New Year's Meals

The Hollywood Deb Stars of 1966

"Deb" as in "debutante." For years, Hollywood would have these "coming out" events, offering up a bevy of young starlets of whom big things were predicted. In 1966, the event got its own television special. 

How correct were the prognostications?

Meet the 1966 Deb Stars:

Phyllis Davis had a long career in exploitation films, TV guest spots, a regular role on VEGAS and a long affair with Dean Martin. Died in 2013.

Cheryl Miller popped up a lot in family friendly fare such as several Ivan Tors productions--including a long run as a DAKTARI regular. Her credits end in 1980.

Melody Patterson famously lied about her age and was just a teenager when she began her memorable role on F TROOP. She was later a popular entertainer for the troops but her acting career fizzled. She passed in 2015.

Peggy Lipton was a couple of years away from her iconic MOD SQUAD role. Famously and controversially married to Quincy Jones, she returned to episodic TV years later on TWIN PEAKS.

Linda Foster was already a TV regular on HANK in '66 and continued to guest on shows through the early 1980s. Along the way, she married Dr. Ben Casey and M*A*S*H's Col. Flagg--Vince Edwards and Edward Winter.

Sherry Alberoni did the usual TV guest route, some cheesy horror flicks, and ended up a successful cartoon voice actor, most notably as Wendy on SUPER FRIENDS and Alexandra on JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS.

Sally Field was easily the champ here, having already starred in GIDGET. Waiting in the wings were three seasons of THE FLYING NUN and then a long, Oscar-winning career in major movies ranging from SMOKEY & THE BANDIT to NORMA RAE and SPIDER-MAN (as Aunt May of all things!)

Trudi Ames played teenagers in movies and TV shows throughout the decade but then seems to have left show business.

Helen Funai appeared on soaps and sitcoms but also entertained as one of Dean Martin's Golddigger spinoffs, The Dingaling Sisters.

Edy Williams famously married and divorced breast fetishist and cult filmmaker Russ Meyer and became somewhat famous for appearing nude or nearly nude at many celebrity events from Cannes to Hollywood for many years!

Shelly Grant probably should be Shelby Grant who appeared that same year with former Deb Star Raquel Welch in FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Shelby married actor Chad Everett in '66 also and the two sponsored charities for decades.

Beverly Lunsford is still remembered for her early acting roles but lists only two more credits after being a 1966 Deb Star.

Frozen Skyline Chili

Here in the Ohio Valley, '66 was the first year of FROZEN Skyline Chili, available not just in the city's numerous chili parlors but now in supermarkets for you to heat and eat at home anytime the mood strikes you. Cincinnati chili--for those who don't now--is a unique experience. It's a thin brown sauce with finely chopped meat and a mix of spices that includes such ingredients as chocolate and/or cinnamon. It's served on coney islands with shredded cheddar cheese or over spaghetti with the cheese, optionally with beans and/or onions.

The Idol

THE IDOL was one of the first features to take advantage of laconic Michael Parks' James Dean-like appeal. He had done much episodic TV in the first half of the decade and would become fondly remembered for his motorcycle loner role in the late '60s series, THEN CAME BRONSON. In spite of the low profile he's had in the decades since, he's still working pretty steadily and has had major roles in pictures directed by Quentin Tarrentino and Kevin Smith in recent years.

Diana Ross and Groucho

A 22-year-old Diana Ross and 70-year-old Groucho Marx on the dance floor doing the frug at a barbecue at Bobby Darin’s house in Bel-Air on August 19, 1966. Photo: AP via Tumblr

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die

KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE is generally classified as a "Eurospy" flick, one of a zillion low budget 007 cash-ins generally starring US actors mixed with continental performers. Many of these were quite enjoyable when taken on their own terms. This one is one. Timing-wise, it would seem as if this might be the picture which got the former "Touch" Conners his now classic gig as Joe Mannix in that character's long-running US TV series. MANNIX is generally considered one of the best modern private eye series ever on television.

Holdover Movies

As 1966 began, here are some of the late 1965 movies still playing in theaters around the Greater Cincinnati area as on January 1st.

Ron Goulart Books

Ron Goulart today has a reputation that encompasses his work as a comic strip and comic book historian as well as being one of the innovative science fiction writers of the sixties and seventies. In '66, tough, Ron was all about the pulps. Here are two books of his from that year that pre-date his well-recieved pulp history of a few years later.

Bat Stuff # 73

Asterix in '66

Asterix the Gaul, often the world's best-selling comics character in the years since '66 according to Guinness, was still virtually unknown in the US until this 1966 syndicated article about how popular the series was elsewhere. As of this writing, the latest ASTERIX album has just been released, most likely to be ignored yet again in the US, in spite of cartoons, mega-budget live action movies, and successful video and computer games. Some things never change. :(

Captain Action

My favorite toy in '66 and for several other years beyond.

Gold Key Comics Ad

The superhero race of the 1960s left Marvel and DC vying for top position and all of the other remaining comic book companies in their dust. Gold Key, though remembered as an also-ran, was actually the successor to Dell Comics, at one time the most successful comics company of them all. It's kind of complicated because there actually still WAS a Dell Comics. too, but in essence they were created new by Dell when Western Publishing--the company that had been packaging their comics all along--split away from Dell to go out on their own under the Gold Key logo. Gold Key created many memorable comics of their own from that point but also inherited--as promoted in this ad--many of the familiar licenses previously held by Dell. The '60s version of Dell would struggle on to the early '70s while Gold Key would remain fairly successful for a decade or more beyond that before Western gave up comics to concentrate on its popular children's line of Golden Books.

Island of Terror

How Sweet It Was

Perpetually in print for what seemed like decades, this great '66 book was a harbinger of the overall nostalgia movement that hit big for about a decade beginning in the mid-sixties.

Bat Stuff # 72

Holy Credit Lines, Batman! Here--from September of '66--we see Bill Finger actually being given at least a sort of credit for his role in the creation of BATMAN.