Clarice Dalrymple presents … Day of Julie Newmar Sightings

 

‘“Tell me I’m beautiful, it’s nothing. Tell me I’m intellectual, I know it. Tell me I’m funny, and it’s the greatest compliment in the world.” Dancer, actress, model, and popular icon of “sex appeal” as Catwoman in the Batman television series, Julie Newmar (b. Los Angeles, CA, 16 August 1933) would rather have been known as a comedienne. Magnificently “stacked” at 37-23-37, five feet eleven inches tall, with legs well over a yard long in her bare feet, and looking (as she put it herself) “like a racehorse,” she electrified the Broadway stage in a three-minute appearance as Stupefyin’ Jones in Li’l Abner in 1956. But she could act, too, as was demonstrated by the Tony Award she won three years later for her hilarious performance (Best Featured Actress in a Play) in The Marriage-Go-Round with Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer.

‘Julie Newmeyer (as she was then known and billed) appeared, for the most part uncredited, in ten motion pictures as a dancer before she went to New York in 1955. Notable among her performances were “The Gilded Girl” (i.e., the girl covered in gold paint) in Serpent of the Nile (1953), the “Dancer-Assassin” in Slaves of Babylon (1953), and “Dorcas” in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954); she also played chorus and bit parts in The Band Wagon (1953), The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954).

‘In 1955 Julie made her New York debut as Vera the ballerina in Silk Stockings with Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche. The show ran for a satisfying 478 performances, and only a few months after it closed she was strutting her stuff as Stupefyin’ Jones in Li’l Abner. Li’l Abner was even more successful at 693 performances, and that was quickly followed by her triumphal comic performance as Katrin Sveg, the Swedish guest who tried to seduce Charles Boyer in The Marriage-Go-Round. (Although the 1959 film version of Li’l Abner was as near a duplicate of the Broadway show as could be made, with almost every member of the cast in his or her original role, the 1961 film of The Marriage-Go-Round preserves only Julie Newmar’s Tony-winning performance, with Susan Hayward and James Mason in the principal roles.) Newmar’s only later Broadway appearance was in Once There Was a Russian (1961), a one-performance flop. Later stage work included national tours of Dames at Sea and Stop the World – I Want to Get Off with Joel Grey, and regional performances as Lola in Damn Yankees and Irma in Irma La Douce.

‘Back in movieland in the sixties, Newmar took on roles in television series that ran from amazon to temptress (often both): an unruly motorcycle-riding heiress (Route 66, 1962), the devil (The Twilight Zone, 1963), an Indian princess (F Troop, 1966), a pregnant space princess (Star Trek, 1967), a double agent posing as a maid (Get Smart, 1968), a cat in human form (Bewitched, 1971), and in the 26-part series My Living Doll (1964–1965), Rhoda the Robot – of necessity a paragon of physical perfection. Her movie roles were similarly diverse: a health addict (For Love or Money, 1963), a vengeful Apache woman (Mackenna’s Gold, 1969), and a Hungarian sexpot (The Maltese Bippy, 1969).

‘Newmar described how she came to take the recurring part of Catwoman on Batman (1966–68), the television role that made her an icon. She was living in New York; her brother had come down from Harvard for a weekend with five or six of his friends. “We were all sitting around the sofa just chatting away, when the phone rang. … It was this agent or someone in Hollywood, who said, ‘Miss Newmar, would you like to play Catwoman on the Batman series? It starts Monday.’” She had never heard of Batman. “I said, ‘What is this?… they never know what they are doing until yesterday.’ Well, my brother leaped off the sofa, I mean he physically levitated, and said, ‘Batman! That’s the favorite show at Harvard. We all quit our classes and quit our studies and run into the TV room and watch this show.’ I said, “They want me to play Catwoman.’ He said, ‘Do it!’”

‘Newmar designed and made her own glittery, skin-tight, hip-belted Catwoman costume, which is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution. Due to her movie commitments, Julie was able to stay with Batman for only two of its three seasons, but the reruns assured that her image was ever-present. “It was so wonderful being on Batman,” she said, “because you could be nasty and mean. In the ’50s women could never – unless you were some B-picture actress – be mean, bad, and nasty. It was so satisfying. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was.”

