In the countdown to Kitschmas ... Mamie Van Doren's festive pictorial for Escapade magazine, 1966.
I posted this set on my Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier. Instagram instantly went haywire flashing warnings that my post violates their terms and they are deleting it. I scrambled to delete it from Facebook as well - I can't risk going to Facebook or Instagram jail or losing my accounts!
These pics are 57 years old but still freaking out the prudes! Anyway, posting them here for your delectation.
But frankly who cares when Girls Town is
such a delirious wild ride? These delinquents have impeccable sartorial taste
in striped t-shirts, gabardine jackets and saddle shoes. Vocal group The
Platters coo ethereal doo-wop in a nightclub sequence. And everyone speaks in
ultra-camp hepcat beatnik lingo like “No dice!” “You dig me?” “It’s real gone,
ma!” “Not wonderful – crazy! Cool! Fantabulous!” “I’m blasting out of here!”
and “You’re in Queersville, man! You’ve flipped!” (Where is this “Queersville”
Silver speaks of and how do I get there?). Girls Town is precisely the kind of
film that John Waters parodies in his 1990 rockabilly musical Cry-Baby (and the
Traci Lords character is directly modeled on Van Doren). See for yourself when
the free monthly Lobotomy Room film club (motto: Bad Movies for Bad People)
presents Girls Town at Fontaine’s bar (Dalston’s most unique nite spot) on
Thursday 17 August!
/ Above: Mamie
Van Doren as Silver Morgan (“who didn’t want to know right from wrong!”) and John Waters' homage /
Lobotomy Room Goes to the Movies is the
FREE monthly film club devoted to cinematic perversity! Third Thursday night of
every month downstairs at Fontaine’s cocktail lounge in Dalston! Numbers are
limited, so reserving in advance via Fontaine’s website is essential Alternatively, phone
07718000546 or email bookings@fontaines.bar.
The film starts at 8:30 pm. Doors to the basement Bamboo Lounge open at 8:00
pm. To ensure everyone is seated and cocktails are ordered on time, please
arrive by 8:15 pm at the latest.
What
happens when youthful rebels go bad? Can you handle this explosive drama of youth racing down the
road to nowhere? Join us on Thursday 17 August 2023 to find out! Facebook event page.
Recently watched: The Girl in the Black
Stockings (1957). Tagline: “She was every inch a teasing, taunting “come-on”
blonde … and she made every inch pay off!” I’m using this period of enforced
social isolation to explore the weirder corners of YouTube for long forgotten
and obscure movies. (My boyfriend is accompanying me only semi-willingly).
/ The stars of The Girl in the Black Stockings: Lex Barker, Mamie Van Doren, Anne Bancroft and Marie Windsor /
Look, I don’t mean to overpraise what’s
essentially a lurid minor exploitation b-movie. But in terms of low-brow
fifties pulp thrills, the addictively trashy Girl in the Black Stockings veritably
pulsates with prurience, misogyny, twisted psychology and an almost tangible revulsion
towards sex. And it condenses its shock-by-shock twists into a taut 73-minutes.
While vacationing at The Parry Lodge, a
luxe mountain resort in Utah, hunky Los Angeles-based attorney Dave Hewson (Lex
Barker) tentatively romances shy Beth Dixon (Anne Bancroft), the hotel’s
switchboard operator. We first encounter the couple dancing by moonlight at an
outdoor pool party. “Are you breathing this hard because of me or the altitude?”
Hewson suavely inquires. Their tryst is abruptly
ruined when he lights a cigarette, and the flame illuminates a brutally slain female
corpse in the bushes. The dead woman is Marsha Morgan – the local “good time girl”
(prepare for lots of slut-shaming and blame-the-victim talk). Her throat has
been slit – and her black stockings are in shreds! Suddenly, every guest and
employee at Parry Lodge is a suspect – and what a menagerie of freaks they are!
They’re all hiding sordid secrets, and they all seem guilty as hell. One
thing’s for sure: as Hewson surmises, “We’re not dealing with an ordinary
killer committing an ordinary crime!”
