Sandra Dee

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03fc8c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <A HREF="remember_fender_skirts.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Remember Fender Skirts?"><B><IMG SRC="0410b120.png" border=0 width="11" height="18" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="18" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11"><B>     </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="18" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="18"><B>  </B><A HREF="id166.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="50s Memories"><B><IMG SRC="04312120.png" border=0 width="18" height="18" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="77" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 30 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="30" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin information contributed by Morgan Williams</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>See Also:</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="id292_m.htm#bobby_darin" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Sandra Dee"><I><B>Article on Bobby Daren</B></I></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id292_m.htm#further_information_about_bobby_daren" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Sandra Dee"><I><B>Further Information About Bobby Daren</B></I></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=94 BGCOLOR="#FF3300" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0403c5e1dvmwlb.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Ottawa High School Class of '57</B></FONT><B>     |    </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ottawa High School Class of 57"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id186.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pre53 Cars">Pre-53 Cars</A>   |   <A HREF="id185.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="53 57 Cars">53 - 57 Cars</A>   |   <A HREF="id227.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Remember When?">Remember When?</A>   |   <A HREF="gas_stations_of_the_50s.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gas Stations of The 50s">Gas Stations of The '50s</A>   |   <A HREF="remember_fender_skirts.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Remember Fender Skirts?">Remember Fender Skirts?</A>   |   <B>Sandra Dee</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=386 width="100%" colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Sandra Dee</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Sandra Dee Dies;  Star Of `Gidget,' Tammy'</B></div> <div> By Joe Holley, Washington Post Staff Writer</div> <div> <I><B>The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.</B></I></div> <div> Monday, February 21, 2005; Page B05</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>Sandra Dee, starlet, on a movie set in 1957.</B></I></div> <div>      <IMG SRC="7890e570.png" border=0 width="270" height="343" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="6" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Sandra Dee, the pert and pretty star of popular low-budget teen movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s and the archetypal blond bobby-soxer of the era, died Feb. 20 in Los Angeles. She was 62.</div> <div> According to the Associated Press, Ms. Dee's family requested that no other details be released, although CNN reported that she had been undergoing treatment at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., for complications of kidney disease and pneumonia.  The public Sandra Dee, as starlet on a movie set in 1957. Privately she battled depression, alcohol and anorexia, she told People magazine in March 1991.  (AP)</div> <bR> <div> She was best known for her roles in “Gidget” (1959) as well as in “Tammy Tell Me True” (1961) and “Tammy and the Doctor” (1963) -- sequels to Debbie Reynolds's 1957 hit “Tammy and the Bachelor.”</div> <div> Ms. Dee also was notable for more serious roles-“A Stranger in My Arms” (1959), in which she supported June Allyson; Lana Turner's neglected daughter in “Imitation of Life” (1959); and a young hellcat in “The Wild and the Innocent” (1959), a Western with Audie Murphy. She also co-starred with another young, blond heartthrob, Troy Donahue, in “A Summer Place” (1959).</div> <bR> <div> As the 1960s dawned, Hollywood fans across the country were gossiping about Ms. Dee's one-month courtship with singer Bobby Darin before they married.  She was voted one of Hollywood's top 10 moneymakers in 1960 and again in 1961, thanks to that year's “Tammy Tell Me True” and “Come September,” with Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida.</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Dee was born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, N.J. She decided on an acting career at age 5 and by 12 had become one of the country's top models and cover girls. Her agency got her into television and TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Coppertone, and she was discovered by Universal producer Ross Hunter, who didn't want to have to pay Warner Bros. $200,000 to borrow Natalie Wood for a remake of “Imitation of Life.”