‘Playboy Magazine featured her in a pictorial in May 1968. In the early seventies, Julie Newmar appeared in fifteen episodes of Love, American Style; until 1983 she was a one-time guest on fifteen other television series, among them McCloud (1970), Columbo (1973), The Bionic Woman (1976), The Love Boat (1979), CHiPs (1982), Fantasy Island (1983), and Hart to Hart (1983). Her movie career continued with several low-budget films: Love Scenes (1984), Evils of the Night (1985), Deep Space (1988), Cyber-C.H.I.C. (1989), Ghosts Can’t Do It (1989), and Nudity Required (1990).

‘A testament to her indelible celebrity was the title of the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Not that the picture had anything to do with Julie Newmar – the story is about three drag queens on a road trip, and the title refers to a signed head-shot. Newmar does make a cameo appearance near the end of the movie.

‘Brainy Julie Newmar is also an inventor, holding three U.S. patents. Two are for her special “cheek”-shaping pantyhose (“Nudemar”), and one for an “invisible” brassiere. She has also been working in the real estate business since the mid-1980s.

‘Newmar was married to John Holt Smith, a lawyer, from 1977 to 1984. They had one child, John Jewl Smith, who is deaf and has Down’s Syndrome. In 2008, Newmar was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an incurable neurological disorder that affects balance and ability to walk.

‘She is an avid community advocate. She agitated for a ban on leaf blowers in the City of Los Angeles, arguing that they are unnecessary and too noisy. She also had an issue with her next-door neighbor James Belushi and his noisy air-conditioner: she took out her frustration by throwing an egg at his house, and he retaliated by suing her for four million dollars. The conflict ended amicably in 2006 when it was aired on an episode of Belushi’s sitcom (According to Jim: The Grumpy Guy) in which Julie Newmar co-starred.’ – Lucy E. Cross

 

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1953

Serpent of the Nile is a 1953 Technicolor historical adventure film directed by William Castle. In an early role, actress Julie Newmar (listed as Julie Newmeyer) appears as an exotic dancer clad only in gold paint (and a gold fabric bikini of early 1950s style).

 

“I did a dance with Fred Astaire in the movie ‘Bandwagon.’ I got to waltz just from left of camera to right of camera, and I’m taller than Fred Astaire. Fortunately, I was wearing a long skirt, so I waltzed with bended knees.” — Julie Newmar

 

In William Castle’s Slaves of Babylon, the Jews are taken and made slaves of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Meanwhile Cyrus king of Persia, who has been living as a shepherd, is proclaimed king Nebuchadnezzar. With a mix of dance with a veil, dagger and ballet, Julie Newmar shines in the performance of a killer dancer.

 

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1954

Set in 1850s Oregon, the film tells the story of a group of unruly lumberjack brothers whose misguided attempts at ‘courting’ love (more commonly referred to today as kidnapping) unleash a fury of both raucous follies and rousing dance numbers. Directed by Stanley Donen, this movie musical stars Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Russ Tamblyn, Julie Newmar, and a fabulous cast of singers and dancers.

 

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1957

This episode of The Phil Silver Show is filled with tremendously funny lines, uttered by a number of people and some the situations are absolutely outrageous. One of them is the appearance of “Susie Stacked,” played by a voluptuous Julie Newmar. The look on Colonel Hall’s face when he sees her in a short mini-type skirt is priceless.

 

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1959

Julie Newmar struts her stuff as Stupefyin’ Jones in the 1959 big screen adaptation of the comic strip Lil’ Abner.

 

In George O’Hanlon’s film The Rookie, two WWII American soldiers and a beautiful actress (played by Julie Newmar) are stranded on an island with a pair of Japanese soldiers.

 

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1961

In Walter Lang’s The Marriage-Go-Round, Julie Newmar repeats her famous towel scene from the stage version.

 

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1962

ROUTE 66 TV S2 E18: The boys are driving through Tucson, AZ, and run across a spicy, captivating blonde (Julie Newmar) motorcycling through town looking for trouble. Arrested, we find out that she is a free-spirit whose rich family recently died and she is lonely looking for attention.

 

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1963

The Twilight Zone: William Feathersmith is a hard-nosed and cold-hearted misanthropic businessman now quite wealthy but bored. It’s clear that what he enjoys is the chase and the acquisition of wealth. He also likes breaking men in the process. While leaving the office one day, he finds himself on the wrong floor (the ominous 13th floor, a number usually associated with bad luck and ill fortune) and in the office of Devlin Travel, run by the statuesque and devilishly attractive Ms. Devlin. In return for his amassed fortune — not his soul because, as she notes, “we got ahold of your soul some time ago” — she offers to send him back in time to his hometown of Cliffordville in 1910 where he can start over and get the pleasure of building his empire all over again. He accepts and once back to the days of his youth begins wheeling and dealing. Nothing quite goes as planned however.