The hotel’s proprietor is Edmund Parry (Ron
Randell), an embittered misanthropic quadriplegic who viscerally loathes women
in general and Marsha Morgan in particular. “I must say, the man-eating witch deserved
it!” he’s apt to declare. “She was poison. Like a disease! A common creature
whose every word, every breath, every gesture, was the show of an empty shallow
strumpet. Miss Morgan was an example of a completely justifiable homicide!” Edmund
is doted on by Julia (Marie Windsor), his devoted-to-the-point-of-incest sister.
Does Edmund’s paralysis eliminate him as the killer? (It’s hinted his
disability is psychosomatic). And what about the hotel’s knife-wielding, blood-splattered
Native American handyman Joe (Larry Chance)? Due to an alcoholic black-out, he
can’t account for his actions on the night of Marsha’s murder. Or bad boy ex-con
sawmill employee Frankie (Gerald Frankie), who was sexually entangled with
Marsha? Meanwhile, faded matinee idol Norman Grant (John Holland) is staying at
Parry Lodge while preparing for a screen comeback, accompanied by his platinum
blonde paramour Harriet Ames (Mamie Van Doren). As more dead bodies begin cropping
up (cut to newspaper headline exclaiming “Maniac Strikes Again!”), it becomes
apparent a serial killer is stalking this remote desert town. Who will be next?
/ Edmund Parry (Ron Randell) /
/ Sheriff Jess Holmes (John Dehner)/
/ Joe (Larry Chance) /
/ Frankie (Gerald Frank). Who was the actor Gerald Frank? He looks like an escapee from Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild and fills-out a tight white t-shirt and pair of Levis beautifully! /
The Girl in the Black Stockings certainly
boasts a fun ensemble cast. By this
point, premium fifties beefcake leading man Lex Barker (a former husband of
Lana Turner’s) had already portrayed Tarzan and was yet to feature in Federico
Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960). Barker’s facial expression is permanently set
to “pensive squint”, but we get copious glimpses of his wondrous physique, so
who’s complaining? Today we remember Anne Bancroft as a heavy-weight credible
“prestige” talent, but before she won her 1962 Best Actress Academy Award for
The Miracle Worker, she paid her dues in b-movies like Don’t Bother to Knock
(1952), Gorilla at Large (1954) and this one. Character actor John Dehner plays
local sheriff Jess Holmes as if he’s wandered in from a Western. Tough-as-nails
film noir broad Marie Windsor is cast against type in a virtuous “good girl”
role. The Girl in the Black Stockings’ poster mischievously hints archetypal
fifties bad girl and personification of moist womanly needs Mamie Van Doren is
the film’s star (and the titular girl in the black stockings). In fact, her
third-billed role as “the stunning blonde who lived for pleasure” is surprisingly
small. Ultimately, it’s Ron Randell’s ferocious performance as the twisted-by-hatred
Edmund that leaves the most indelible impression.
/ Marie Windsor, Ron Rendell and Anne Bancroft /
/ Ron Rendell and Lex Barker /
/ John Dehner and Lex Barker /
Because it was made in ’56 (when the Motion
Picture Production Code was still enforced), The Girl in the Black Stockings
can only imply the violence and kink. All the murders occur off-screen, but the
script compensates by having characters describe the mutilations in gruesome
detail (“A girl was slaughtered and carved-up like a side of beef tonight!” “Those
arms! Cut up like a jigsaw puzzle!”). Some
particularly vivid moments: when one of the potential culprits is cornered by the
cops at the lumber mill, he panics and falls into a buzz saw! And when a little
girl discovers a dead body floating face down in the hotel’s pool, she giggles,
“Look at that funny man!” Foreshadowing Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), William
Castle’s Strait-Jacket (1964), eighties slasher films and even David Lynch’s
Twin Peaks (think of Marsha Morgan as the equivalent of Laura Palmer), The Girl
in the Black Stockings offers a tawdry good time.
The annual Anti-Valentine’s Day Dr Sketchies always rock –
and this year’s was no exception. The Royal Vauxhall Tavern sold-out in advance and it felt really
buzzing to play for such a rowdy and enthusiastic capacity crowd. (This was
also the first Dr Sketchy since November 2012 – we didn’t do a Christmas one,
sadly – so it also felt like a promising start to the New Year).
