1960s
| For a while there in the early 1960s, multitudes of young blonde starlets roamed the earth. Most of them were interesting enough to look cute in photographs or in small roles in movies and television, but there was usually very little to distinguish one from another. If Sybil was a girl with 17 distinct personalities, then you might say that some of the starlets of the 1960s as a group shared just one personality -- and not even a very distinct one at that. But, of course, there were exceptions. A few of these young blonde starlets of the 1960s seemed just a little more complicated than the rest of the herd. Even in the most potentially banal roles, actresses like Tuesday Weld and Yvette Mimieux always seemed to be, well, up to something. These were women you just didn't let our of your sight for a minute, because you just never knew what they were going to do next. And then there was Carol Lynley, an actress of such diverse and special talents, that for about five minutes, right around the time of Bunny Lake is Missing, she seemed on the verge of attaining the big league stardom achieved a few years later by Faye Dunaway and Jane Fonda. But alas, It didn't quite happen for Carol. By the end of the 1960s she seemed out of fashion (for the masses, not for us) and a once promising career quickly faded. Ironically, 1972's The Poseidon Adventure became the top box office film of 1973, but few people remember that Carol had a featured role in the film -- and she also managed to crawl out of the silly upside down boat at the end of it. (Almost three decades later, the main thing most people remember about The Poseidon Adventure is that Bette Midler does a great Shelley Winters impersonation.) If you get nothing else out of the Meeker Museum, we hope you at least get the message that we think Carol Lynley is one of a handful of truly great movie stars. As we've pointed out elsewhere, we really think Carol should have taken home at least one Oscar per year throughout the sixties -- whether she was working in movies or not.As long as you're in the neighborhood, why not get into your Blue Denim and Return to Peyton Place with Carol. |