 

Julie Newmar sings and dances to “Simon Says” in this 1963 TV appearance.

 

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1964-1965

In the 1964 TV sitcom My Living Doll, Rhoda (Julie Newmar) is an extremely sexy young woman who lives with womanizing Air Force shrink Bob McDonald. What Bob knows and the rest of the world does not is that Rhoda’s real name is AF 709, and she is actually a sophisticated (yet naive) robot. Bob’s job is to teach Rhoda how to be a “perfect” woman, and keep her identity secret from the world–especially lecherous neighbor Peter. When actor Bob Cummings left the series in early 1965, his character was written out of the series, and Peter was given the duty of taking care of Rhoda.

 

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1966

In an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, Julie Newmar played a Swedish actress who yearns to play a hillbilly moves in with the Clampetts to study backwoods dialect.

 

In the “Yellow Bird” episode of the TV sitcom F Troop, Julie Newmar plays a white woman raised by Indians starts to take after the Captain.

 

The first Catwoman, Julie Newmar played Batman’s crime-stopping partner in the original TV series. With her false eyelashes and heavy, winged shadow, Julie was a prime example of the makeup trends of the ’60s. Even her eyebrows had attitude.

 

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1967

All four Monkees fall in love with the same girl, April Conquest (Julie Newmar), of the local laundromat. Each one tries to woo her by feigning interest in things she likes: Davy paints pop-art, Mickey performs ballet, Peter plays chamber music, and Mike rides a bike.

 

Julie Newmar played Eleen in the Star Trek: The Original Series second season episode “Friday’s Child”. She filmed her scenes on Monday 22 May 1967 and between Wednesday 24 May 1967 and Monday 29 May 1967 at Desilu Stage 9, Stage 10 and on location at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.

 

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1968

Ingrid (Julie Newmar) is a KAOS Agent in the 1968 episode “The Laser Blazer” for the TV series of “Get Smart”. Ingrid is a KAOS Agent who gains access to the apartment of Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and Agent 99 (Barbara Felden), by posing as a maid.

 

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1969

It Takes a Thief: “The Funeral Is on Mundy” (season 2/episode 20) 1969. Julie Newmar (Susannah Sutton) uses karate and judo on Alexander Mundy (Robert Wagner) before he is able to subdue her.

 

Laugh-In’s Rowan and Martin scare up the laughs in this madcap horror/mystery spoof costarring Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar. Kicked out of their office for non-payment of rent, bickering buddies Ernie (Dick Martin) and Sam (Dan Rowan) move into a creepy old house where they tangle with ruthless killers, sinister servants, Hungarian werewolves and a fetching young blonde as they search for a priceless lost diamond. Also starring Mildred Natwick, Fritz Weaver and The Brady Bunch’s Robert Reed. The Maltese Bippy is an off-the-wall farce directed by three-time Oscar nominee Norman Panama.

 

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1970

Up Your Teddy Bear: Julie Newmar (TV’s Catwoman), Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers) and Victor Buono star in this sexy comedy about a nerdy doll maker who is seduced by the voluptous head of a toy company (Newmar)!

 

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1971

The Feminist and the Fuzz: An unusually earthy comic role for Julie Newmar, and she’s got the streetwise speech pattern down perfectly. David Hartman’s the cop, and in this made-for-TV item, Barbara Eden is the feminist. Twisting the plot, Julie Newmar, Farrah Fawcett, Joanne Worley and the late great Harry Morgan.

 

Julie Newmar guest starred on Bewitched as Ophelia, a familiar summoned by Endora to tempt Darrin.

 

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1973

Columbo S 02 E 08: Clifford Paris (Paul Stewart) is a wealthy man with a large fortune. He is about to get married to sexy Lisa Chambers (Julie Newmar), who, as disapproving housekeeper Mrs. Peck (Jeanette Nolan) sniffs, is young enough to be his granddaughter. Television chef Dexter Paris (Martin Landau), Clifford’s nephew and heir to half his fortune, seems to be OK with this, but in reality he isn’t. After leaving the Paris mansion, Dexter sneaks back in and murders his uncle by chucking a turned-on mixer into his uncle’s bath, electrocuting him. Dexter then stages his uncle on an exercise machine to make it look like Clifford had a heart attack.