True to the anti-Valentine theme, the Scottish-accented emcee
Ebenezer Valentine was in antagonistic and lairy mode throughout (think: aggressive character out of
Trainspotting). The night boasted three models and performers:the exquisite showgirl deluxe Annette Bette; Violet Strangelove performed two tableaux vivants that fit in with
the anti-Valentine’s theme: angrily popping balloons in the first, then eating Häagen-Dazsice cream
straight from the tub and crying in the second; and finally male model Les (he
goes by just one name, like Madonna, Prince or Cher, apparently). He posed as
the anti-Cupid, armed with a toilet plunger (to pluck-out cupid’s arrows with).
AnnetteBettè (a petite Ann-Margret-style redhead) has performed at a
few Dr Sketchy’s before and is always good value. She certainly didn’t
disappoint this time. In fact, she was wilder and more abandoned than ever! She
emerged onstage wearing a sensational pink rubber dress with a heart print motif,
moodily smoking a cigarette (the smoking ban be damned!). Her undulating dance
climaxed with a big chunk of white cake somehow materialising. Annette crammed
it hungrily into her mouth and then – in uncontrollable delight – began
mashing the cake into her cleavage before flinging handfuls of cake and frosting
into the startled audience, and then finally stripping down to just her g-string
and heart-shaped red pasties. Brilliant! (Before the next act Dr Sketchy
promoter Clare Marie had to sweep up the crumb-y debris off the stage
floor).
At Home with Mamie Van Doren. Doesn't this photo have a Diane Arbus vibe? Every aspect is so pristine: her platinum
blonde bouffant hair, her white dress and pumps, the all-white Atomic-era
minimalist decor of her living room. But there's a subliminal bat squeak of
alienation about the photo (maybe the way Mamie is isolated in the shot,
emphasising her loneliness) that evokes Arbus. It reminds me a bit of this:
/ Blaze Starr at Home. Photographed by Diane Arbus in 1964 /
Anyway, anyone who follows this blog in even the most perfunctory way knows
that the luscious Mamie Van Doren is essential to my aesthetic philosophy (my pantheon also includes
the likes of Jayne Mansfield, Esquerita, Ann-Margret, Serge Gainsbourg, Eartha
Kitt and Ike and Tina Turner). I play at least one track by her every time I DJ anywhere.
I’ve already done a bit of a Valentine to La Mamie on this blog before, but while
I was going through some ancient files on my PC I stumbled across this tribute
I wrote in 2007. At the time a Gawker-style London website was due to launch
and they were looking for potential writers. They were asking us to write a
series of short blog entries on pretty much anything as sample pieces for their
consideration. The website never got off the ground and the two guys behind it
were prats (in other words, I didn't get shortlisted!). But I wrote this: In the fifties Mamie Van Doren was the bullet bra’d, tight-sweatered
reigning starlet of B movies. Her film titles alone tell their own story: Sex
Kittens Go to College, The Las Vegas Hillbillies, Voyage to the Planet of
Pre-Historic Women. Think women-in-prison flicks, lurid juvenile delinquent
dramas (“desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle!”), low-budget sexploitation,
the drive-in circuit.
Now 77(she's now actually 82) , Van Doren is more than the Jayne Mansfield who survived to old
age. The woman who, in the 1960s, penned salacious kiss-and-tell memoirs like
My Naughty, Naughty Life and I Swing now blogs about current events and
politics. She’s a wise, witty and incisive writer, and maintains her own
entertaining website herself.
Van Doren’s blogs are anti Iraq, anti Bush, impeccably left wing, but as
a younger woman she considered herself a Republican. Her political awakening
came when, her film career long snuffed out, she travelled to the frontlines of
Vietnam in the early 70s to entertain American troops and witnessed horrors.
Today Van Doren seems blissfully unconcerned about acting her age. She continues to party at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion. On her website she sells autographed "nipple prints" (she applies lipstick to her nipple and blots it into paper) and posts her own home-made soft porn short films. The "dumb blonde" is having the last laugh.
