MIMSY FARMER

Mimsy Farmer, an actress who's probably best remembered claim to fame was playing a bunch of party-chicks in '60s biker flicks, got her start, acting in television sitcoms [My Three Sons (1962) and The Donna Reed Show (1962 & 1963) and family-fare (Spencer's Mountain (1963)]. Born in Chicago in 1945, Farmer has had quite a career; she stepped in front of the camera in the early 1960s and stayed there until the end of the 1980s. Though she's mostly retired from acting, Mimsy Farmer is still quite active in this business we call show.

Farmer's most well known well role was playing Andy in 1967's Riot on the Sunset Strip. Released by American International Pictures [the very same AIP that gave us The Wild Angels (1966) starring Peter Fonda, as well as the string of "Beach Party" movies that stared Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello] as an exploitation film that captured "the scene", "the moment", and "the happenings" of the day (see also: Mondo Mod/1966, and The Hippie Revolt/1967). Farmer's Andy is one of those proto-typical-timid-teens-turned-wrong, with her part of the story involving an alcoholic mother, an estranged cop father, a drugged soft-drink followed by a bizarre acid-trip dance. While the story never really ventures out of your typical teens-running-amok exploitation tropes, there's some great appearances by the Chocolate Watchband, and Miss Farmer works some fierce hair and hot threads during her little dance-freak-out scene.



That same year, Farmer starred as another troubled teen, Gloria, in Hot Rods to Hell. This time Farmer's blond-bombshell party girl already knows she's gone with the wrong crowd and finds herself yearning for more than just the "kicks" she gets when cruising around the desert with her boyfriend Duke. Her third role in 1967 was starring yet again in a youth-culture oriented exploitation feature Devil's Angels, produced at AIP by two of the biggest names in exploitation: Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. In 1968, Mimsy Farmer starred in what would be her last role for AIP, as Katherine Pearson in The Wild Racers.

In addition to being remembered for playing a string of blond-bombshell party-girls in the last few years of the '60s, Farmer is also known for taking acid, moving to Italy and appearing in a bunch of arty-European films. While some of these were pretty obscure, vaguely artistic exploitation efforts like Road to Salina (1970) (for which she won a David di Donatello Award), and Body of Love (1972), her resume includes a starring role in More (1969), an Italian art film scored entirely by Pink Floyd. In 1971 Farmer's background in Exploitation and European Art-house met in the middle, when she stared in Dario Argento's Four Flies on Gray Velvet. She also starred in The Black Cat (Gatto Nero) (1981), directed by Fulci, Il Profumo Della Signora in Nero (1974) directed by Francesco Barilli, as well as Autopsy (1975) directed by Armando Crispino. Later roles were regulated to mostly appearances and include: Il quartetto Basileus (1983), the tv mini-series Arabesque (1983), action-flick Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) and the ten minute short Her Fragrant Emulsion (1987).

While Farmer is mostly retired from acting and no longer making movies, she now makes things for the movies. Several years ago Mimsy Farmer started working as a set sculptor and now her art department credits include: Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), and The Golden Compass (2007).

Farmer is still keeping busy, working on set sculptures for the fourth film in the POTC franchise, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (coming 2011). She also paints and according to IMDB.com, is the mother of Italian actress Aisha Cerami.

For more on Mimsy Farmer check out:

-The trailers for Hot Rods to Hell, Devil's Angels, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (lo-fi).
-A rather nicely written article at Coffee coffee and More Coffee that further details her work after moving to Europe.
- Moon In The Gutter's detailed tribute to Mimsy Farmer in Four Flies on Grey Velvet, featuring some quotes from Farmer herself, in addition to a link to an earlier tribute to her entire career.

Happy Halloween!

As this month's Foxy Lady will be a day or two fashionably-late, check out Leopard Moon's two-part series on what sadly seems to be a disappearing phenomenon in late-night television: the horror hostess.

Leopard Moon: A Regional Overview of Elvira's Little Sisters

Leopard Moon: Elvira’s Descendants, Part 2: A Few More Horror Hostesses

NICHELLE NICHOLS

Born Grace Nichols on December 28th near Chicago in the early 1930s, Nichelle Nichols was an accomplished singer and dancer on the stage long before she became a television icon as Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura. Touring early on in her career with such illustrious names in entertainment like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, Nichols' resume also included roles in several big-city musical productions by the time she reached the bridge on the Enterprise.