 

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1976

Frankenstein and the Wolfman encounter Julie Newmar as Ultra Witch on the 1976 TV series “Monster Squad”.

 

This episode of The Bionic Woman (Black Magic) has the most amazing guest cast. Vincent Price! Julie Newmar! Hermione Baddeley!

 

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1979

The Love Boat: A shoe salesman (Don Knotts), who strongly resembles a famous TV star, initially tries to deny it until an attractive woman (Julie Newmar) hits on him; a woman (Jane Wyatt), who was separated from her husband (Jean-Pierre Aumont) in WW II, hopes to reunite with him; Isaac (Ted Lange) decides to become a writer but can’t decide on what kind of genre to write.

 

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1980

Zarina the War Witch (Julie Newmar) is the villainess in the 1980 episode “Flight of the War Witch” for the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Zarina is the leader of a hostile race known as the Zaads, who are engaged in conflict with the inhabitants of the peaceful planet of Pendar.

 

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1982

CHiPs: On temporary duty Ponch and Bobby hunt a drug dealer and mediate a dispute over a nude beach; guest Julie Newmar.

 

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1983

High School U.S.A. (1984 TV Movie). Julie Newmar: Stripper

 

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1988

Deep Space is a 1988 sci-fi horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray about a monster that terrorizes a city in the United States and the detective who must stop it. Julie Newmar co-stars as Lady Elaine Wentworth.

 

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1992

Julie Newmar struts and crawls along the catwalk in the 1992 clip for George Michaels’s “Too Funky.” Newmar holds her own alongside supermodels of the day like Linda Evangelista and Tyra Banks.

 

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1994

Oblivion: A sleepy western town has been overrun. Not by varmints, but by D-list actor cameos! No amount of fame is too minor or fleeting to warrant disproportionate amounts of screentime! Isaac Hayes! Julie Newmar! And of course a rarely seen acting appearance by professional meme sharer George Takei!

 

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1996

Melrose Place S4.E26: During a business convention, Billy again resorts to hardball tactics when he steals some compromising photos of actress Julie Newmar, so he can get her as a client and get Amanda to give him the power of working with other clients than to Alison.

 

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1999

Her last movie is If… Dog… Rabbit…, a 1999 American crime drama thriller production directed by Matthew Modine. At more than 70, Miss Newmar can still make heads turn as if she was 35 years younger! Otherwise the movie is predictable, unoriginal, and dull.

 

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2003

Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt is a 2003 American made-for-television biographical action-comedy film based on the 1966–1968 Batman television series which features the original stars Adam West and Burt Ward as themselves, with Jack Brewer and Jason Marsden portraying the young West (Batman) and Ward (Robin) in flashbacks. It was broadcast on CBS on March 9, 2003. Apart from West and Ward, a number of actors from the original series also appeared in the film. This includes Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler, Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman for the first two seasons of the show and Lee Meriwether, who played Catwoman in the Batman theatrical film. Gorshin and Newmar appear as themselves, while Meriwether appears as a waitress.

 

 