/ No one comes off well being compared to Marilyn Monroe. Ideally the likes of Van Doren and her contemporary Jayne Mansfield would be appreciated as talents in their own
right /
I’ve probably posted this clip before, but it captures Mamie in her fleshy, blowsier
1960s element so here it is again. I played “Take It Off” by The Genteels (one
of the archetypal tittyshaking tunes) towards the end of the night while Les the male model posed. Here’s
Mamie shaking it like a Poloroid to it in the 1964 film 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt.
Another fun musical number (and another great acrylic wighat) from 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt. Boy, this movie looks rancid.
Jungle Madness - Martin Denny LÃ -bas C'est Naturel - Serge Gainsbourg VÃrgenes del Sol - Yma Sumac Black and Tan Fantasy - Duke Ellington Safari - The El Capris I Can't Sleep - Tini Williams and The Skyliners The Slouch - Ray Gee and His Orchestra Kansas City - Ann-Margret Spring, Sprang, Sprung - Jack Fascinato Begin the Beguine - Sammy Davis Jr Commanche - The Revels You'd Better Stop - LaVerne Baker Wiped Out - The Escorts Baby Come Back - Esquerita He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner Torture Rock - Rockin' Belmarx Torture - Kris Jensen There'll Be No Goodbyes - Susan Lynne Night Scene - The Rumblers Bewildered - Shirley and Lee Endless Sleep - Jody Reynolds Strollin' - The Shades That's A Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle Rompin' - Jerry Warren Cherry Pink - The Bill Black Combo Shangri-la - Spike Jones New Band Make Love to Me - June Christy The Beast - Milt Buckner You're My Thrill - Dolores Gray Misirlou - Martin Denny Kiss - Marilyn Monroe Unchain My Heart - Florence Joelle Madness - The Rhythm Rockers Jaguar - The Jaguars Bang Bang - Janis Martin Drums A Go-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders Dragon Walk - The Noblemen Boss - The Rumblers I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s Take It Off - The Genteels Seperate the Men from the Boys - Mamie Van Doren The Strip - The Upsetters Ice Man - Filthy McNasty A Guy Who Takes His Time - Mae West Big Man - Carl Matthews Pussycat Song - Connie Vannett Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams My Pussy Belongs to Daddy - Faye Richmonde Let's Go Sexin' - James Intveld
Little Girl - John and Jackie
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Crawfish - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
/ Kitsch icon Mamie Van Doren, Hollywood's Ultimate 1950s Bad Girl /
This Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy at The Old Queen’s Head in Angel featured Dr Sketchy veteran Marianne Cheesecake as the burlesque performer and model, Claire Benjamin in character as Freuda Kahlo as the emcee and Trixi Tassels on stage-managing duties. We also had comedian Jeff Leach as an unexpected bonus male model. He showed up with a camera crew to film him for an upcoming BBC Three documentary to be entitled Am I a Sex Addict? – and proceeded to pose stark, raving bollock naked, which really made an impression. Let’s just say he has porn star characteristics, and swiftly move on. (Having seen him pose at Dr Sketchy, I for one would personally be glad to help Jeff Leach in his research into determining whether he is indeed a sex addict. This was one of the Dr Sketchy’s where we really needed a photographer present!).
The vivacious Claire Benjamin always brings an element of genuine theatrical performance art to Dr Sketchy when she emcees – which keeps me on my toes and sometimes finds me wanting. She had three different pieces of music for me to play at specific times: introductory music to come onto the stage to, and backing tracks for the two songs she sang (one of them – her big finale – the Carmen Miranda standard “I Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi (Like You Very Much)”, for which she dons a plastic fruit-covered turban). I managed to get all three music cues wrong – without exception! Not some of my better moments. Hey, I was drinking lager all afternoon. Thankfully (and luckily for me) Claire is so smoothly professional (and so infinitely forgiving!) she just took it in her stride, and the audience seemed none the wiser. Yikes!
Like I said earlier – a shame we didn’t have a photographer at this Dr Sketchy. For one thing, Marianne Cheesecake’s costumes were dazzling. For her first pose she was styled as a 1920s flapper with a Louise Brooks pageboy wig. Later, for her performance she wore an astonishing Marie Antoinette get-up with a huge exploding black and white-streaked wig (think of a Cruella de Ville-Lily Munster-Bride of Frankenstein -Marge Simpson hybrid and you're on the right track) with a mask like a crystal chandelier hanging over her face. My description doesn't do it justice! It looked indredibly decadent and striking. I'll see if I can hustle some photos of Marianne in this costume (she showed me some on her phone, so they exist) and post them later, but in the meantime here is a tease-o-rama clip of Marianne Cheesecake paying tribute to the great Josephine Baker.