Before Star Trek, her television acting experiences were largely confined to guest roles on series such as Peyton Place and Tarzan. However, one television role can often lead to another. In 1963 Nichelle Nichols had a part in a series called The Lieutenant. It was working on this project that she met Gene Roddenberry, who, three years later would cast Nichols in the best remembered role of her career: Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

While by today's standards, Uhura may not look like much more than a telephone operator or office manager in space, the role was considered quite groundbreaking at the time. As the head communications officer, Uhura was just as educated and similarly accomplished as the rest of the crew on the bridge. Like them, she was an officer and many times in the series she demonstrated that she was a highly qualified, capable if under-utilized member of the USS Enterprise's crew. Despite her lines often getting cut to little more than "Hailing frequencies open" or "Incoming transmission", Nichols was always a professional, and always committed to her character. Co-star Leonard Nimoy in his book I Am Spock noted: "... Though she was often not given many lines... she nevertheless was totally present and made an emotional investment in whatever was happening in the scene".

Despite often being regulated to such a minor role in most episodes, she was given a few moments in the sun. The most famous being: first, in The Trouble with Tribbles, as the crew member to bring the furry critters aboard the Enterprise and second, as being one-half of the first interracial-kiss in a scripted television series in Plato's Stepchildren. While NBC execs initially feared controversy, the reception to her on-screen kiss with William Shatner was overwhelmingly positive.

After TOS wrapped in 1969, Nichols experienced the frustrations of being thought of as Uhura first and Nichelle second. Still, despite her understandable grievance with this type-casting, she never deserted the franchise or her fans and continued to appear regularly at Star Trek conventions over past several the years. Nichelle has also attended many NASA events and helped the organization to recruit women and minorities for the space program. According to Great Images in NASA (GRIN), some of her recruits include Sally Ride, and Guion Bluford.

Though Star Trek and outer space activity remain a part of her life, Nichols has been involved with a wide variety of projects over the past four decades. In 1974, she appeared in Truck Turner as the successful, fierce and foul-mouthed Madam, Dorinda. Dorinda may not be the most progressive role ever written for a Black woman, but the intensity and commitment with which she plays the character that is the very antithesis of the distinguished space officer she for which she is known is impressive. It would have been easy to reject the role entirely as another unflattering exploitation stereotype, but Nichols plays Gator's wicked woman with such a fire and flair that you don't question her decision to have accepted it.

More recently, Nichelle Nichols has done some voice work for several animated series. In addition to having recurring roles on Gargoyles and Spider Man, she also guest starred twice on highly acclaimed prime-time series, Futurama. Voicing herself on both occasions, she and most of the rest of the core cast of Star Trek: TOS appear in a full episode with Fry, Leela, and Bender for an adventure in outwitting the Trek-obsessed energy being Melllvar. This episode threw a shout-out to her and Shatner's historic on-screen kiss with the following dialog:

Nimoy: Hey! We've done heroic things too.

Nichols: Yeah! In the third season I kissed Shatner!

Other current activity includes: a recurring role the TV series Heroes in 2007, starring in and producing 2008's Lady Magdalene's and roasting William Shatner on Comedy Central (2006).

Suggestions for additional viewing and further reading:

Lady Magdalene's Offical Site, complete with trailer, photo gallery and videos.
A collection of some of Nichols' scenes from Truck Turner.
Nichelle Nichols at IMDB.com
GRIN's profile on Nichols further detailing her work with the space program.
Nichols, Nichelle (1995). Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. New York: Boulevard Books.

DEY YOUNG

Dey Young may not be the most prominent actress on television or even in science-fiction, but she's certainly been prolific over the past thirty years. Born on July 28, 1955 in Bloomfield Hills, MI Young began her acting career in 1979, after studying at Kingswood School. Apparently the theater and film trade runs in the family; in addition to once being married to David Ladd, Dey Young is sister to actress Leigh-Taylor Young.

One of Young's earliest and best-remembered roles, was co-starring with fellow Foxy Lady P.J. Soles in the made-to-be-a-cult-hit, Rock n' Roll High School (1979). In addition to starring Dey Young, P.J. Soles, Mary Woronov, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard, the film also features seminal punk-band and rock folk-heroes, The Ramones!



In case you can't tell from the trailer... In this particular Roger Corman Classic, Young plays the fairly-nerdy best friend Kate Rambeau. Don't be deceived by her good-girl shirtwaists, Young's Rambeau is brainy but hot-blooded and even gets her own sub-plot! Just as into the boys as her gal-pal Riff, Kate's girlish lust sits on Van Patten's clueless blond-jock, Tom. While Kate's efforts to hook it up with the object of her desire are often played for laughs, everything in Rock n' Roll High School is played for laughs. In the end, Young's Rambeau not only gets her man, she gets to go to the Ramones concert and then later watch them (SPOILER ALERT) blow up Vince Lombardi High. Are these not the things of which a teenager's dreams are made?

