Biography
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Born
6 February 1931 (age 93)
Born Joan Lucille Olander in South Dakota on February 6, 1931.
Mesmerized by the distant glamour of Hollywood, Joan's farm family packed up and moved to Los Angeles in 1942.
Her first acting job was at the age of 13 in one of the very early television shows as Little Joanie, the Flower Girl.
At the age of 15 she won several beauty contests and found herself not only in the attention of the film studio RKO, but also in the eyes of director Howard Hughes.
Hughes got her some small parts, but nothing very notable, and in 1950 she spent the summer working in Las Vegas as a Showgirl. It was during this time period she posed for a pin up session with Alberto Vargas. Her portrait would grace the July 1951 publication of Esquire.
Still Joan at this time, she became involved in many high profile relationships, which would be typical of her life, two of which were Eddie Fisher and Jack Dempsey.
She returned to Los Angeles, and got her first real manager, composer Jimmy McHugh. She gave a very sexy performance in a L.A. production of Come back little Sheba, which landed her a plum role in the film Forbidden, and a seven year contract with Universal International. It was upon UI's urging that she changed her name to Mamie Van Doren.
One of Mamie's trademarks in her "starlet" days was that of a brassiere known as the bullet bra. She was neither the first nor the last to wear one, however she would come to be identified with it, even after 35 years.
While Mamie was constantly compared to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, she was in true form, very unique. She was not prone to playing the Hollywood game, and was in many ways very ahead of her time in terms of women's liberation, and the sexual revolution. She was also identified very early on with rock & roll, and this association would give her some of the greatest 1950's pop icon status
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