Tony Curtis' love interest, and Yvonne Craig later went on to be Batgirl on Batman, but other than that, they've pretty much all receded into obscurity, their fifteen minutes of fame (and reflected fame at that, overshadowed by Elvis) up.

1 comment:

  1. Joan Blackman! What a fire of beauty !

    Distance can not stop your flight
    Exiled you seek the point illumed
    and least, enamored of the light
    you are a butterfly in flame consumed...

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