One of Young's most widely seen appearances to date may have been a fairly small one; a few years after starring in Rock n' Roll High School she appeared in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987) as the saucy space-diner waitress. Some of Dey Young's other Sci-Fi roles include: Carol Martin in The Outer Limits (1998), Judy Bishop in The X Files (1994), and Amy in The Running Man (1987). She's also appeared on Star Trek several times, making appearances in four of the franchise's different series. Young is still acting today and has appeared in What Just Happened (2008), The Young and the Restless (2008) as well as AMC's runaway-hit MadMen (2007).

Dey Young's artistic inclinations are not limited to acting, she's also been sculpting since 1977. Working in stone, bronze and terracotta, her work often features or is highly reminiscent of the curved contours of the feminine physique. Young has had exhibitions at the University of Judaism, Arcona Studio, and the Earl McGrath Gallery. See her sculpture for yourself here!

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED VIEWING/READING:
-Back to School: A Retrospective - 'Rock 'N' Roll High School' Rock on Edition DVD (2005)
-Dey Young's extensive list of credits at IMDB.com

LORNA MAITLAND:

Jimmy McDonough once described the notorious, yet mysterious Lorna Maitland as being, "a trashy melon-breasted blonde, one who'd look good in the back of the a pickup in a torn dress"; one page later he described her as having "a terminally unimpressed scowl that seemed to suggest your balls were not long for this world". Given such a description, it's little wonder that Russ-"King Leer"-Meyer cast this corn-fed foxy lady in the first of his black and white Gothic films, 1964's Lorna.

Born Barbara Popejoy on 19 November, 1943 in Glendale California, she wasn't christened "Lorna Maitland" until twenty years later by her discoverer. According to some biographers, Maitland grew up in Norman Oklahoma, but by the time she answered the cattle-call for Meyer, Lorna was working as a dancer in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite thousands of hits on Google for her name, few other biographical details are known. Several sources have mentioned but fail to cover Maitland's romantic involvement with Ben "Dino" Rocco, musician and one time member of an early incarnation of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, known then as Psyrcle. Reports conflict as to whether Maitland and Rocco were actually married or just "practically married", but Rocco himself stated at least once that the two spent seventeen years together.

After starring in the then ground-breakingly visceral Lorna, the twenty year-old Maitland went on to a major role in Meyer's next film Mudhoney (1965). Another black and white Southern-Gothic "roughie", Mudhoney is a Meyer classic being critically acclaimed while featuring topless, buxom blondes. Following her two major roles for Meyer, Lorna Maitland had appearances in Mondo Topless (1966), Hip, Hot and 21 (1967) and Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967). Given the extensive coverage she received in Fling magazine in 1967, it must have seemed that her career was poised to take off. Once rivaling the prolific and by then, already established Angie Dickinson for the same contract, it seems all stranger that Lorna Maitland's current whereabouts are completely unknown.

Though her career as a sexploitation star was brief and she never achieved mainstream acting success, Lorna certainly made her mark on 60s-cult-culture. Before finally sliding off into the unknown, Maitland used some of the money she earned during the 60s to fund the Autumn Records subsidiary Lorna Records. The label recorded "Baby Don't Do That" for the aforementioned Psyrcle. While she may be remembered by most for her bodacious bust-line, Maitland left another legacy: eternally disturbing auteur and weirdo, Russ Meyer.

Described as "intimidating" and known for sometimes terrorizing his casts during filming, Meyer couldn't have been a character that was easily shaken. Yet, over twenty years after working with her, Meyer was still telling interviewers "Lorna did a number on my head". Convinced that "she hated (his) guts", Meyer rarely had anything nice to say about his two-time leading lady. In a 1980 interview he mused to the UCLA Daily Bruin that "her tits must be down to her knees by now".

What accounts for such ire for so long? Some might chalk it up to the King of the Nudies being something of a grudge holder who was easily crossed. Others hint that perhaps Meyer unconsciously found Maitland a bit intimidating; standing at 5'9, she was one of the few truly Amazonian of his stacked-starlets. Perhaps his film's tagline was spot on and Lorna really was "too much for one man!", too much for even one Russ Meyer.

Want more Maitland?

Video and Images:

- Clip from Lorna (NSFW)
- Trailer for Mudhoney (NSFW)
- Lorna Maitland Tribute site, featuring several black and white photos (NSFW)

Further Reading:

-Throughly researched, and fast-paced read Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film; Jimmy McDonough,(2006)
-The incredibly detailed Russ Meyer-The Life and Films: ; David K. Frasier, (1990)
-The two-part article in contemporary lad-mag Fling, vol. 10 no.1/2 3-5/67, author is uncredited but it may have been Arv Miller