Comedian Tommy Noonan has the distinction of having co-starred with THE holy trinity of pneumatic blondes: Marilyn Monroe (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Jayne Mansfield (Promises! Promises!) and Mamie Van Doren (Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt). Tom Ewell came close, appearing opposite MM in The Seven Year Itch and Mansfield in The Girl Can't Help It...but, alas, instead of appearing with Mamie in Untamed Youth or Sex Kittens Go to College, he had to settle for Sheree North in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts.
Anyway, back to Tommy...the ever-outrageous Mamie Van Doren posted this photo on her kooky, endlessly entertaining website. It features a blitzed-out, pregnant Jayne; a dazzling Mamie; a stoned-looking Noonan; and Noonan's absoutely FAAAABULOUS wife, Foopy.
Yes, FOOPY.
One wonders if Carl Reiner was hip to Noonan's crowd, and modeled "Pickles" from The Dick Van Dyke Show on Foopy. Take a look at Joan Shawlee, who played Pickles to perfection, and judge for yourself.
MS. SHAWLEE APPEARS COURTESY OF THE MARVELOUS MEEKER MUSEUM
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ReplyDeleteI can't believe you wrote about Tommy Noonan. I thought my best galpal and I were the only ones "into" him. We call him "The Poor Man's Tom Ewell."
ReplyDeleteHmm ... I like the Pickles/Foopy conspiracy theory.
Sadly, Tommy died of a brain tumor.
R.I.P.!
Random thoughts:
ReplyDelete- When Jayne Mansfield took a bad picture, she took a baaaaaad picture; she always either looks devastating or cretinous;
- I have rarely seen a fall - let alone a confection-of-sausage-curls-fall - that made so little attempt to match the base hair in texture, hue, or general demeanour. Making Mamie all the more fablous.
- Foopy. What more can one say? One glance tells you that she could have had no other name.
Truly an astonishing image.
Donna -- I can't believe you'd think that I WOULDN'T blog about Tommy Noonan, sooner or later! More respectably, he also supported Judy Garland in "A Star is Born."
ReplyDeleteMuscato -- You're so right about Jayne, especially as she aged and her alcohol/pill intake increased! But I love mid-to-late 60's Jayne the best, probably BECAUSE she looked like a hot mess half the time. Love her. Mamie looked pretty damn hot for most of the 1960's and 1970's; good genes.
As for her coif...in Mamie's must-read memoirs, "Playing the Field," she credits her gay best friend/hairdresser, Don Morand, with the 'do, and insists that it was widely admired and copied around Hollywood. LSD was also beginning be widely admired around Hollywood at that time, too, so...
Yes a t first glance it looks like she is grabbing her crotch or taking a pee.
ReplyDeleteWell, I hate to dispel such a great rumor, but 'foopy" is actually named Pokie. I'll wager it was slurred and just sounded like "foopy"
ReplyDeleteHilarious! So glad i found this.