- I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone.
- I came to Hollywood determined to follow in Jean Harlow's footsteps, but I was determined not to die young. My hope was to endure. And endure I have.
- There's a scene in The Aviator (2004) that depicts Howard Hughes' first meeting with Faith Domergue that comes very close to the scene in my book 'Playing the Field' describing my first meeting with him. He asks Faith how old she is. Answer: 15. He asked me the same thing. Answer: 16. He even asks if she lived with her parents and how nice it was that she lived at home. The only thing he didn't ask her in the movie was the main thing he asked me: "Are you a virgin?".
- At my age, having an orgasm is like having an occasional cocktail.
- [on the period in the early 1960s when she was engaged to baseball star pitcher Bo Belinsky] It was a wild ride, but a lot of fun.
- [on her breast measurement] I don't even want to say double D, because they're even much bigger than that.
- [on her appearance in His Kind of Woman (1951)] If you blinked, you would miss me. I look barely old enough to drive.
- I have never been a Marilyn Monroe wannabe. I have always been happy in my own skin!
- [July 20, 2009] On this 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon, my thoughts go to the romantic adventurer, Buzz Aldrin. Buzz and I spent some memorable and erotic times together some decades ago, and he is often in my thoughts. After all, a man who could make it to the moon, could make it with me anytime.
- [2008] All the great sex symbols are dead. Jean Harlow is dead. Mae West is dead. Marlene Dietrich is dead. Marilyn Monroe is dead. And I'm not feeling too well myself.
- [on what her life has been like] Sometimes, I'm misunderstood and it's hard to come by that. My life has been full of excitement. I've done pretty much what I wanted to do. I came from the Midwest, from South Dakota, and I came up the hard way. We lived on a farm; we didn't even have electricity or running water, if you know what I mean. People don't know what that life is like.
- I've never acted at my age and I never will. It's just the way I've always been.
- I have a couple of favorite roles: Penny Lowe in Untamed Youth (1957) and Peggy DeFore in Teacher's Pet (1958). It didn't hurt playing opposite Clark Gable. One of my favorite movies is Born Reckless (1958), which I just saw for the first time on TCM's retrospective of my movies.
- [on her fling with Steve Cochran while married to Ray Anthony] Steve and I launched into an affair that had the cast and crew of The Beat Generation (1959) whispering behind their hands. No sooner would we finish a scene than we would disappear into my dressing-room for a quick fuck while they set up the next shot. When Ray opened the door without knocking, he found me sitting astride Steve having sex in a chair.
- [on second husband Ray Anthony] I used to call him "Ray Agony". He just put me through hell.
- I never thought women were given choices. I was raised in South Dakota. My mom and dad were pretty wild and they had me as kids. And I grew up around people who were very open about sex. When the war came out we moved to California and I took all the opportunities I could get. I never wanted to be a trophy wife. I wanted to make it on my own. I didn't want to depend on a man.
- Sometimes I think I made a big mistake by not paying more attention to Prince Axel. He was looking for a wife and genuinely cared for me. Well, he had the hots for me is more like it. I would have made a great princess. After all, I wasn't doing anything Grace Kelly wasn't doing at the time, and the princess bit really saved her reputation.
- Well, when I got my contract at Universal, Jayne Mansfield wasn't known yet. Marilyn Monroe was at 20th Century Fox. When I started at Universal, it was James Bacon who put the publicity out that my name was Mamie Van Doren and I was Universal's answer to Marilyn Monroe. That really launched my name. I took a bunch of sexy pictures, and then they put me in All American (1953). My next picture was Yankee Pasha (1954) with Jeff Chandler, which was a very sexy role as a slave girl. If you do one movie after the other, and you're out there all the time, and out doing publicity and romancing the stars of the top studios, you become known. That is the way it was.
- I've had cosmetic surgery, but I've only done it a couple of times. I've had a facelift, but nothing else. No Botox or implants or collagen. Nothing. What I think happens is that actresses and actors go in to see the doctors, and the doctors say something will make them look better, and they believe it. They do the operation, but what happens is that it's too much. They put the cheekbones too high, and they look like they have little pins in their face for eyes, and they all have that same look. When I go to Hollywood, I see people but don't recognize them, and that's not good. They want to look young, and age has always been the "thing" in Hollywood. It always has been and always will be. Everybody is so age-conscious.