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p.s. Hey. (1) A reader of this blog who is either named or calls themself Clarice Dalrymple wrote to me recently asking if they could do a post concerning the veteran oddball character actor Julie Newmar, and naturally I said, Sure, of course, please, bring it on, etc., and today is the shining result. Please enjoy trawling through Ms. Newmar’s career trajectory and do spare a word of some sort for your guest-host Clarice. Thank you! (2) There will not be a post tomorrow for the curious reason that I need to get up very early in the morning and head off to take a tour of a local concrete factory. An unusual venture to be sure, but Zac and I have been coveting just such a tour for a while now, and tomorrow’s the day. There’ll be a new post and me again on Friday. Thank you for your patience. ** Dominik, Hi!!!I was going to say that I guess your BJD counts as a self-Xmas-gift given the timing. What’s the latest on its elusive head, btw? Yes, I’d bought a bunch of Pocky at that weird American junk food store — well, not just American, obviously — and the day before yesterday I pulled out the last Pockys, which were way past expiration date and not wildly delicious therefore, but, even in that haggard state, they tasted so delicious to me that I subsequently craved an army of Pocky that would magically appear without me having to trudge all the way over to that store in the freezing cold. And, hence, my love’s incarnation. Love will try to get his famous time machine up and running and head straight for wherever the presumed prototype for that item was stored and swipe it just for you. Love strangely remembering this silly joke that someone had told him his childhood: ‘A horse walks into a bar, sits down at the bar. The bartender walks up to the horse and says, “Why the long face”?’, G. ** Jack Skelley, You! That Causeway thing was nuts. I had no idea. What an idea. Wow, such a jam-packed week. Pass along your mojo. Hit me up about the blurb. I’m swamped and spacing, and I need a nudge. Love, The Monkees. ** Misanthrope, I’m trying to think of a mood that would make me want to watch ‘Bones and All’, and I just can’t think of one. X <3 M. ** CAUTIVOS, Thanks. Sure, I know Gaudi. I’ve never actually seen his stuff in the flesh, but, yeah, I’ve admired it in photos and jpegs since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I haven’t read Hesse since I was, like, 12 or 13 years old and he was huge with the hippies. I did like Ann Beattie, and I haven’t read her in a million years. What a good idea. I will go buy something of hers I haven’t read. You’re reading a ton. I’m envious. I have so much writing to do right now, so I’m forced to be about 80% output when it comes to words. My favorites list is coming up on Saturday. Bon day! ** _Black_Acrylic, Yeah, say what you want, but that Jobs was a bit of a no small genius. Nice desk! So ultra-minimal and stylish but all business at the same time. Bend it like Beckham, man! ** Bill, I think having that Apple phone would make you very rich man. Our temps are almost scarily dipped. It’s supposed to be -6 Centigrade tonight, yeep. It looks like we’re going to get the ‘Oriental’ fan buche. That seems to be the consensus choice. And it will collapse in our mouths on the 22nd. Plus, the location where I need to retrieve it is two blocks from my apartment, and it’s cold, so there’s that. ** scunnard, Hey, Jared! Very long time no see, pal! How very nice! I’m good, really busy. LA was very successful, and part 2, which needs to be even more successful, is in the offing. Dude, excellent about the new book! What and where and when, pray tell? Hugs! ** tomk, I thought I had been to the Barbican, but I just looked it up to be sure, and, no, I was thinking of the Southbank Centre, which is also kind of Brutalist, isn’t it? Anyway, no. It looks a whole lot more interesting than the Southbank Center in the photos. Naturally I totally get why a novel could be set there based on my initial views. Net time I’m in London, I’ll eyeball it in the real. Strange I never have. Huh. ** Sypha, ‘Star Wars’ turned George Lucas into a total, permanent whore. My sincerest condolences on your cat’s passing. I know Amber was really important to you. I’m so sorry, pal. ** Steve Erickson, In my memory, none remained Christian. Except for the ones who already were Christian and used the Born Again craze to just give theirs a bump. The vast majority of them just went back to being aimless potheads again. I believe you about ‘BaA’, but I still don’t think it’s something that has any potential for me from what I’ve heard, positive or negative. Evetryuopne, Do you want to know what the esteemed critic Steve Erickson thinks are the ten best films of the year? Well, you can! Jump! Your list and my fave films list share one entry this year. ** Jeff J, Yes, I’m pretty sure the Park of Reversible Destiny is still there. I’ve never visited it. Yet. I will let you know if I get any inside scoop of BF’s shuttering, but I strongly suspect it’s for the obvious reason. But, yeah, I’ll dig in. In terms of print, no, there’s nothing remotely on the level of Bookforum. Its death really is the death-knell of offline serious book criticism with any adventurous spirit whatsoever. France has great lit journals, but that’s France. ** malcolm, Hi, Malcom! Great to see you! Pretty eventful week you had there indeed! Congrats, pal. July 1st. I already hear trumpets! They were planning to build one of those reverse skyscrapers in Japan, but of course that came to naught. Good question about how they got that hair. One time when I was a teen I was in an airport waiting to catch a plane, and so was Mickey Dolenz of the The Monkees coincidentally (see: above), and a guy walked up to him and asked if he could snip off a bit of hair, and Mickey Dolenz said sure, so maybe famous people think it’s the least they can do. My only Xmas traditions are eating a Xmas Buche and riding the Xmas-themed dark ride at the Paris Xmas fun fair as often as possible. You? ** NIT, Howdy, S! I don’t know about that book! Ooh, I’ll get it somehow. Thank you, fellow failed architecture liking dude! ** Okay. You already know what is or was in store for you today. And I will see you on Friday.