Mamie Van Doren

Early life

Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander on February 6, 1931, in Rowena, South Dakota, a small community about nine miles (14 km) from Sioux Falls. She was the only child of Warner Carl Olander (1908–1992) and Lucille Harriet Bennett (1912–1995), who had met through a Swedish Lutheran congregation in the Rowena area and married in August 1930. Her mother named her Joan after actress Joan Crawford, whom she admired. Van Doren later described her ancestry as predominantly Swedish, with Irish and German branches on her mother's side; her maternal grandmother was born in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Olanders lived modestly during the Great Depression. Warner Olander worked at a local rock quarry, where, according to his daughter, he was paid by the load and could earn about seven dollars on a good day. Van Doren recalled Rowena as a small rural community centered on a church, school, railroad station and a cluster of businesses, including a filling station, grocery store, grain elevator and hardware store operated by a relative. Her childhood was closely connected to her extended family and to the surrounding farm community.

In 1939, when Van Doren was eight, her parents moved to Sioux City, Iowa, after her father obtained work as a mechanic. Van Doren remained for a period on the 160-acre (65 ha) farm of her maternal grandparents in Rowena. She recalled her grandmother, whom she called "Dah", as the dominant figure in the household and her grandfather, "Pa", as the relative who regularly took her into town. She also spent time with a maternal uncle on the farm. In her memoir, Van Doren recalled walking roughly a mile and a half to a two-room schoolhouse regardless of weather and described an early experience of flying in an airplane over the ranch. She later characterized her childhood in this period as one shaped by the economic difficulties of the Depression.

Van Doren also described herself as frequently ill during childhood. According to her recollections, she underwent three operations before the age of seven and suffered a severe hemorrhage at about four years old. She also recalled having a growth removed from her face, leaving a small scar that became a source of teasing at school. These accounts come primarily from Van Doren's memoir and later biographical interviews and should therefore be understood as recollections rather than independently documented medical records.

Acting career

1949–1953: Beginnings

Film producer Howard Hughes pursued Van Doren after she was crowned Miss Palm Springs, and, according to Van Doren, his first question was, "Are you a virgin?" Van Doren said that he was controlling when they dated. She said in a 2005 interview that Hughes took her to a spot on Vermont Avenue for a braless photoshoot in a white sweater. Van Doren would often meet Howard Hughes at the Garden of Allah Hotel. Hughes signed Van Doren a four-film contract with RKO.

In 1950 Hughes gave Van Doren an uncredited bit part in Jet Pilot (1957) at RKO Radio Pictures, which was filmed from 1949 to 1950 but released in 1957. The title, which starred John Wayne and Janet Leigh, was her film debut. She said that she had a good experience with Leigh, who allowed Van Doren to fly in her jet. Her line of dialogue consisted of one word, "Look!". Van Doren had a small role in Footlight Varieties (1951) as the girl in the theater in the final scene of the film. Van Doren appeared uncredited in Two Tickets to Broadway (1951). The film starred Tony Martin and former co-star Janet Leigh.

Van Doren did a few more bit parts in movies at RKO, including His Kind of Woman (1951), starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, and Vincent Price. The film was shot on the back lot of the David O. Selznick Studio. About her appearance in this movie, Van Doren said, "If you blinked, you would miss me. I looked barely old enough to drive." She was on the film for three months and, because of the money she earned, bought an MG car. Van Doren also met Gloria Swanson who asked her, "Is that your real color of hair?"

Van Doren was coached by Natasha Lytess, who had also coached Marilyn Monroe. The two actresses met several times when Van Doren was being coached by Lytess. However, Van Doren stopped her lessons with Lytess because "Natasha spent most of our lessons talking, however, and there was very little time left, after her long-winded speeches on the art of acting, to actually perform for her".

In her memoir, Van Doren tells of her relationship with Charles Fischetti, an American mobster and the cousin of Al Capone, whom she met in Las Vegas who often sent money to Van Doren from Chicago. He died of a heart attack in 1951.

Danielle Cory, an RKO worker and friend of Van Doren, suggested that Van Doren work on stage for the play Billion Dollar Baby, which began her stage career as a showgirl. The show was held at the Proser Cafe Theatre, near Jack Dempsey's restaurant. Cory additionally suggested that Van Doren should audition for Alberto Vargas to be one of the "Vargas Girls" in Esquire. Vargas ended up picking Van Doren as one of his models.

