Sister Showdown

Julie Andrews and Peggy Wood in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Greer Garson, Debbie Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Anna Lee, Peggy Wood and Portia Nelson in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)



Greer Garson, Ed Sullivan, Agnes Moorehead and Debbie Reynolds in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Julie Andrews, Peggy Wood, Portia Nelson, Anna Lee, Marni Nixon, Evadne Baker and Doreen Tryden in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Debbie Reynolds and Juanita Moore in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Debbie Reynolds in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Julie Andrews at the New York City premiere of The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Agnes Moorehead and Debbie Reynolds at the Milwaukee premiere of The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Ladies and gentlemen, pick your nuns.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like This Maria?

We don't know, but her hills certainly look alive. And, needless to say, wiglets are one of our favorite things.

We mean the lady no disrespect (particularly on her birthday), but this image almost made us do a spit take. We can't imagine loonier casting; or a more inappropriate publicity still to accompany a particular playbill. But that's part of what we secretly admire about Barbara Eden - she's completely guileless, sort of on the fringe, kind of tacky...but impossible to dislike, because she seems so damn nice, to say nothing of earnest. We're sure that she gave her portrayal of Maria Von Trapp everything she's got, bless her heart.

MISS BARBARA EDEN
August 23, 1934

Loving Lee

That erstwhile Lila Quartermaine, Miss Anna Lee, was our last Mystery Guest. Despite appearing in nearly 80 films, Anna Lee was best known for her role as the wealthy matriarch on General Hospital; she's also beloved by millions for her brief but charming appearance as Sister Margarhetta in The Sound of Music (1965). Her other most famous film appearance was as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's concerned neighbor in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962); in a sad twist of irony, a car accident paralyzed Miss Lee from the waist down, and she spent the last two decades of her life acting from a wheelchair, echoing Crawford's Blanche Hudson.


The Kent-born actress once reflected on the longevity of most British actors; "I want to die with my boots on," she declared. She certainly achieved that goal; Miss Lee passed away in 2004 at the age of 91. She was awarded a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy, which was accepted on her behalf by her son.


The canny, clever normadesmond was the first to correctly name Miss Lee; we present him with a bale of wool from a black sheep - which, as Sister Margaretta so wisely pointed out, is just as warm as that from a white.

...And Eleanor Parker as The Baroness

Miss Understood.

You Just Know...

Unsuspecting Mother (off-screen): "Who played The Baroness in The Sound of Music?"



Gay Son: "Eleanor Parker!"

Duh.

The glamorous, elegant Eleanor Parker was recognized as a star from the 1940's through the 1960's; she had Academy Award nominations; and yet, she's barely remembered today, except for The Sound of Music. Her extreme versatility may have been her downfall: never cultivating a fixed "image," she looks different in every single photograph.







Aside from the uber-camp women's prison drama, Caged (1950), none of Parker's three Oscar-nominated roles are remembered today; but her work in such campy dramas as Return to Peyton Place (1961) and The Oscar (1966) lives on. At age 85, Eleanor Parker has been out of the limelight for some time, and, to my knowledge, has not given an interview in years. We sincerely hope that she's living a happy, contented life, and knows that we absolutely adore her.