</div> <bR> <div> MGM borrowed her for her first movie role, in “Until They Sail” (1957). “Not since the days when Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin were teenagers has there been more excitement over a young girl than there is over Sandra Dee, a peach-melba type honey with the golden-blond hair and the big brown eyes,” gossip columnist Louella Parsons enthused over Ms. Dee's movie debut.</div> <bR> <div> MGM kept her for “The Reluctant Debutante” (1958), in which she played an American being launched into London society opposite John Saxon. “Imitation of Life” was her breakthrough.</div> <bR> <div> She did several movies with her husband in the early 1960s, and with James Stewart and Robert Goulet, but after “That Funny Feeling” (1965), a box-office flop that co-starred Darin, and a supporting role in the less-than-successful “A Man Could Get Killed” (1966), Universal dropped her.</div> <div> “I thought they were my friends,” she told the Associated Press that year.  “But I found on the last picture ['A Man Could Get Killed'] that I was simply a piece of property to them. I begged them not to make me do the picture, but they insisted.” She and Darin divorced in 1967.</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Dee's last feature film was “The Dunwich Horror” (1970), although she appeared in made-for-TV films throughout the decade. In a March 1991 interview with People magazine, she said that she had been sexually abused as a child by her stepfather and that she was pushed into stardom by her mother. She said she had battled depression, alcohol and anorexia and had hit bottom after her mother died in 1988. She credited her son with helping her recover.</div> <bR> <div> While the real-life Sandra Dee, mostly out of the public eye, battled her private demons, the archetypal “Sandra Dee” lived on as the perfect prom date, the sweet and virginal throwback to a more wholesome era.</div> <bR> <div> “In the `50s, you know, it was the blond sorority queens and cheerleaders, it was the era of Debbie Reynolds, Doris Day and Sandra Dee,” iconoclastic feminist scholar and writer Camille Paglia noted in a 1991 Washington Post interview.</div> <bR> <div> “To be blond in that period was . . . And now, the cover of People magazine, Sandra Dee comes out of hiding 20 years later to reveal she was abused by her stepfather, she was a drug addict, she was anorexic. This is so unbelievable, because Sandra Dee to us was like this model of what we should be.”</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Dee's marriage to Darin, who died at age 37 in 1973, has been in the spotlight recently because of “Beyond the Sea,” Kevin Spacey's movie paean to the singer and teen idol. In the movie, Kate Bosworth plays Darin's wife.</div> <bR> <div> Spacey has said Ms. Dee approved of the movie.  Survivors include a son, Dodd Darin of Malibu, Calif., and two grandchildren. </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>[Note: See below for information on Bobby Daren]</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Link:   <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><U>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39865-2005Feb20.html</U></FONT> with a photograph.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> =================================================================================</div> <div> <B> <A NAME="bobby_darin"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Bobby Darin</B></div> <div> <B>One of the most popular rock and roll teen idols of the late `50s</B></div> <div> <B>B. May 14, 1936 - D. December 20, 1973, at age 37</B></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="78a7ba90.jpg" border=0 width="123" height="169" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="6" VSPACE="0">One of the most popular rock and roll teen idols of the late `50s, Bobby Darin was one of the premier song stylists of the 1950s. Moving into the pop mainstream and nightclub circuit his astounding career continued almost unabated through the 1960s.</div> <bR> <div> Robert Walden Cassotto was born May 14, 1936, in the Bronx. His father died a few months before he was born. His English mother had been a professional entertainer for many years. After her husbands death, she was forced to raise Bobby, and his sister, Nina, on welfare payments. Darin was a sickly child and at 8 had rheumatic fever. This disease left him with a weakened heart, a condition that he would suffer from the rest of his life.  By the time he attended Bronx High School of Science, Darin was an accomplished musician and could play many instruments, but his impatience kept him from mastering any of them. He played drums in a local band at 15.</div> <bR> <div> After high school, Darin entered Hunter College on a scholarship, but he only completed one year. Torn between wanting to be an actor and musician he tried to audition for stage shows and bothering music publishers with his songs. He had little success. Aware of the ground rules to become a successful performer he changed his ethnic last name to Darin, selecting the name out of the phone book, picking the first one that sounded usable.  While his combo was playing small clubs Darin would sing jingles and make demos for other songwriters. In 1956, his personal manager got him a one year contract with Decca Records. Two years earlier Decca had signed one of rock and roll's biggest acts, Bill Haley and His Comets, but didn't know how to capitalize of this new form of music.</div> <bR> <div> Darin was an example of this misdirection. Instead of harnessing his exuberance, they placed him in a restrained musical setting and had him sing “pop” fluff.