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The following was taken from my website guest book. The nicest post anyone's ever given me. [From] Bob Well, we fought the good fight and lost -- for now. Four more years under Bush will bring what they bring, to the table. Yet something remarkable happened, in the past year or two -- and you're on the leading edge of it. The Rise of the Blogs. As "mainstream" news becomes concentrated in the corporate hands of fewer and fewer moguls, dictating what Americans are to read and think, the internet keeps maturing to provide the ever-increasing number of citizens who are online with facts and opinions they might never otherwise see. You, virtually alone among Hollywood stars, are in the forefront. Your fans of many years, I among them, have watched your six-year-old (nearly seven) web site grow into something important and unique online. Barbra Streisand has her site, where she expresses her opinions on the state of the nation. Who else? No other star but you, Miss Van Doren, offers so comprehensive a window into a truly "democratic" way of life, exemplifying the best of humanity and "the Land of the Free." By sharing your intelligence, your thoughts, your opinions, your history, your looks, your parties and friends, your husband and son and even your pets with us -- and letting your fans share their lives and hopes and dreams and fantasies and, yes, even their criticisms of you -- openly and with the zest for ALL of life you so obviously enjoy, you're one of the best embodiments of the American Dream we've ever known. Starting with the obvious -- sex -- our most basic urge, after food, perhaps -- your example of healthy, honest enjoyment of sex from the most superficial to the most profound levels, without "coyness" or "guilt" or equivocation should be required reading. Healthy? You bet. Barbra Streisand doesn't take off her clothes on her website. And there's a reason for that. There's also a reason, maybe, why you do. There is no other star I know of, certainly no "sex goddess" of cinema's Golden Age, who is willing to display herself in all her glory both THEN . . . and NOW. Side by side. Only a woman who is psychologically and physically healthy, who is vital enough and who cares enough to maintain herself, who is honest enough and strong enough to need no "defenses," would even dare. "Look at me! This is what life is all about," you seem to say -- glamorously dressed, topless or starkers -- with your glorious looks and contagious smile. Sex sells. Always has, always will. But sells -- what? In your case, we can only judge from your writings and your blog. But the answer is obvious: intelligence, candor, thoughtfulness, strength and compassion. So, thank you for still being on the cutting edge. Thank you for providing this forum. Thank you for the pictures, the parties, the stories, the friends, the family, the pets, your opinions and your fans -- and your blog. Thank you, in short, for being the BEST that America -- and life itself -- stands for. Thursday, November 4th 2004 - 07:52:07 PM |
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Email received 06.12.04 Hello Mamie, I was looking at your site and the "torture garden" pics...man, there's one topless one that was like a strong cup of coffee!!!! If there can be a such a thing as admiration mixed with sexual attraction, you are that in my eyes. WOW. I don't mean to be crude or disrespectful in any way, but I see those sexy pics of you and my imagination runs wild. I've said it before and I will say it again, your husband is a lucky man to snuggle up next to you each night. Thanks for sharing your beauty -and your insight. |
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Email received 06.11.04 Maybe I'm wrong (I doubt it), but there are tons of fans -- young and old -- who adore what you're doing and what you represent. I'm a William Morris client all my life (writer/producer in television primarily), so I have a real appreciation for what you're doing. Sharing your family -- Thomas and Perry and your pets and your home and your parties -- with everybody -- is unique and delightful on the internet. I too knew Skip E. Lowe, peripherally, though I'm sure he wouldn't remember me, when I lived in Hollywood. I'm glad he's a friend of yours and wish him well. What a character! I've never been much into name-dropping, and I won't start now. But truly, truly, yours is the most enjoyable site of them all. I've known and worked with a ton of stars, and found almost all of them to be the most down-to-earth, wonderful people I've ever known. Your website takes the cake! Ever gorgeous (no small feat!), utterly honest and open, vivacious, outspoken, courageous, friendly -- you really are one of a kind. And kind. Thank you so much for your website. In a world growing increasingly partisan and harsh, you give us something to remember and aspire to -- a life lived to the fullest, every day, shared online with all who appreciate and love you. You're doing everything RIGHT. Who knew the Bullet-Bra girl would turn into the wonderful YOU that you are today? Nobody. That's who. Except you. Congratulations. We can't wait to see what's next! Love to you, your husband and family, friends and pets.
