
Mamie Van Doren
Actor · b. 1931 · Rowena, South Dakota, USA
Mamie Van Doren (/ˈmeɪmi væn ˈdɔːrən/; born Joan Lucille Olander; February 6, 1931) is an American retired actress. The last living blonde bombshell from the Golden Age of Hollywood, she is one of the "Three M's", a group formed by Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, who were contemporaries. In 1953, Van Doren, then named Joan Lucille Olander, signed a seven-year contract with Universal, which hoped that she would be their version of Monroe. She starred in teen dramas, exploitation, musical, comedy, and rock and roll films, among other genres, many of which have gone on to become cult classics. She was one of the leading sex symbols in the 1950s. Van Doren was born and raised in Rowena, South Dakota, but her parents moved to Sioux City, Iowa, and eventually to Los Angeles in 1942 before she married Jack Newman. In 1949, at the age of eighteen, she won Miss Palm Springs and Miss Eight Ball. As Miss Eight Ball, she was discovered by film producer Howard Hughes, who put her in the RKO films His Kind of Woman (1951), Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), and Jet Pilot (1957) in minor roles. In 1950 she was dating the heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey, over thirty-five years her senior, in New York City and was engaged to him. However, she left him to go back to Los Angeles. On January 20, 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal, who wanted her to be Universal's equivalent of Monroe. While at Universal, Van Doren changed her name to Mamie Van Doren, the "Mamie" from then–First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and the "Van Doren" from Universal's telling Van Doren she was more Dutch than Swedish. During her time at Universal, Van Doren starred in movies such as The Second Greatest Sex (1955), Running Wild (1955), and The All American (1953). Outside of Universal she starred in Untamed Youth (1957), Teacher's Pet (1958), High School Confidential (1958), Born Reckless (1958), The Beat Generation (1959), and Sex Kittens Go To College (1960). She starred on television shows such as What's My Line?, The Jack Benny Program, and The Bob Cummings Show. After Universal failed to renew her contract in 1959, Van Doren struggled to find work as a free agent. She starred in many B movies, such as Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966) with Mansfield, and 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964), a film which challenged the Hays Code. The same year, she appeared in the June 1964 Playboy magazine with nude photos of her on the set of the film. Van Doren has married five times and had intimate affairs with many other Hollywood actors. She went to Vietnam in the 1970s to entertain troops during the Vietnam War. Partially because of the sudden deaths of Mansfield and Monroe, she decided to retire from acting. In 1987 Van Doren released her autobiography, Playing the Field: My Story. On February 1, 1994, she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, she created her website, describing herself as “the first authentic kitten on Cyberspace". Description above from the Wikipedia article Mamie Van Doren, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies23
Movie6.8CrimeComedyCareer gambler Dan Milner agrees to a $50,000 deal to leave the USA for Mexico, only to find himself entangled with fellow guests at a luxurious resort and suspecting that the man who hired him may be the deported crime boss Nick Ferraro aiming to re-enter to the USA.
His Kind of Woman
1951 · 78 votes
Movie5.3DocumentaryDocumentary looking at how nudity has been used in the movies, sometimes shrewdly and other times without thought.
Celebrity Naked Ambition
2003 · 3 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryThe definitive documentary on the history of nudity in feature films from the early silent days to the present, studying the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped that history. Skin will also study the gender inequality in presenting nude images in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has created nude gender equality in feature films today.
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies
2020 · 59 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryThe world's greatest pin-up model and cult icon, Bettie Page, recounts the true story of how her free expression overcame government witch-hunts to help launch America's sexual revolution. When she saw the film The Notorious Bettie Page, produced by HBO in 2006, the main person concerned reacted unequivocally: “Lies! Lies!” In a long interview recorded shortly before her death, the woman who entered the collective unconscious as the ultimate pin-up gave her version of events to director Mark Mori. In a gravelly voice, Bettie Page tells her own story and lifts the veil on areas often hidden by images that have made so many men and women fantasize since the 1950s: her abused childhood, an eclipse that lasted forty years, her mental illness. Through testimonies and unpublished archives, this documentary brings back to life a body and a face endlessly declined before our eyes, just as Bettie wanted: “I would like people to remember me as I was in the photos.”
Bettie Page Reveals All
2013 · 55 votes
Movie5.2ComedyRomanceDave, Sam and Jeff are about to graduate from Holden University with honors in lying, cheating and scheming. The three roommates have proudly scammed their way through the last four years of college and now, during final exams, these big-men-on-campus are about to be busted by the most unlikely dude in school. Self-dubbed Cool Ethan, an ambitious nerd with a bad crush, enters their lives one day and everything begins to unravel.
Slackers
2002 · 225 votes
MovieDocumentaryAgainst a rich Hollywood backdrop, "Commitment to Life" documents the true story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles - and how an intrepid group of people living with HIV/AIDS, doctors, movie stars, studio moguls and activists changed the course of the epidemic.
Movie5.1WesternThe sheriff of Gunlock is planning to hang Sam Hall, who shot three farmers found on cattle land, at sundown. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued; and Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie. But Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall: a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.
Star in the Dust
1956 · 23 votes
Movie6.8ComedyDocumentaryClips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.
The Movie Orgy
1968 · 19 votes
MovieHosts Hugh Hefner, Jenny McCarthy and Drew Carey celebrate the 50th anniversary of Playboy Magazine, with former Playboy models, musical performances and star-studded celebrities. The event was held at the Playboy Mansion and aired on A&E Network.