</div> <bR> <div> Darrin signed a one year contract with Atlantic Records and recorded with their subsidiary Atco. Darin was made an arranger and songwriter, and secondarily a recording artists. Darin's “Love Me Right” was recorded by LaVern Baker. His first three singles went nowhere.</div> <bR> <div> With his Atco contract Darin approached Brunswick Records with “Early In the Morning.” Brunswick was impressed, but as Darin was still under contract, the song was released by the Ding Dongs. New York deejays liked the the record and Atco soon discovered the deception. Brunswick was forced to turn over the masters to Atco which released the record as by the Rinky Dinks.</div> <bR> <div> Brunswick had Buddy Holly cover it. After television appearances on “The Dick Clark Show” and “The Perry Como Show” Darin's version edged out Holly's in sales..</div> <bR> <div> That June Atco released “Splish Splash” the final single under Darin's contract.The song had been recorded the previous April and allegedly had been composed in ten minutes. It sold a million copies. “Queen of the Hop” and “Plain Jane,” two similar singles followed.  “Queen of the Hop” was another million seller.</div> <bR> <div> “Dream Lover” was released in March, 1959. The song was built on a Latin dance rhythm, a shuffle beat called cha-lypso. The song was a subtle move from simplistic rock and roll structure to songs designed to appeal to an older audience. “Dream Lover” was his third million seller.  Darin's next song “Mack the Knife” relied heavily on the stylized vocal inflections developed by Frank Sinatra. the song sold two million copies and topped the charts for months. “Mack the Knife' won a Grammy Award as Record of the Year and Darin was voted Best New Artist.</div> <bR> <div> Brash, outspoken, and ambitious ( he said he wanted to be “bigger than Sinatra”), Darin was a man in a hurry. He suggested the reason was he was certain he would die at an early age from a congenital heart defect. Darin made several movies, beginning in 1960  with Come September. He would later marry his leading lady Sandra Dee.</div> <bR> <div> He received an Oscar nomination for his work in the 1963 film Capt. Newman M.D. He appeared in another eight films including State Fair (1962).</div> <bR> <div> Darin had hits with “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” (#5 1961), “Irresistible You” (#15, 1961), “What'd I Say” (#24, 1962), “Things” (#3, 1962), “You're the Reason I'm Living” (#3, 1963), and “18 Yellow Roses” (#10, 1963). A string of no hit singles led to his 1965 move to folk-rock.  material. In 1966 Darin had his first top ten single since 1961 and last major hit with “If I Were a Carpenter (38).</div> <div> In 1967 Darin divorced Sandra Dee.</div> <bR> <div> Darin continued to appear in Las Vegas and on TV through the mid-60s and worked extensively for Robert Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign.  Claiming to have had a mystical-religious experience at  Kennedy's funeral service, Darin quit working, sold his possessions and moved to a mobile home at Big Sur, California. More than a year later he reemerged in bluejeans and mustache to start his own label Direction Records.</div> <bR> <div> In 1968, Darin discovered his “mother” Polly was actually his Grandmother and his “sister” Nina was really his mother.This painful revelation altered him for the rest of his life.  Working in a soft rock vein, he recorded an unsuccessful politically oriented album called Born Walden Robert Cassotto. In the early `70s Darin signed with Motown Records and again began playing Las Vegas. His Motown releases were unsuccessful and critics considered this to be the low point of his career. He married Andrea Joy Yeager in June 1972.</div> <bR> <div> Darin died during heart surgery to repair a faulty heart valve on December 20, 1973. His body was donated to the UCLA Medical Center for research purposes.  </div> <bR> <div> Bobby Darin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.</div> <bR> <div> LINK: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><U>http://www.history-of-rock.com/bobby_darin.htm</U></FONT></div> <div> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <A NAME="further_information_about_bobby_daren"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Further Information About Bobby Darin</B></div> <bR> <div> 1.  Robert Walden Cassotto was his real name.</div> <div> 2.  He was a sickly child and at 8 had rheumatic fever.  </div> <div> 3.  He changed his ethnic last name to Darin, selecting the name out of the phone book, picking the first one that sounded usable.  </div> <div> 4.  His first three singles went nowhere.</div> <div> 5.  “Splish Splash” was his first million seller.</div> <div> 6.  “Mack The Knife” sold two million copies.</div> <div> 7.  Worked extensively for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. </div> <div> 8.  Had a mystical-religious experience at  Kennedy's funeral service, quit working, sold his possessions, moved to a mobile home at Big Sur, CA. </div> <div>  9.  In 1968, Darin discovered his “mother” Polly was actually his Grand-mother and his “sister” Nina was really his mother.This painful revelation altered him for the rest of his life.</div> <div> 10.  He married Andrea Joy Yeager in June 1972.  </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>