- I think a lot of beauty is always from within. When a woman is beautiful, she radiates the moment she walks in the room. There is almost a light around her. There are very few women who have that.
- I tried to stay ahead of everybody. I try to stay ahead of everybody today, too. I've got so many ideas. There is so much you can do.
- Tony Curtis was wonderful. He and I hit it off very well and he became a personal friend of mine.
- Steve Cochran was the sexiest man I have ever known. We made two movies together (The Beat Generation (1959) and The Big Operator (1959)) and we were always hot for one another, slipping off for a quickie here and there, or meeting after a day's shooting. Sadly, Steve had a very dark and abusive side, which eventually made me decide not to see him again. He asked me one last time to go with him on his boat to Mexico where he was going to shoot a movie. When I turned him down, he recruited several other girls to go. Steve died of a heart attack on the way and drifted for days with a boat load of girls until the Coast Guard found them.
- Ryan Gosling is really hot. I like him. I would be in any shot he fucking wants me in.
- One who really surprised me was Henry Kissinger, a politician in Washington, D.C. I never expected to be sitting in the White House and have him reach under the table and try to play with me or spin me around the President's chair. But if Henry hadn't had dental problems, I would have probably gone to bed with him because I thought he was very sexy, but that turned me off.
- [on how she stays looking young] I go to Pilates and I work out. I keep myself fit. I don't like to have just muscles. I try to exercise to keep my breasts firm and nice so they don't hang, because my breasts are large, so I like to keep them strong.
- [advice to people who want to follow her path] Never, never marry an actor - you will have two giant egos that will not fit in the same room; never trust a business manager - they will steal you blind; never give advice.
- Pamela Anderson is gorgeous. We did a layout together for Vanity Fair and we had great fun. She is honest, funny, and unpretentious. Ryan Gosling and Daniel Craig are two guys that I like to watch. Unfortunately, there are no Clark Gables, Cary Grants, or Susan Haywards anymore because the studio system no longer exists that groomed and promoted them. Nothing remains the same. The universe revolves whether or not we like it, so you might as well smile.
- [on her longevity] I've always taken care of my health - never been much of a drinker, never smoked cigarettes, never done drugs much, except smoking occasional pot and that's been decades ago. I'm *not* an 80 year-old virgin, and good sex really does help. If you didn't have good sex, you might not live a long time, but it would sure seem like it. All that said, one of the interesting things about longevity, if one is a so-called celebrity, is that you are seldom the one hearing the clock ticking. Everyone else goes out of their way to watch the hands and never hesitates to let you know when one clicks to the next number.
- [on fourth husband Ross McClintock] A mistake. I'd refused to be an ornament for the studios, and I was damned if I'd be one at a bunch of dull cocktail parties. I was in the process of divorcing him and all of a sudden this judge annulled our marriage. Annulled! I lived with that bastard for four months. If we'd been divorced, I would have received a great deal of money, but the old-boy network is very tight down here [in Orange County].
- I truly believe that one of the reasons why I look and feel so well is because I've very few inhibitions. I don't care about age. Life is too short to worry about what other people think.
- There was a screenplay written for me called Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), which I turned down because it was a satire on Marilyn Monroe and I didn't want to be compared to her anymore. Well, they got Jayne Mansfield, who was an unknown, and that made her famous. Well, Marilyn took off from 20th, and went with Arthur Miller, and married him. 20th didn't give her the money she wanted, so I don't blame her. Well, they signed Jayne and then she did a couple of movies [at 20th Century Fox], but that was about it. She did a lot of publicity though. She loved to do publicity.
- [on her parents] They were huge influences - sometimes negative but mostly positive. They were just kids themselves when I was born and we grew up together. They hadn't really bargained for having a baby so soon after they got together in one Sunday afternoon after church. They loved adventure - fast cars, midget auto races, motorcycles, hard drinking. They were my Bonnie and Clyde.
- It is possible that blondes also prefer gentlemen.
- I always think of Canada as being the U.S.'s enlightened Zen cousin. You have sensible gun laws, sensible national health care, and you don't go around bombing everyone if they don't agree with you. I have worked all over Canada: Toronto at the Royal York following Deitrich, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary. Once I was the Queen of the Calgary Stampede, and I was singing when a cowboy rode his horse up on stage to dance with me. Where else could you have that much fun?
