MARILYN BEFORE SHE WAS MARILYN! by Dave Goode

If you're like me you're fascinated by the rich and famous before they became famous. There are very few true overnight success stories in the world of show business. Take for instance the definitive "blonde bombshell" of the Fabulous 50s...Marilyn Monroe.

Before she was a glamorous movie star the former Norma Jean Dougherty modeled for camera clubs and figure studies to help pay the rent while appearing in such forgettable movies like THE DANGEROUS YEARS (1947) and SCUDDA HOO! SCUDDA HAY! (1948). And as eye candy in LOVE HAPPY (1949) and RIGHT CROSS (1950). From 1946 to 1950 she modeled for famed pin-up illustrator Earl Moran at 10 dollars an hour. Which was a good piece of change in that era.

Marilyn and Moran would become friends. And she credited the painter for making her legs look better than they were. Of note Moran's daughter from his first marriage was 1940s B-Movie Queen Peggy Moran.

And speaking of B-Movies I was thinking the other day of Marilyn co-starring with Johnny Weissmuller in one of his Jungle Jim movies from Columbia. In VOODOO TIGER (1952) Jean Dean portrays Shalimar, an exotic dancer who works with a tiger in her act. When her plane crashes in Africa she is taken as the high priestess of the tiger god. A perfect role for the young, yet to be star Marilyn.

"A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME...." by Dave Goode

One of the things I always found neat about the old time burlesque queens were their stage names. Something else burlesque and pro wrestling have in common. It's how a Virgil Riley Runnels becomes a Dusty Rhoades. And a Fannie Bell Fleming becomes a Blaze Starr. This is of course how it works in Hollywood as well where Roy Harold Scherer Jr. becomes Rock Hudson. And Norma Jean Baker becomes Marilyn Monroe. There's no business like show business.

 

One of my favorite stage names for a burlesque queen was Miss Beverly Hills. Born Beverly Jean Montgomery on August 7, 1939 she would have been 10 when DC published the short-lived Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood comic book. A comic that featured the interactions of a young Hollywood starlet and actual Hollywood stars. Just saying.

 Beverly Montgomery began working as a chorus girl at the Tropicana in Vegas at 17. She would later marry hair stylist Bill Powers. She would then be discovered by night club owner Chuck Landis and became a headline stripper as Miss Beverly Hills. Like a lot of other striptease stars she would attempt to break into movies. And she had a lot more success than many others. She would garner roles in 39 movies and television shows. Mostly as eye candy. And many times uncredited. And more than a few times, as in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S , playing a stripper. In a television adaptation of Robert Bloch's story YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER she portrayed a stripper named "Miss Beverly Hills". People quite often talk about life's "second acts" And Miss Beverly Hills had an interesting one. Leaving show business she moved to Hawaii where she became an ordained minister.

Below is another comic featuring Miss Ginger Snaps from Dave Goode and Vance Capley inspired by something I once read ecdysiast Tammy Parks say in an interview.