#Connie Stevens

[dozydawn]

[draigviller]

[weirdlookindog]

Connie Stevens with Dean Jones, Virginia Gregg, and Parley Baer in Two on a Guillotine (1965)

[bitter69uk]

Recently watched: low-brow 1976 grindhouse crime thriller Scorchy. IMDb’s ultra-concise plot summary: “Connie Stevens is Jackie "Scorchy" Parker, the hottest undercover agent the Feds have ever known. She makes fast friends - and deadly enemies.” I’d always yearned to see this one, but found Scorchy somehow not quite as juicy or fun as I hoped, especially considering its outrageous tagline (“She's Killed a Man, Been Shot At And Made Love Twice Already This Evening... And The Evening Isn't Over Yet!”). The storyline sees plucky Stevens orchestrating an elaborate undercover operation to nab a heroin-smuggling drug baron. There are shoot-outs and car chases - AND helicopter and speedboat chases! (Considering Scorchy’s director Howard Avedis mainly focused on sexploitation fare like The Teacher (1974) and Dr Minx (1975), he shows a real flair for action sequences). Scorchy frequently suggests a 1970s Blaxploitation flick, but with honkies in the central roles. Like, it feels like it should be Pam Grier playing Jackie, but it’s Connie Stevens. (And Grier’s superior 1975 film Friday Foster hits some of the same trashy sweet spots as Scorchy). Anyway, the then 38-year-old Stevens seizes the opportunity to distance herself from her ingenue days as Cricket Blake in TV’s Hawaiian Eye. There are glimpses of bare breasts, a gratuitous skinny-dipping scene and raunchy dialogue delivered in Stevens’ whispery babydoll voice (in the context of Scorchy, 1970s women’s liberation equals Jackie exclaiming about getting laid. In one exchange, she teases her boss Chief Frank O’Brien with “You look tense. You need a blowjob!” Perhaps understandably, he responds, “You’re a fruitcake, you bitch!”). I know the character is based on Stevens’ sex kitten contemporary Joey Heatherton, but with her frosted pale lipstick and feathered blow-dried hair, in her close-ups Stevens frequently resembles Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton in SCTV. You also get the backdrop of Seattle in the 1970s AND hunky young male starlet Greg Evigan before B J and The Bear. Watch Scorchy here.

[gatitaconsentida]

Costume worn by Juliet Prowse as Lili in the film "G.I. Blues" alongside Elvis Presley, 1960

The light musical comedy C.I. Blues was the first film Elvis Presley starred in after returning from military service in Germany early in 1960. Edith Head constructed this beaded dance costume for Presley's costar, South African dancer Juliet Prowse, over a leotard of flesh-colored stretch fabric with a "car wash" multi-panel long skirt. When Prowse performed, the materials used allowed the skirt to become part of the dance itself. It was common for film costumes to be reused by film studios-this one was worn again in 1971 by Connie Stevens in The Grissom Cang.

[mudwerks]

(via Connie Stevens - Sixteen  Reasons (1960)

from Mulholland Drive (2001)

[citizenscreen]

Happy birthday, Connie Stevens

[therealjohnstewart]

Connie Stevens

[forever70s]

Bill Bixby and Connie Stevens in an episode of "Love, American Style" (1969)

[kscowpokes]

77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964) Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

[dozydawn]

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Happy Birthday Connie Stevens 🎂

[weirdlookindog]

Cesar Romero, Dean Jones, and Connie Stevens in Two on a Guillotine (1965)

[bitter69uk]

“Connie Stevens was just another Monroe-style starlet with platinum hair and a little girl voice when she first hit Hollywood in the late fifties. Had she appeared on the scene just a trifle earlier, that image probably would have stuck. However, by the time Connie started to make the rounds, the Era of the Teenager was in full flower, so Warners decided to turn her into the girl-next-door type – a sort of singing Sandra Dee. During her first year with the studio, Connie appeared to be one of those stars who exist only in the pages of Photoplay magazine. Even with no TV or screen credits to speak of, she was nonetheless all over the movie and teen monthlies dispensing dating tips, makeup tricks and her recipe for spaghetti sauce. When the time seemed right, Warners paired her with Edd Byrnes on the aforementioned “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb).” She couldn’t miss, and she didn’t.  For Connie’s first solo release, Warners provided her with “Sixteen Reasons”, a formula ballad which had Connie Pledging her Ten Commandments of Love. The lyrics were corny, but it was a passable slow dance tune and as such hung around the top of the charts for twenty-four weeks. The only problem was that Warners couldn’t come up with comparable material for Connie’s subsequent releases. Her follow-up “Too Young to Go Steady” was a dud. Although Connie’s recording career faded quickly, the studio continued to exploit her squeaky-clean image on TV in Hawaiian Eye and on the screen with roles that were even dumber than her records. (In Susan Slade, for example, Connie played an unwed mother who eludes public disgrace by pretending that her illegitimate son is her brother). All things considered, Connie Stevens was one of the few studio-manufactured teen stars of the fifties who managed to hold onto lasting stardom. She continues to show up in things like The Hollywood Squares and Grease 2 and of course her celebrity hasn’t been hurt by her much-publicized marriages to actor James Stacey and the inimitable Eddie Fisher.”

/ Rock’n’Roll Confidential by Penny Stallings, 1984 /

Born on this day 85 years ago (8 August 1938): kitsch icon Connie Stevens.

[fitesorko]

Connie Stevens

[vintagequeens]

Connie Stevens