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Email received 02.12.04
Mamie My name is [withheld by request] and one of the things that strikes me about you is how gracious you are about other women, actresses, sex symbols, etc. It must have been tough when there were rivalries. I say that because in 1966 and in college I worked at a dinner theatre near Boston and when Jayne Mansfield did Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, my job was to be her chauffeur and take care of her dressing room. That was like taking care of a hurricane, although at 20 it was some week's experience for everyone who worked there. Anyway, as you probably know, Jayne was very jealous of you. Early in the week, there was a story in a Boston paper about Tony Conigliaro, and stated that he had dated you, and your picture was on the sports page. Someone showed it to Jayne, and she went into heat. In her entiurage was a guy named [name withheld], who was essentially her go-getter for everything from drugs to men, and she started yelling at him, "get Tony out here. I gotta have him. Get him for me. I'll show him what the big leagues really are. He won't want to (f) her again" The Red Sox, fortunately, were out of town for a couple of days, but [her gofer] promised to track him down Friday when they got back. The next day, some young guy from a local paper came to her suite to do a story. She kept him waiting for almost two hours to the sound of her lovemaking with [her gofer] and two other guys in the bedroom. But when she finally emerged and talked, he mentioned that he sometimes wrote about the Red Sox. Well, she went off asking questions about Tony and you. She nuzzled and pushed all over him, promising him favors if he'd get Tony to her over the weekend. It never happened. She never made contact, and was out of town by Sunday. But I thought you'd get a kick out of that. I can't say I liked Jayne, but I'll give her this: she never slept.
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Email received 10.11.03 Dear Ms. Van Doren, You defy the laws of aging! I was on your website and whilst I am not sure of your exact age, logic dictates you must e in your 70's.. That said, you look half that age, and have nothing to hide about it! You deserve to be listed in the Guiness World Records as the most wonderfully aging person! Sorry for the ranting.. I'm 23, and always thought you were one of the most attractive women to hit star status during the 1950's .. Some things never change.. You still look amazing! Congratulations! How do you stay so fit and healthy looking? Good wishes now and always, [A fan in British Columbia] |
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Email received 08.24.03 Hi Mamie, You're the absolute best! Few people have lived such a remarkable life. Your memoirs would be an important contribution to the Humanities. Every day, every moment of your existence since that astoundingly beautiful 16 year-old won it all...wow! You truly have lived a charmed life. It would take volumes to say what you have seen and done...and mere words would not be able to tell the full story. You have really lived. My thanks for giving "us civilians" a taste of real Hollywoodland. The photography on your web site is incredible. It's no exaggeration to say that the actual images are part of America's historical treasure. It's wonderful to see that you are still filled with the "joy of life." Keep Going Strong, Mamie! |
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Email received 08.24.03 One of the most interesting and comprehensive [websites] I have seen from a beautiful and fascinating woman. Thanks. |
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Email received 08.24.03 Hello Mrs. Van Doren, I just went to your site via the Astounding B Monster interview.... all I can say is WOW. I looked at all the info and pictures and have to say that you are stunningly beautiful. I hadn't seen some of those photos before and just can't get over your beauty! I am sure you get that all the time but my god! Thank you for making such a user friendly website. I have to look for some of the movies you were in that I didn't see yet. Thanks again. A fan |
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Email received 11.3.02
Hi Mamie,
I was on a website called: imdb.com-(internet movie data base.com) it is a
great site for film lovers such as myself. There is a great search engine
that deals with stars and their roles, as well as message boards. The other
day I thought I would post a message on the classic film board, simply
stating GodBless Mamie Van Doren! Basically, you were my very first crush
for a movie star and a woman! Pretty good tast for a teenager back in the
early 60's! You probably dont like this movie you made The Private Lives of
Adam and Eve! but I was crazy about you in that movie.
I then watched a bunch of your movies when they came on tv. You are and were
the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen! Well, to be honest, I didnt know
if you were still living, so I just posted the notice for all to see that
others could have Marilyn, Sophia, Bridgette--you were my film goddess!
Back in the late 60's you came to St Louis to sing. I wasnt 21 so I couldnt
get into the nightclub to see you. But, I dreamt I did and that you picked
me out of the crowd, because you could see my attraction for you!! I think,
well you remember how you were when you were young!
Anyway, I found out you had a website and I just checked it out, it is
really fantastic. I, being naive, didnt know you posed nude?!! But, I have
fantasized so much as to what you looked like back then I have to see so I
am going to join your website! Sorry to bother you, but I am glad you are
well and happy! You meant so much to me when I was young and I am happy life
has looked favorably on you. In fact, you are still gorgeous!
