8 Hollywood's Golden Age actress Mamie Van Doren dishes new and untold stories from her career — everything from entertainment drama to romantic trysts. Mamie Van Doren Delivers a Gossipy Tell-All in New Memoir By Luis Polanco Mamie Van Doren’s career as a Hollywood starlet is an interesting case study in how the collapse of the U.S. studio system transformed the lives and careers of its talent. Born as Joan Lucille Olander in 1931, Van Doren was raised in Rowena, South Dakota and Sioux City, Iowa, before moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1942. She was “discovered” (as the expression goes) by film producer Howard Hughes, who found small roles for her in his RKO movies. Later, in 1953, she signed a contract with Universal, where the powers that be intended to present her as its younger and blonder answer to Marilyn Monroe. In her later career, she starred in some foreign and international titles, although for the most part, these were campy B-movie productions. Today, Van Doren is recognized as the last living member of the unofficial group known as the “Three M’s,” a trio of blonde bombshells that put Van Doren in the company of the incomparable (and above-mentioned) Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, the actress and Playboy Playmate. In 1987, Van Doren published her first memoir, Playing the Field: Sex, Stardom, Love, and Life in Hollywood, which chronicled her account of the competitive Hollywood studio system, as well as her steamy affairs with international celebrities. In her latest memoir, the riotously funny and charming You Thought I Was Dead: My Life of Celebrities, Sex, and Champagne (Permuted Press, 320 pgs., 2026, $30), Van Doren continues to deliver her raw honesty and irreverent humor in even more untold stories about sex, celebrities, and Hollywood, alongside playful and caricature-esque illustrations by Stephen B. Whatley. You Thought I Was Dead covers several areas of Van Doren’s life, beginning with her early years. She shares memories of growing up on a farm in South Dakota with her parents and grandmother, where she cultivated a childhood fascination with platinum blonde screen actress Jean Harlow. After moving to Los Angeles, a chance encounter with producer Nils Thor Granlund led to her befriending Elizabeth Short — a dark-haired waitress at the Florentine Gardens who would later become the victim at the center of the gruesome “Black Dahlia” murder. A healthy portion of the memoir is dedicated to Van Doren’s love life. She details several short-lived marriages, including those to sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman, big band bandleader Ray Anthony, baseball pitcher Lee Meyers, and businessman Ross McClintock. Later, she married actor and dentist Thomas Dixon, with whom she remains married today. However, Van Doren divulges countless details from other steamy and troubling romances. As a teenager, she met big band singer Vic Damone after tennis lessons — a casual meeting that resulted in her first sexual experience. At the L.A. nightclub El Macombo, where underage drinking laws were notoriously lax, she met Howard Hughes, who pursued her romantically and went on to offer her early film roles after she won the Miss Palm Springs beauty contest. Hughes placed Van Doren as an extra in RKO movies like war drama Jet Pilot and the film noir His Kind of Woman. In describing the sexual nature of her relationship with Hughes, Van Doren expresses deep reservations about the business. “I was learning a hard lesson about Hollywood’s promise and threat: You may be allowed to reach the heights, but at the same time, you may be cursed to feel powerless and unprotected—and slightly sullied.” Van Doren reveals a myriad of other dalliances. At the historic Club Oasis, she shared “ten days” with music legend Quincy Jones. She pursued actor Lawrence Tierney at an upscale restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard after seeing him in the title role of Dillinger, a gangster movie about John Dillinger, an American gangster active during the Great Depression. Then there were the romantic entanglements on set, such as during the filming of the romantic sports drama All American between her, co-star Tony Curtis, and director Jesse Hibbs. For readers looking for even more titillating details outside of Van Doren’s love life, the memoir encompasses juicy and amusing morsels of wit, facts, and impressions. These include how she got her stage name, Mamie Van Doren, from Hollywood columnist James Bacon, her visits and performances to support troops in the Vietnam War, her reflections on dominant divas such as Joan Crawford, Joan Bennett, and Gloria Swanson, and her efforts to raise public awareness about AIDS. You Thought I Was Dead, the hysterical title of Van Doren’s memoir, speaks volumes about her sense of humor. “That’s what you were thinking when you picked up this book,” she writes. “How old is she? Is she still alive?” Mamie Van Doren is now 95 years old, and her memoir is proof that the last one at the party gets to laugh the longest. Mamie Van Doren is now 95 years old, and her memoir is proof that the last one at the party gets to laugh the longest. VIDEOAGE November 2026 Book Review
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