Trivia of Mamie Van Doren

 Trivia of Mamie Van Doren (6 February 1931)

*Joan Lucille Olander was the birth name of Mamie Van Doren. The day she signed her first studio contract coincided with President Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration, so studio executives renamed her “Mamie” after his wife, Mamie Eisenhower. Meanwhile, “Van Doren” was the surname of prominent American intellectuals.

*In early 1946, Van Doren began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television series.She sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered several beauty contests. Producer Howard Hughes discovered Van Doren when she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for several years. Hughes launched her career by placing her in several RKO films.

*In 1949, Hughes provided Van Doren with a bit part in Jet Pilot (1957) starred John Wayne & Janet Leigh at RKO Radio Pictures, which was her film debut. Her line of dialogue consisted of one word, "Look!" and she appears uncredited in the film.Filming lasted more than eighteen months, beginning in 1949. The last day of shooting was in May 1953, but the Technicolor film was kept out of release by Hughes due to his tinkering until October 1957, by which time Hughes had sold RKO.

*Mamie Van Doren became the first actress to sing rock and roll in an American musical film, Untamed Youth (1957).In an interview, Mamie Van Doren said her role as Penny Lowe was one of her two favorite roles - the other being Peggy in Teacher's Pet (1958) along Clark Gable.

*She appeared with Jackie Coogan in four films: High School Confidential! (1958), The Beat Generation (1959), The Big Operator (1959) and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960).

*The press dubbed Mamie Van Doren, “Marilyn Monroe”, and “Jayne Mansfield” the “Three M’s.” They were the “It” girls in Hollywood, the cream of the honey-haired crop.Reportedly, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren never got along, because of the fact Mansfield had scooped up Mamie’s role in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).Mansfield considered Van Doren her “nemesis," and in 1963, Van Doren hit back by refusing to act alongside Mansfield in Promises! Promises! (1963).

*Many of Van Doren's film roles showcased her ample curves, and her onscreen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring (for the era) swimsuits.She was in prison for Girls Town (1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964), Mamie did a nude beer-bath scene with shaving cream.