1953–1960: Rise to prominence

Van Doren's first major role was in The All American (1953), a college football film directed by Jesse Hibbs. The film centers on a college quarterback whose life takes a turn after his parents die in a car accident. Van Doren later said that Hibbs encouraged her to fondle him and often put her hand at his groin during rehearsals. The film also starred Tony Curtis, Lori Nelson, and Richard Long. In The All American, Van Doren played Susie Ward, an ambitious waitress initially looking to find a wealthy spouse near a university. Susie Ward is a sultry, flirtatious, and manipulative person who tricks an inebriated person into proposing to her. Due to good reviews from Universal-International executives, Van Doren was sent on tour to promote the film.

Van Doren's second major film was the 1954 film Yankee Pasha. The film was based on Edison Marshall's 1947 novel of the same name, which Universal had recently purchased. Yankee Pasha revolves around a man who sails the ocean, played by Jeff Chandler, to find his true love, a woman forced into slavery, portrayed by Rhonda Fleming. The eight-week shooting schedule exhausted Van Doren, resulting in weight loss. Van Doren has said that she was attracted to Joseph Pevney, director of Yankee Pasha. She had a relationship with him, and Van Doren said that she embraced Pevney in his office.

In Playing the Field, Van Doren claimed that she auditioned for 20th Century Fox Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was not the studio that released the film, hoping to get the role of Ado Annie in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!. Despite Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II liking her audition, she was denied the role which was given to Gloria Grahame instead.

Van Doren starred in the 1954 film Francis Joins the WACS, playing the role of Corporal Bunky Hilstrom. Universal also let Van Doren go to the 1954 premiere of The Glenn Miller Story with Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr., son of Conrad Hilton. Van Doren later entered into a relationship with him. Van Doren has recounted that Conrad Hilton disapproved of her being in a relationship with Nicky Hilton. Van Doren almost ended her romantic relationship with Hilton due to his behavior on a double-date with her friend.

Van Doren completely ended her relationship with Hilton while shooting Edward Buzzell's Ain't Misbehavin' (1955), with Van Doren starring as "Jackie". In the film, Van Doren was cast as a dumb blonde. Van Doren became annoyed that she kept getting similar roles. On the set, she met Prince Axel of Denmark. Prince Axel was in contact with Van Doren and invited her to several events. However, Van Doren was in a relationship with bandleader Ray Anthony.

1959–present: Later career

After Universal Studios chose not to renew her contract in 1959, Van Doren became a free agent and struggled to find work. Some of her later movies were foreign and independent productions, which did little to keep her image in the public's eye. Many of the productions were low-budget B movies with some having gained a cult following for their high camp value.

The first of these later films was Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), which co-starred Tuesday Weld and Mijanou Bardot, sister of sultry French actress Brigitte Bardot. Following the completion of the Argentine film The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), Van Doren took time off from her career. She came back in The Candidate (1964), soon followed by Freddy in the Wild West, both of which were low-budget films that made little impact. In 1964, Tommy Noonan convinced Van Doren to appear in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt. Van Doren had turned down Noonan's previous offer to star opposite Jayne Mansfield in Promises! Promises! and was replaced with Marie McDonald. In 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt, Mamie did a beer-bath scene but is not seen nude. She posed for Playboy to promote the film.

Van Doren next appeared in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966) released by Woolner Brothers. This film co-starred Mansfield; this was the only time two of "The Three M's" appeared together in a film. A sequel was titled Hillbillys in a Haunted House, but Van Doren turned this role down, and was replaced by Joi Lansing. She then appeared in The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966), a science fiction movie. In 1967, she appeared in You've Got to Be Smart, and starred in the science fiction film Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), the following year, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

In 1970, Van Doren had a supporting role in the western comedy The Arizona Kid. In 1975, she starred in the film That Girl From Boston, adapted from a Robert Rimmer novel, but the film was never released. Since then, Van Doren has appeared only in cameos in low-budget films. Van Doren's last film appearance was a role in the direct-to-video drama The American Tetralogy (2013). Van Doren's guest appearances on television include Jukebox Jury, What's My Line, The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$ and L.A. Law. Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and performed in live theater. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago as well as appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theater. In the 1970s, Van Doren performed a nightclub act in Las Vegas.

Other ventures

Van Doren was never a Playboy Playmate, but she posed twice for the magazine in 1964 to promote her movie 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964). By this point in her career, her figure measured 38DD-26-36 (self-described in 1997). She said "I don't even want to say double-D because they're even bigger than that."

In 1964, Van Doren was a guest at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California when The Beatles were at the club visiting with Jayne Mansfield, and an inebriated George Harrison accidentally threw his drink on her when trying to throw it on some bothersome journalists. During the Vietnam War, she gave tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam for three months in 1968, and again in 1970. In addition to USO shows, she visited hospitals, including the wards of amputees and burn victims.

