Girls, This One Is Straight Out Of "Hollywood Babylon"!!!!!!!!!

Let me tell you, the only way, sometimes, I know if anyone in show biz has died, is to consult the card cabinet in my workplace, atop which are placed photographs, accompanied with birth and death dates, by the always adept Christopher. Though I have had my time with him; I wanted a triptych of Jennifer Jones, but had to content myself with two shots--one of herself, and one as Bernadette. I also wanted Pearl Chavez, up there, but that Christopher!!!!!!!!! And when Linda Lovelace, who made film history of sorts, passed on, he would not put her up. I mean, come on!!!!! No one would say she was Meryl Streep. But history is what you make it.

So imagine my astonishment yesterday, when I passed this space, and saw a photo of 50's camp sex icon, Yvette Vickers. Imagine my further astonishment when I saw the death date listed as 2010!!!!!!! Well, this turns out to be true.

Now, to those of a Certain Age, Yvette Vickers is remembered for one film--the 1958 classic, "Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman." This film had everything. For one thing, it offered hope. Allison Hayes plays Nancy Archer, a washed up, neurotic mental patient, who looks it. But one night, coming home, she is radioactivated by a giant mutant alien emerging from a glowing globular white ball--and before you know it she starts growing in height. By the time she reaches fifty feet, she has transformed into a blonde glamour puss, wrapped in a clinging, white sarong, who storms through the town bellowing for her husband--"Harry!" And then her classic line--"I know where my husband is! He's with that blonde!"

Who was played by Yvette Vickers. As the adulterous town slut, Honey, she stole every scene she was in, with her strapped gowns, and purring voice. "Haaaaaaaay," she asks, "whaaaaaaaaat's going on?" Before we knew what sexy or sex was, we knew it was Yvette, and didn't we all want to be like her????? At least, for a time!!!!!!! And of course she came to a bad end, being crushed underneath a table.

But it seemed like Yvette was always being heard from. Around 1956, I believe, she did a layout in "Playboy," and, honey, I may be gay, but I would like to see that. She also appeared in two A-list films--"Sunset Boulevard" (she is the girl at the party talking on the phone) and "Hud." There was also the horror classic "Attack Of The Giant Leeches," and she turns up briefly as a mother of one of the Shirley Temple wannabes, in "What's The Matter With Helen?"

I guess when the looks went, so did the career, and since she was never a world beater as an actress, work was few and far between. She eventually became a recluse, and it was in this state she died, sometime mid last year. Only she was not discovered till recently. How, I ask you, did neighbors (or especially mailmen) not notice the odor of decomposing flesh????? Or piles of mail or newspapers?????

Only in Hollywood, kiddies, as Rona Barrett might say. So pull out your favorite Vickers film this evening--mine will be '50 Foot Woman', of course,--and pay tribute to this true 50s icon.

You will be missed, Yvette!!!!!!!! Widely imitated, never duplicated!!!!!!!!!