Positively da same dame!
Pin-up model, movie starlet, and golf hustler Jeanne Carmen (1930-2007) sometimes went as a blonde, sometimes as a brunette, but wherever she went, she was all gal! Haha, I made that up all by myself!
The Arkansas native grew up picking cotton on a tenant farm and was a mere 13 when she decided her talents were being wasted. She toured in the chorus of the 1946 Bert Lahr show Burlesque. For a number of years she posed for men's magazines (she was named Miss Orange Whip by the Tropical Fruit company, and was Esquire's Miss January!) Check out a terrific spread on her modeling career here. Va va voom!
She also ran a scam where she posed as a golfing newbie and made bets against marks who didn't know she was an expert at the game, capable of impressive trick shots. This racket took her across the country. Eventually she landed in Las Vegas, and became the arm candy of gangster Handsome Johnny Rosselli, who later teamed with Bryan Foy as a movie producer and was recruited by the CIA to put out a hit on Castro (so legend has it.
In 1953, Carmen was in the now-classic burlesque movie Striporama with Georgia Sothern, Lili St. Cyr, Rosita Royce, and Bettie Page. Frank Sinatra, a pal of Roselli's was said to have brokered her transition to Hollywood. Her movie career lasted about 8 years, from 1956 to 1962. She played mostly small roles in B movies, but plenty of them remain well known. They include the Three Stooges' short A Merry Mix-Up (1957, as Joe Besser's girlfriend!), Untamed Youth (1957) with Mamie Van Doren, Lori Nelson, and Eddie Cochran (whose 1958 single "Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" was said to be for her), I Married a Woman (1958) with George Gobel and Diana Dors, Born Reckless (1958) with Van Doren, and The Devil's Hand (1961) with Robert Alda (himself a burlesque veteran). She also did guest shots on shows like The Colgate Comedy Hour and Have Gun Will Travel. She seems to have dated Elvis at least once (there are lots of pix of them together at a costume party in the late '50s, searchable on the internet, e,g):
Carmen was also a good friend and neighbor of Marilyn Monroe's. When the latter was found dead in 1962, Carmen is said to have been told to blow town by Roselli, presumably for reasons having to with with that vague shadowy scary tabloid rat-king comprised of Sinatra, the mob, the Kennedys, and Marilyn. It sounds dubious, but apparently she was scared enough to take it seriously. She left Hollywood right there and then at age 32 and spent the rest of her life raising a family in Arizona.
Want to know more? There's a lot more on the official Jeanne Carmen website here.
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