Movie5.4DocumentaryDouglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
Hollywood Uncensored
1987 · 10 votes
Movie6.8ComedyRomanceThe rugged editor of a city newspaper poses as a journalism student and flirts with the professor.
Teacher's Pet
1958 · 107 votes
Movie5.5ActionAdventureU.S. Air Force aviator Jim Shannon is tasked with escorting a Soviet pilot claiming -- at the height of the Cold War -- that she wants to defect. After falling in love with and marrying her, Shannon learns from his superiors that she's a spy on a mission to extract military secrets. To save his new wife from prison and deportation, Shannon devises a risky plan.
Jet Pilot
1957 · 50 votes
Movie6.2CrimeDramaA prostitute sets out to frame a cop.
Vice Raid
1959 · 17 votes
Movie6.1CrimeDramaResidents at a posh Utah hotel become suspects when a girl is found murdered during a pool party. Local sheriff Jess Holmes takes charge of the investigation and must discover who among the terrified guests and staff -- including bodacious vixen Harriet Ames, the hotel's bitter, crippled proprietor, visiting lawyer David Hewson and his secretary, Beth -- is the culprit, even as murders continue to take place.
The Girl in Black Stockings
1957 · 33 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryA live television broadcast covering the world premiere of A Star Is Born, capturing the arrivals, spectacle, and excitement surrounding one of Hollywood’s most lavish premiere events.
A Star Is Born World Premiere
1954 · 4 votes
Movie5.3AdventureRomanceTale of an adventurer trying to rescue a damsel kidnapped by pirates.
Yankee Pasha
1954 · 3 votes
Movie3.3ComedyCollins College needs a new department head for their science department, so Doctors Carter and Zorch consult Thinko, the campus computer, and come up with Dr. Mathilda West, who has degrees in lots of things, but turns out to be disruptively attractive as well.
Sex Kittens Go to College
1960 · 18 votes
Movie6.0DramaCrimeA power-mad union boss resorts to murder to eliminate witnesses scheduled to testify against him.
The Big Operator
1959 · 12 votes
Movie7.8WesternComedyIn 1880, Osawkie, Kansas is feuding with rival town Mandaroon over which will be county seat, keeping the town's men away from home most of the time. The last straw is when Matt Davis feels compelled to go on a new foray on his wedding night; his bride Liza (just call her Lysistrata) takes teacher Cassie's advice and organizes a marital strike to make the men-folk stop their nonsense.
The Second Greatest Sex
1955 · 2 votes
Movie5.6CrimeDramaA tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.
High School Confidential!
1958 · 23 votes
Movie4.7HorrorScience FictionUS Navy battles monsters unearthed from the frozen arctic.
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
1966 · 11 votes
Movie4.0MusicComedyA Hillbilly hits the big time in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Hillbillys
1966 · 4 votes
Movie5.9CrimeDramaChuck Wheeler gets out of the Pen and sets up an elaborate heist of Vegas casino money travelling by armored truck. He enlists the help of shady club owner Joe Darren and his ex-cellmate's wife, Vi. Vi's husband Mike is a trigger happy and jealous hothead and will not grant her a divorce. Mike escapes from prison right before the armored truck job goes into motion and promises trouble as he tries to locate his associates and his wandering wife.
Guns Girls and Gangsters
1959 · 22 votes
Series9
TV7.0FamilyComedyFour panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.
What's My Line?
1950 · 29 votes
TV7.0DramaWar & PoliticsL.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.
L.A. Law
1986 · 80 votes
TV6.3DramaBurke's Law is an American detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II.
Burke's Law
1963 · 12 votes
TV6.5Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaA magical island hosted by Mr Roarke and Tattoo where weekly guests learn valuable life lessons in their pursuit of fulfilling their dreams. Not all dreams are fulfilled as expected.
Fantasy Island
1978 · 130 votes
TV6.2ComedyThe Steve Allen Show
1956 · 6 votes
TV6.9DramaCrimePrivate detective Dan Tanna drives around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
Vega$
1978 · 25 votes
TV7.5ComedyRealityHollywood Squares is an American panel game show, in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host, or "Square-Master", and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game. Although Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy in the form of joke answers, often given by the stars prior to their "real" answer. The show's writers usually supplied the jokes. In addition, the stars were given question subjects and plausible incorrect answers prior to the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. In any case, as host Peter Marshall, the best-known "Square-Master" and the man in whose honor the show's first announcer, Kenny Williams, actually "coined" the term, would explain at the beginning of the Secret Square game, the celebrities were briefed prior to show to help them with bluff answers, but they otherwise heard the actual questions for the first time as they were asked on air.
Hollywood Squares
1966 · 13 votes
TV8.3ComedyMister Roberts is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 17, 1965 to April 8, 1966. Based on the best selling novel, 1948 play, and the 1955 film of the same name, the series stars Roger Smith in the title role and Richard X. Slattery as the ship's captain.
Mister Roberts
1965 · 3 votes
TV8.1DocumentaryE! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and also well-known public figures. Among the topics covered on the program include salacious re-tellings of Hollywood secrets, show-biz scandals, celebrity murders and mysteries, porn-star biographies, and "where-are-they-now?" investigations of former child stars. It frequently features in-depth interviews, actual courtroom footage, and dramatic reenactments. When aired on the E! network, episodes will be updated to reflect the current life or status of the subject.
E! True Hollywood Story
1996 · 81 votes