Spinning a few tracks by quintessential 1950s B-movie bad girl Mamie Van Doren always feels de rigeur when I DJ at Dr Sketchy. Van Doren was a voluptuous platinum blonde contemporary of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield in the 50s, but unlike them she never managed to graduate to big budget A-list films, instead finding her natural habitat in kitschy drive-in exploitation films (her irresistibly bad filmography includes the likes of The Girl in the Black Stockings (1957), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Las Vegas Hillbillies (1966) and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1966)). Van Doren seemed to play teenage juvenile delinquents well into her twenties (in Girls Town (1959), even with her perky ponytail and tight Capri pants, the 28-year old Van Doren seems pretty overripe, fleshy and mature for a high school student).
/ Bullet-bra'd sweater girl Mamie Van Doren /
In 1956 Van Doren’s rival Jayne Mansfield would appear alongside rockabilly legends Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran in The Girl Can’t Help It, the deluxe Mercedes Benz of rock’n’roll musicals (and a key film for John Waters). Van Doren herself would go one better: an interesting footnote to her career is that she can genuinely claim to be the first female Hollywood star to sing rock’n’roll onscreen. In Untamed Youth (1957) her songs were written by rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran (he plays guitar on them, too) – and they’re not half bad (although it’s been pointed out that it’s a crime against music that the doomed Cochran – who’d be dead by 1960 – was only permitted to perform one onscreen song in Untamed Youth, while Van Doren has four!). Van Doren’s musical output is compiled on the highly enjoyable CD The Girl Who Invented Rock’n’Roll. It’s campy as hell, undisputed Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson's reputation is secure, and for someone famous for her sensationally ample rack Van Doren’s singing is oddly flat, but Cochran’s tight, twangy songs pack a wallop, and Van Doren (in a punky display of enthusiasm over ability) delivers them with verve, conviction and a genuine feel for rock’n’roll . (Needless to say, I always play some of Van Doren’s 50s rockabilly songs when I DJ at Cockabilly, too). In High School Confidential (1958) – probably Van Doren’s best film – she doesn't sing, but it features an unhinged Jerry Lee Lewis pounding-out the title tune on his piano over the opening credits – a timeless rock’n’roll moment.
/ The trailer for Untamed Youth – the kind of lurid juvenile delinquent film that inspired John Waters’s Crybaby (1990). In the trailer you see snatches of Van Doren performing “Salamander” and “Go, Calypso!” – two tracks I play frequently at Dr Sketchy /
Now a zaftig 80-year old, Van Doren remains an unrepentant scantily-clad and platinum-haired exhibitionist. Still a publicity-hungry starlet, she's active on the Hollywood social scene and parties at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion (Van Doren herself posed for Playboy in 1963). In 2006 she was photographed in a dual portrait with her spiritual heiress Pamela Anderson for Vanity Fair magazine. On her outrageous website sells autographed nipple prints (yes, she puts lipstick on her nipples, presses them onto paper and sells them) and cavorts for carefully-lit, heavily-retouched soft-core nudie photos and videos. In 1987 Van Doren unleashed her memoirs Playing the Field, in which she gleefully spills the beans about all the male Hollywood stars she slept with over the years and rates their sexual performances. (I haven’t read the book in well over twenty years, but I’ll never forget her describing dropping acid with Steve McQueen and having sex with him while tripping. Her prose turns psychedelic: “You you. Me me. I’m your dancing Mamie doll ...”).
She’s had a remarkable life; there’s a revealing interview with her on Salon.com from 2000 in which Van Doren holds forth on her life and career and emerges as an intelligent and sensitive woman. She recalls the sensual and cougar-ish older woman Marlene Dietrich giving her an appraising eye up and down backstage in 1957 (Van Doren didn’t realise at the time Dietrich was bisexual, otherwise she would have taken her up on the offer) and says the most meaningful work she ever did was long after her Hollywood career had fizzled out, risking her life to entertain American troops in war-torn Vietnam in the late 60s. “I have had more of a sex life than a love life,” she admits in the interview, “Love was secondary to me” and concludes, “My best asset is my brain. Without my brain, I don’t think the rest of me would be too hot.” Rock on, Mamie van Doren – the Jayne Mansfield who survived to see old age.