Love Always, |
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| Email received 09.16.01 Mamie-- I happened upon your site today, and found it entertaining..... and very moving. I'm now halfway thru your Viet Nam Diaries. Firstly, thank you for what you did back then, and secondly thank you for giving me a first-hand account of what it was like for you and those you met. I'm 35 and missed being old enough to comprehend what was happening, let alone participate. The last week's events have caused us all to re-examine what war is and what it can really mean. I personally am fearful that the 5000+ lives that were lost on Tuesday could only be a fraction of what we may be entering into the coming months. For me War is an undefinable because my mind cannot fully understand it. I cannot grasp the hate that makes war sensible.Thank you for your excellent writing and powers of perception and understanding. I can say it has profoundly moved me. |
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All photos except the vintage ones by Julie Strain. |
| Email received 08.02.01 I want to thank you from my heart for being such a brilliant and beautiful ideal for me and all other beautiful women in the world !! You live and age with grace and beauty ! I am very inspired and uplifted in my own belief in myself by looking at your website. I am a danish woman at 34 years of age, and I started my career as a stripteasedancer two years ago. Sometimes the public opinion about a dancers age can be disturbing and worry me. You being there for me as an inspiration has helped me so much !!! Thank you for being, Mamie !!! Big kiss and with best regards A fan from Denmark |
 "Definitely glamour is hot right now," says Mamie Van Doren, Newport Beach's resident bombshell. "Women are starting to act like women again." |
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By Stephen Lynch The Orange County Register On those who dismissed her as a bubble-headed bimbo, Marilyn Monroe has enacted a posthumous revenge. The role Monroe typified in life and on screen, the bombshell, is back in style. Witness the curvy, coquettish women on the covers of Maxim and other magazines. The return of "va-va-voom" as a compliment. Or the new wave of women's self-help books, such as "The Bombshell Manual of Style," that define fulfillment as a pedicure. Monroe would have been 75 today, and had she lived, "she'd still have it," says Laren Stover, author of the bombshell manual. Dead, she's bigger than ever. "I don't know whether it's revisionist history, or when you die a lot of things are overlooked," says Pamela Ezell, an assistant professor at Chapman University who studies the depiction of women in media. "But she's more of an icon in death than in life." And Monroe is an icon today in a way even she would find surprising: a feminist one. In the decade after Monroe's death in 1962, the backlash against the objectified airhead - as pundits considered her - was palpable. Monroe represented an antiquated stereotype, a woman used and abused by men. Our image of her now, though, "is that she knew she was a commodity - and she knew how to market herself," Ezell says. Monroe was in control of her sexuality, and though one may argue that the bargain was Faustian, at least she knew the terms. "A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate being a thing," she once said. "But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it sex than some other things we've got symbols of." This, Stover notes, is a very bombshell sentiment. Monroe was smarter than we give her credit for, and modern bombshells such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez aspire to her complexities. "When you see a bombshell, IQ isn't the first thing that comes to mind," Stover says. "But she unfolds like perfume, in layers. Her entirety is not obvious at once." When Monroe's possessions were auctioned at Christie's, she had more books than almost anything else. "She wasn't a makeup case," Stover says. WHAT MAKES THEM TICK Stover's definition of "bombshell" is best described as post-feminist, and as the torchbearer of the movement, Monroe was ahead of her time. The bombshell "is a combustible blend of confidence and vulnerability. Sauce and naivete. She wears high heels but kicks them off at every opportunity. Adores negligees and charmeuse gowns but can't wait to get out of them. ... She behaves as if all life's a movie in which she is the star." Bombshells read Nietzsche in the bathtub, listen to Nina Simone on the balcony, eat out, live large, look good and take a while doing it. Perhaps Monroe put it most succinctly: "I've been on a calendar, but never on time." There is a certain nostalgic sense of style in what Stover describes: the head scarf and dark sunglasses, the cigarette holder, the Ferragamo heels. But there's also this blend of Billie Jean King and Sophia Loren, a woman who knows that she can both occupy the corner office and wear decolletage. "Wouldn't it be great to have both?" Ezell says. "Wouldn't it be great to have that job at the Fortune 500 company and that old-fashioned ideal of sexuality and femininity?" Monroe, again, said it well: "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it." Ezell mentions the return of finishing school as a summer activity, while dating manuals stacked in bookstores tout the merits of chivalry, of courtship, of The Rules. "Definitely glamour is hot right now," says Mamie Van Doren, Newport Beach's resident bombshell. "Women are starting to act like women again." And with that, Van Doren is enjoying a renaissance that she says Monroe would have found as well. "I go to the Playboy Mansion, and all the retro girls try to look like me," Van Doren says. "And zaftig is back a little, they aren't all trying to look 14." Of course, Van Doren still runs into women who resent her tight-fitting gowns and flirting. The platinum powerhouse, now 65, pays them no mind. They don't understand what it's like to celebrate your sexuality, she says. "Living here in Newport Beach and looking the way I do - it pisses off all the right people," Van Doren says. COLLATERAL DAMAGE Of course, how much a woman controls her own sexuality and how much a woman is trapped by it is a topic for debate. Monroe was empowered, but she knew the constraints - the way studios dismissed her. "In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are," she said. "Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the 50." Are young actresses being naïve, Ezell wonders, when they bare their breasts for Maxim and then expect to be respected for their soul? "There's a great deal more sexuality today," Ezell says. "Look at the actresses on 'Friends,' or Britney Spears, who is so dolled up it's unbelievable. It can be so unhealthy." Van Doren, who calls women such as herself and Monroe the "first feminists - though I didn't know what the word was," believes you can be overtly sexual and a feminist. In a word, a bombshell. Today, Monroe inspires as much pity as she does awe. Behind the bombshell veneer, she was depressed, a drug addict, perhaps an alcoholic. "To put it bluntly, I seem to be a whole superstructure without a foundation," she said. "But I'm working on the foundation." Long after her death, her fans seem to have finished that for her.
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