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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1959)
Hollywood's new hopefuls have been picked by teen-agers; here's how they live, work, date and try to stay on top MOVIES RflEETT THE mEDDOHTT ON OUR COVER A. Sandra Dee B. James Darren C. Carol Lynley D. Edd Byrnes E. Tuesday Weld F. Fabian 6. Frankie Avalon From mother's knee to theater marquee. That's the overnight success story of today's Hollywood heroes and heroines Frankie Avalon, Tuesday Weld, Fabian, Carol Lynley, Annette Funicello, Sandra Dee, James Darren and Edd Byrnes. Who? you ask. Well, you're showing your age if these names don't mean as much as Rock Hud son or Debbie Reynolds. Yesterday they enter tained the family at home. Today they' are teen-age idols, and what teen-agers idolize, Hollywood adores. Teen-agers are Hollywood's most reliable audi ence nowadays, and a good actor, fine story and expert director frequently aren't as profitable as an awkward kid with uncut hair and adenoid trouble. Producer Aaron Spelling, for example, paid 18-year-old Frankie Avalon $25,000 to costar with Alan Ladd in "Guns of Timberland." Spelling had his eye on the cash register, not the Academy Award shelf. There were three reasons for be lieving Avalon could hypo theater attendance: 1. Teen-agers take on new idols as quickly as new fads and discard them as quickly. Avalon is hot now, and kids will pay money to see him. 2. Most stars start in the record industry and get plenty of pre-film publicity. Avalon did. 3. The rapidly increasing number of fan and teen-age magazines helps generate interest among teen-agers by saturating them with reading about their favorites and the movies they are making. Avalon typifies the new order in many respects. Philadelphia-born, he's shy, likeable and virtu ally a creation of show-business-wise managers. Frankie won't even make a date without their advice. But his earnings are carefully shepherded and bring new ease to his family and to his father, a l'ptirprl Inrnmntivp-nnmranv pnoinpm- 1 -- - - o - . Talent is something teen-agers don't demand of their favorities. That's evident in the adulation given Fabian, 16, a strapping, six-foot Philadel phian who flopped with his first three records, , found moderate success on the fourth, then hit the jackpot (with the help of sound engineers) with "Turn Me Loose." His surprising success led to a big role in Jerry Wald's "Hound Dog Man" and an exclusive contract with 20th Century-Fox which could bring him $2 million. ' Fabians' last name is Forte. He's already bought his family a new home in the suburbs while keep ing his own allowance at $20 a week and main taining a "B" average in school. Like Avalon, Fabian is too busy to do much dating. Besides neither can find a teen-age hangout where he isn't mobbed. Family Weekly On a different track is Edd "Kookie" Byrnes who hit the big time as a flip-talking side kick to Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Roger Smith in TV's "77 Sunset Strip." He's still in the "low pay bracket" and already is an old man 25. But as costar Roger Smith says, "He's getting younger every day." To complete Edd's reversal of for mula, he was an actor before making a hit rec ord, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" which may sell two million. James Darren was discovered in Hollywood's old-fashioned way a talent scout spotted him waiting for an elevator in New York City. At 23, he's the only newcomer who's been married, A divorce is pending and, much to his publicity man's chagrin, a romance, too with blue-eyed Evy Norlund, a former Miss Denmark who, like Darren, is under contract to Columbia. Unlike the stars of the Golden Era, most of this group are serious-minded. They adhere to shooting schedules religiously, avoid late hours and try desperately to learn their trade. For .the most part, they appear to be fine examples for young America, but Hollywood's older cynics claim that their sterling qualities are really moti vated by the fact that they know they can fall as quickly as they've risen. Through hard work and diligent training, they hope to "graduate" into the more secure world of adult fans. Tuesday weld alone reminds old-timers of the movie star of yesteryear unfortunately, not the most lovable kind. She's moody, unpredictable and given to temper tantrums, which takes a lot of nerve for a 16-year-old whose only prior claim to fame was a date with Tab Hunter! Now she's featured on TV and is costarred in "Hound Dog Man." Tuesday has been labeled "Queen 'of the Beatniks"- by an imaginative press agent who probably can also take the blame for her visiting pool halls, talking flip language and giving shocking answers to interviewers. In fairness to Tuesday, though, she is probably the only young star who reads serious books and can talk intelligently. Annette Funicello, a graduate of Walt Disney's Mouseketers, is no shocker or pseudo-beatnik. She's being raised small-town fashion by her closely knit family who set curfews for her, in spect each boy friend and keep her in a public school so she'll know "real kids." Annette's ex travagance is for records a mania shared with millions of others her age and perfume bottles, which her mother insists she dust each week. Ex-model Carol . Lynley, unlike the others, seems bent on alienating the people who put her Fans see themselves in Annette Funicello, a talented "hep teen-ager," typical of today's famous youngsters. on top teen-agers and the press. She has de manded fees for magazine publicity pictures (and got them!) and exhibited notable coolness to her fans. Recently she had to hire an expensive Hol lywood publicist to reverse a downward trend in her fortune. Carol, 17, is recognized as a promising actress, especially now that she's learned what the teen-agers giveth, they also taketh away. The busiest of the new crop of stars is 17-year-old Sandra Dee who has made five films in the past 12 months. That doesn't leave much time for boys, but Sandra seems happier with a movie script to study while watching TV. About her only "high-time" is throwing a swimming party at her newly purchased home. By next year, some of these soaring personali ties may be forgotten; others may go to the heights achieved by some teen-age favorities of their parents' era Frank Sinatra, for example. The sad thing about the good fortune being en joyed by most of them is that teen-age fans grow up fast and their tastes mature. And the kid brothers and sisters who replace them as teen agers will no sooner accept their idols than they will their discarded sweaters or dungarees. i Family Weekly, Auuu.it 30. 1959 by Peer l- Oppenheimer af - ' For singer Frankie Avalon, being an idol means lots of hard work. A pending divorce hasn't decreased the popularity of James Darren, 23. i r V ' . , f u v. m r - n J Tuesday Weld, movie star and "beatnik" at 16, does the town with Dick Sinatra. Sandra Dee, 17, filmland's busiest teen, rehearses with Troy Donahue. irm Kids flip for TV's Edd "Kookie" Byrnes (right), the "old man" among them at 25. I IIHIM . L H II III vll I I " I i'h If Fabian (center), another magic name, talks with actors Stuart Whitman and Hope Lange. Philip Dunne directs Carol Lynley in her role for film "Blue Denim." iJL IIEV tlP-27 TREATMENT under skin surface even penetrates into toenails Promotes growth of healthy tissue. Guards against infection coming back. 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