/ Singing in the shower: A clip of Van Doren in Girls Town (1959)which apparently got deleted from the final film for censorship reasons /
D-Rail - The Flintones
Mama Looka Boo Boo (Shut You Mouth - Go Away!) - Robert Mitchum
Rolling Stone - Mamie van Doren
Don't Be Cruel - Bill Black Combo
Unchain My Heart - Florence Joelle's Kiss of Fire
Oui je veux - Johnny Hallyday
Sea of Love - The Earls of Suave
Caterpillar Crawl - The Strangers
Dance with Me Henry - Ann-Margret
Kruschev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Work with It - Que Martin
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - 5,6,7,8s
Dragon Walk - The Noble Men
Comin' Home, Baby - The Delmonas
That's a Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
Bacon Fat - Andre Williams
This Thing Called Love - Esquerita
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
Cherry Pink - Bill Black Combo
VÃrgenes del Sol - Yma Sumac
Je Me Donne A Qui Me Plait - Brigitte Bardot
Some Small Chance - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-tease soundtrack)
Lullabye of Birdland - Eartha Kitt
Crazy Horse Swing - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-tease soundtrack)
Do It Again - April Stevens
You're My Thrill - Chet Baker (instrumental version)
A Guy What Takes His Time - Marlene Dietrich
Harlem Nocturne - The Viscounts
Take it Off - The Genteels
Tony's Got Hot Nuts - Faye Richmonde
The Strip - The Upsetters
The Whip - The Frantics
Beat Party - Ritchie & The Squires
Revellion - The Revels
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Rockin' Bongos - Chaino
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
Sexe - Line Renaud
The Good Life - Ann-Margret
La Javanaise - Juliette Greco
The Stripper - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Un Jour Comme Un Autre - Brigitte Bardot
I Feel So Mmmm - Diana Dors
Kiss - Marilyn Monroe
Angel Face - Billy Fury
Night Walk - The Swingers
Black Coffee - Julie London
Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun - Mink Stole
The Bee - The Sentinels
De Castrow - JayBee Wasden
Bewildered - Shirley and Lee
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Crawfish - Johnny Thunders and Patti Paladin
Stop and Listen - Mickey and Ludella
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Groovy - Groovey and The Groovers
Bossa Nova Baby - Elvis Presley
I can't imagine DJ'ing at Dr Sketchy and not playing at least one track from John Barry's soundtrack for the ultra kitsch 1960 sexploitation B-movie Beat Girl (aka Wild for Kicks). The moody and atmospheric album cover alone is inspiring: Shirley-Anne Field pouting in front of a vintage jukebox, dreamy young Adam Faith in a black leather jacket brooding over a cappuccino and sex kitten Gillian Hill painstakingly styled to look exactly like Brigitte Bardot.
For some reason DJ'ing at Saturday afternoon Dr Sketchy's at The Old Queen’s Head in Angel always feel more relaxed and laid-back. This time the guest emcee was the vivacious Ophelia Bitz (my first time working with her; it was a real pleasure) and the models / performers were Scarlett Daggers and Marianne Cheesecake. It was a nice day: I drank two pints of lager on a practically empty stomach, which made me very mellow (that’s the problem when you DJ in the middle of the afternoon! Obviously I could have drunk coffee instead of beer, like the sensible and professional Ms Bitz). During the break a cute rockabilly couple were dancing to the music I was playing, which was insanely flattering. I eased into DJ’ing by playing some mambo and Latin exotica. Later on I played more rockabilly than usual in honour of Scarlett Daggers' stage persona, which is inspired by outsider fetish artist Vince Ray's Bettie Page-style bad girl drawings.
