Medford mail tribune., August 04, 1963, Image 38

Jill scores in her first comedy, "Come
Blow Your Horn," opposite Frank Sinatra.
A New Life f or Jill
A red-haired young lady hesitantly en
tered the stage door of a Los Angeles bur
lesque house and approached one of the "ex
otic dancers" who worked there.
"I want a career," she said. "Will you help me?"
The buxom dancer gave the well-tailored girl the look
over. "Well, you got the ingredients you just don't pro
ject them. You gotta get more swing in the hips, you
gotta look less hoity-toity."
The newcomer spotted another dancer applying heavy
eye make-up. "Could you show me how to do that?" she
asked. The dancer complied and even gave more pointers.
"You oughta dress less PTA-ish. And them 'jools'
they don't have much flash."
"Them jools" would be appraised conservatively at
several thousand dollars by any jeweler. And the PTA
ish suit was custom-tailored at one of the nation's finest
shops. The newcomer? Hollywood actress Jill St John,
whose visit to a burlesque house wasn't research for a
new movie. It was far more important
The crisis had begun a few days earlier. "I was very
depressed," Jill recalls. "I simply had to get out of
Hollywood and was packed for Paris." She had a lot to
be depressed about. Her career had bogged down. Worse,
she recently had left her husband Lance Reventlow, son
of Barbara Hutton of the Woolworth multimillions.
"Just then my agent called and asked whether I wanted
to try out for a comedy part in Paramount's 'Come Blow
Your Horn.' Did I! For years I've been trying to shake
the image of the rich-girl dilettante who dabbles in act
ing and can do only ingenue roles."
But at paramount it was the same old story. "They
said I was too sophisticated for comedy, not sexy
enough," Jill continues. "So I went right over to that
burlesque house to learn things. Next, I bought a yellow
jersey dress and a flaming wig. I put it all together and
went back, swingin' and swayin', for another interview.
They took one look at me and said : 'What are we waiting
for? She's the girl for us!'"
Jill's performance in "Come Blow Your Horn" led to
two more comedy films, yet to be released "Who's Mind
ing the Store?" with Jerry Lewis and "Who's Been
Sleeping in My Bed?" with Dean Martin.
Jill's career, which began when she was six, appears to
have turned the corner in a big way. But what about her
private life? At that, Jill throws up her hands in exaspera
tion. "I don't know what Lance and I will do. Maybe after
this summer, we'll make some decision."
A year ago Jill moved out of Lance's three-and-a-half-acre
hilltop mansion, which has a swimming pool stretch
ing from living room to terrace. ("But, imagine, only
two bedrooms!" Jill complains.)
At the time, Jill said: "We had different outlooks,
views, and interests." Yet today her conversation is stud
ded with references to the couple's mutual interests art
collecting, a pet menagerie ranging from hamsters to a
deer which neighbors forced them to dispose of, such vig
orous sports as skiing and scuba diving, and cooking.
Family Wnkly. August 4. IH3
i u J
Her career
is booming after the doldrums of
being typed as a "rich girl" but
what about her
real-life role of
estranged wife
of a rich boy?
fk
' jn i
By JACK RYAN
In former days, Jill attended many
an auto race to please Lance Reventlow.
Currently, they're living separate lives.
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