Van Doren released Playing the Field (1987), her autobiography, which brought much attention and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. She has consistently denied in interviews ever having breast implants. In 2006, Mamie posed for photographs for Vanity Fair with Pamela Anderson as part of its annual Hollywood issue. The same year, she expressed opposition to the Iraq War. In an interview with Fox News in February 2020, Van Doren announced that she was working on a follow-up to her autobiography. She remarked that "...a lot has happened between 1987 and 2020. So now I'm writing about what it's like getting older and appreciating life a little more as you go along, as well as getting smarter as you get older. There's so much to write about." Van Doren practices Buddhism.

The title of her follow-up book was announced in December 2021 as China & Me: Wind Flapping, Feather Pulling, and Love on the Wing, a memoir about her pet parrot China. Van Doren describes the story as "a look behind the curtain into my everyday life. It's often funny, but, like so many things in life, it has its moments of sadness. Over the decades I've integrated a wild animal into a human household, played matchmaker to find him a mate, and cared for his offspring. I'm blessed to have had China as companion, confessor, and straight man all these years; and he's still with me today." The book was published in September 2022.

In an interview with Closer in January 2021, she reflected on the #MeToo movement, saying 'I've thought a lot about that. There are some things I would question, but I've also always been behind any woman with a problem because I have had plenty of them myself. [In my time] if I wanted to go to bed with someone, I'd go to bed with them, but I never did it for a movie. [A predator] would know that he was in for a fight if he ever came around me. [It would be] nails out, kicking and screaming.'

Personal life

Marriages and relationships

Van Doren's personal life received considerable attention from the press during the 1950s and 1960s, when her marriages and relationships with entertainers and professional athletes frequently became part of her public image. In her 1987 autobiography, Playing the Field: My Story, she discussed many of these relationships, sometimes providing details that were not reported at the time. Later profiles have similarly emphasized the contrast between the highly publicized nature of her romantic life and her efforts to maintain a degree of independence within Hollywood's publicity system.

Van Doren met sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman around 1949. Newman was a friend of her father, and the two sometimes attended boxing matches together. Van Doren and Newman became engaged and married in Santa Barbara, California, in 1950, after which they honeymooned in San Francisco.

In Playing the Field, Van Doren recalled that she viewed marriage as a way of leaving her parents' home and beginning an independent adult life. She also acknowledged that she understated her age when the marriage took place. According to her recollections, she initially enjoyed Newman's affluent lifestyle, including his residence in Beverly Hills, California, but the relationship deteriorated quickly. She described Newman as possessive and jealous of the attention she received from other men and alleged that his behavior toward her became abusive.

Van Doren later recalled an incident in which Newman threatened to throw her from a second-story balcony, an episode she said was interrupted when neighbors intervened. She also described an occasion when he destroyed one of her favorite hats. These allegations are based principally on Van Doren's later recollections; contemporary independent documentation of the incidents is limited. The marriage ended after less than a year.

Before the divorce was finalized, Van Doren became involved with former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey. Dempsey, who was more than three decades older than Van Doren, had met her through the boxing and nightclub circuit. The relationship attracted press attention, and the couple became engaged in 1951. Van Doren later recalled that she and Dempsey were able to frequent prominent New York establishments such as the Stork Club, the Copacabana and the 21 Club. She ultimately returned to Los Angeles and ended the engagement as she pursued opportunities in the film industry. Dempsey's engagement to Van Doren is also documented in biographical accounts of the boxer.

Family

Van Doren has one child, Perry Ray Anthony, from her marriage to Ray Anthony. Perry remained close to his mother as an adult and lived near her and Thomas Dixon for a period. In a 1987 interview, Van Doren described him as a major source of motivation and said that becoming a mother had influenced her determination to continue working and to provide for him.

Van Doren's autobiographical writing presents motherhood as an important counterpoint to the highly publicized romantic life associated with her screen career. She wrote openly about the difficulties of balancing parenting with acting, touring and relationships, while later interviews emphasized her continuing relationship with Perry and her family life with Dixon.

Discography

Bibiliography

Van Doren, Mamie (1987). Playing the Field: My Story. Putnam. ISBN 978-0399132407.

Van Doren, Mamie (2022). China & Me: Wing Flapping, Feather Pulling, and Love on the Wing. Independently Published. ISBN 979-8351166513.

Van Doren, Mamie (2026). You Thought I Was Dead. Permuted Press. ISBN 979-8895653234.