Tierra va Temblar - Eartha Kitt
Ou Es-Tu Ma Joie? Caterina Valente
I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me - John Buzon Trio
Yeh, Yeh! - Mongo Santamaria
Pauvre Lola - Serge Gainsbourg
Ich bin leider viel zu faul (Laziest Gal in Town) - Hildegard Knef
You Make Me Feel So Young - Chet Baker
Call Me Irresponsible - Dinah Washington
Topsy - Joe Bucci Trio
A Week from Tuesday - Pastel Six
I Ain't Drunk (I'm Just Drinking) - Jimmy Liggins
I Ain't in the Mood - Helen Humes
Stranger in My Own Home Town - Elvis Presley x-rated version
Wait a Minute, Baby - Esquerita
Beaver Shot - The Periscopes
The Flirt - Shirley & Lee
Revelion - The Revels
That's How It Is - Diana Dors
Red Hot - Billy Lee Riley
Accentuate the Positive - Bill Black Combo
Mondo Moodo - The Earls of Suave
Angel Face - Billy Fury
Uska Dara - Eartha Kitt
Shangri-La - Spike Jones New Band
Lust - Les Baxter
Sexe - Line Renaud
Cherry Pink - Bill Black Combo
Love Me or Leave Me - Lena Horne
Blues for Beatniks - John Barry (Beat Girl Soundtrack)
Don't You Feel My Leg - Blue Lu Barker
Melancholy Serenade - King Curtis
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Eartha Kitt
Basin Street Blues - Julie London
No Good Lover - Mickey & Sylvia
Blue Moon Baby - Dave "Diddle" Day
Lucille - Little Richard
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Cheap Wine - The Earls of Suave
Fool I Am - Pat Ferguson
Hound Dog - Little Esther
Such a Night - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters
Ooh! Look-A There Ain't She Pretty - Bill Haley & His Comets
Woman Love - Gene Vincent
Salamander - Mamie van Doren(See video below)
Little Girl - John & Jackie
Boss - The Rumblers
Tall Cool One - The Wailers
Give Me Love - Lena Horne
Honeysuckle Rose - Marlene Dietrich
You're My Thrill (instrumental) - Chet Baker
The Immediate Pleasure - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
I'm a Fool to Want You - Billie Holiday
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Denise Darcel
Anytime - Bill Black Combo
All of Me - Mae West
Begin the Beguine - Ann-Margret
Desfinado - Si Zentner
Peter Gunn Twist - The Jesters
Comin' Home - The Delmonas
Rip It Up - Little Richard
One, Two, Let's Rock - Sugar Pie & Pee Wee
Fever - Nancy Sit
Uptown to Harlem - Johnny Thunders & Patti Paladin
For her first pose, Scarlett Daggers wore a harem girl outfit -- a great excuse to play Eartha Kitt's hip-swivelling Turkish delight "Uska Dara."
Eartha singing "Uska Dara" in 1952:
And in a 1967 TV special:
Ultimate 1950s bullet bra'd bad girl Mamie van Doren belting out the song "Salamander" (backed by rockabilly hearthrob Eddie Cochran on guitar -- frustratingly, you get just a few glimpses of him) in the 1957 juvenile delinquent film Untamed Youth.
Fast Company (1979)
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silent...
SHABLAM:
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While we are speaking in onomatopoeia,
"Girl, what did that girl just say, girl?" This queen is giving basic boot
camp for drag queens as she throws an a...
Who was Tamara Matul?
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[image: Marlene Dietrich, Josef von Sternberg, Rudolf Sieber, Tamara Matul
at Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 1934]
Rudolf Sieber, Tamara Matul, Marlene...
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Welcome Refugees from tumblr!
[image: Christofascists.]
I'm busy exporting what's left of Drifting over the Ether & A Long Lunch. I
will be posting upda...
My Baking Supervisor
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Meet Mr. Caspurr Burgers. He says:
"I helped you get up three hours earlier than usual this morning and this
is how you repay me? What is with this glass...
A BOGUS SPEECH BY A BOGUS PRESIDENT
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Yesterday, Obama spoke in New Orleans at the 10 year anniversary of
Katrina. I'm not quite sure why we celebrate disasters' anniversaries, but
it was a ch...
DJ. Journalist. Greaser punk. Malcontent. Jack of all trades, master of none. Like the Shangri-Las song, I'm good-bad, but not evil. I revel in trashiness