- The sexiest men I ever met were Steve Cochran and Steve McQueen. They both possessed a kind of reckless energy that I found, er, arousing. They were also very difficult to get along with in their own ways, but one makes allowances for a good bonk.
- I studied really hard. But Hollywood never appreciated my talent.
- Every time I get a birthday, I always appreciate it. Most people don't get old. The odds are against you. And the discrimination towards anyone who's old is really bad. I never did that with Marlene Dietrich or Mae West. I had a considerable amount of respect for my elders.
- [on places to have sex] Location never mattered much to me. If I had the urge to do someone in an elevator or a taxi or a swimming pool, that's where it happened.
- [on touring with Bob Hope to entertain Vietnam War soldiers] That son of a bitch flew into Vietnam during the day to do his shows and spent his nights in safety in Thailand, and made millions off the shows by selling them to television when he returned.
- The '50s studio system went by the wayside and then [independent films] became very popular. I think that had a lot to do with the movie industry being more independent and having more freedom to put on the screen what they wanted. That changed the movie industry, and that's where we are now. I think some of the actors today are excellent. We have a lot of good actors out there. The girls today are different-looking. They are taller and they are not as voluptuous. They have more muscles in their legs. Some guys like a lot of muscles on their women. I like muscles because I don't like flab.
- I believe many people exercise too strenuously today. Too much exercise is a prescription for injury, and the regimen is often short-lived. Better to do your exercise on a scale that you can maintain over the years. You will last longer.
- I was star-struck by Clark Gable. Of course, in those days, he was considered the king of the movies. He had Vivien Leigh and Lana Turner and all these beautiful women in his arms and I was fortunate enough to do Teacher's Pet (1958) with him. Well, I had a kissing scene with him, where he was holding me in his arms, and I nearly fainted. I think I was twenty-four, and he was in his mid-fifties, but it didn't matter to me, really.
- Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and I were so different from each other. I was doing very young movies and Marilyn, who was ahead of me, was doing a lot of homogenized movies that weren't quite as wild as the ones I was doing. Jayne was more of a character of herself. I took my acting very seriously. I did over 40 films and naturally some of them were called B-movies because the woman was at the top of the billing. Women couldn't star in their own movies.
- Sex symbols defy definition. I have often tried to define it myself. A sex symbol becomes a code for everyone's erotic fantasy. These codes are very perishable in popular culture. For every Jean Harlow, Mae West, or Marilyn Monroe, there are scores of girls - and boys - who never made the cut. If a sex symbol can survive more than a few years, they are very powerful. I am flattered to still be thought of in such a way.
- I started very early. When I was living in the Midwest in Iowa I would go and see all the movies. I just loved the big silver screen with all those big actors, and that's when I decided to become an actress, or a "movie star". In those days it was always a "movie star". It was just kind of ingrained in me because I think I was just meant to do it. I think about myself in old photographs where I'm three years old, and I'm posing my leg over, and I never ever saw any pictures to make me do that. It just all came naturally. Then I came out to Hollywood and Howard Hughes discovered me in a beauty contest, and that's what sort of started me off.
- [on her diet and health advice] I don't really have many special foods. I like a plant-based diet, but occasionally I eat meat or fish. I have a protein shake most mornings and some yogurt and tea which seem to set me up for the day. Nutritionally, the most important thing for everyone is to keep your weight under control. Obesity is probably the single greatest health hazard we face today. We are coerced by corporate media into eating far more than we should, and then tempted by skinny-super models into nutty diets. My advice: just be sensible in *amount* that you eat.
- Facebook changed forever the way I interact with fans. It is immediate and often rewarding. I am blessed with the nicest fans in the world. The best thing about Facebook is the extraordinary people I am introduced to from all over the world. The worst thing about Facebook is that it is very addictive. I can spend hours there.
- I do feel that I owe my fans a "pretty" Mamie - sometimes. However, I don't necessarily owe anyone a pretty Joanie Olander (Van Doren's real name). When I'm kicking around the neighborhood walking the dogs or splashing in the surf at the beach, my only obligation is to myself and the true inner me.
- I have never been a successful star fucker or trophy wife.
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