My Friend, Yvette Vickers: In Her Own Words, as told to John O'Dowd

by Yvette Vickers

When Yvette, a New York model for White Rain shampoo, first appeared in Sunset Boulevard (1950), she could not have imagined that her own death would be as bizarre as Norma Desmond's gigolo, Joe's.After roles in Short Cut to Hell (1957) and Reform School Girl (1957), Yvette's fate cast her into dubious signature roles in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959).Years passed, bit parts led to no parts, and Yvette gradually withdrew from the world. Forgotten by nearly everyone, she was last seen alive in 2010. In 2011, her mummified body was discovered in her home, and forensic scientists determined that she had been dead for as long as a year from heart disease.John O'Dowd now reveals the secret recordings she made in her last years that reveal in her own voice the truth about her life and career. Hear her retell behind-the-scenes stories of the show business that brushed her aside, her dashed dreams, and her realized hopes. Her voice, warm-hearted and still resonating with humor, tells the inside story no one heard before her grisly death.

1 pages, MP3 CD

Published November 28, 2017

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t believe I had ever heard of Yvette Vickers before running across this audiobook. What drew me to listen was the promise of hearing the story of a starlet, with bit parts in Hollywood classics and leading parts in the kinds of horror movies I used to watch Saturdays at midnight on local TV. (In my area, the Quad Cities, her “Attack” movies would have been shown on Chuck Acri’s Creature Feature). And the book blurb promised her story “in her own voice”. How literal that ended up being.

The entire book, except for a few short introductory sections of a few minutes each at most, was recordings of Yvette talking. The first half of the audiobook consists of a set of recordings Yvette made to capture her biography, with the hopes of later turning her recorded notes into a book. Much of this first section is told with a light jazz band in the background. She apparently recorded this at a bar or with music playing at home. She includes many stories of her early life and her early career, including her belief that she was blackballed from good roles in Hollywood by Joanne Woodward after “partying” with Paul Newman while filming “Hud”. The second half of the book were, of all things, two hours of telephone messages Yvette left with her collaborator/interviewer – the “author” of this book. Here, Yvette told some additional stories of her life, about, for instance, the death of a beloved dog, and issues selling real estate, and reports of doctors appointments. Yvette was a friend to the author, and these messages showed her as a normal person, showing interest in him while also sharing details of her life.

Unexpectedly (to me), Yvette came across as a smart cookie, with an outgoing personality typical of a real estate seller. This made it easy to listen to the recordings. What ended up being odd was that the two things she was most known for – her horror movies and her bizarre death, were not part of this book. Obviously she couldn’t have narrated the details of her own death, but you don’t know from the blurbs if her recordings were all you would get. The author certainly could have written more on this. The author explains away the lack of horror movie detail by saying that Yvette had already had some magazine articles written that detailed those episodes in her life and she didn’t bother repeating them in her recordings here. These missing pieces were very noticeable, but what you are left with was really like being a fly on the wall as an older actress talked to a friend/potential biographer. The voyeur in me found this a lot like listening in to some old friends talking at a table near you in a coffee shop. I found it of some interest, but was glad it wasn’t longer.

[Denise Noe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Friend, Yvette Vickers: In Her Own Words as told to John O’Dowd
Reviewed by Denise Noe

Blonde beauty Yvette Vickers (1928-2010) won fame in the 1950s and 1960s for her career as an actress. Although she was almost 30 at the time she played a juvenile delinquent in Reform School Girl (1957), her perky good looks made her believable in it. A Reform School Girl poster of her fighting with Gloria Castillo has become a collector’s item. In 1958, she played small town temptress Honey Parker in the unforgettable cult classic Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. It is shapely Vickers who dances in the local bar with Harry Archer (William Hudson) when his jealous wife Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes), who has grown to enormous proportions due to an encounter with an extraterrestrial, rips open the building to pick Harry up like a doll. The next year, she played two-timing wife Liz Walker in the similar Attack of the Giant Leeches. Yvette also displayed her cute and curvy body in several men’s magazines; she was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in its July 1959 issue.
Sadly, this talented and accomplished performer is known to many people primarily for the sad circumstances of her death. In her senior years, she withdrew from family and friends, spending almost all her time in her home. Last seen alive in 2010, a neighbor discovered Yvette’s corpse in her Beverly Hills home in April 2011. She may have been dead for a year. When discovered, her body had mummified. There was no evidence of foul play but the tragic circumstances of her death may have obscured for much of the public the accomplishments of her life.
John O’Dowd to the rescue! This author is best known for his work on tragic actress Barbara Payton who once earned thousands opposite Hollywood stars like James Cagney and Gregory Peck but ended her life as an alcoholic prostitute charging as little as $5. His biography, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story and follow up photography volume Barbara Payton: A Life in Pictures, restored humanity and depth to Payton.
In the audiobook My Friend, Yvette Vickers: In Her Own Words as told to John O’Dowd, this author performs a similar service for Yvette. Of course, there is an enormous difference between this work and those on Payton since O’Dowd never met Payton but was actually friends with Yvette.
The audiobook consists of O’Dowd’s statements coupled with Yvette’s answers to his interview questions. It also includes relevant voice messages she left on his answering machine. Yvette Vickers was the daughter of jazz musicians who was raised in a safe and loving environment.
Yvette speaks with fondness of her life as a young actress. She enjoyed a romance with Ralph Meeker, who was most famous for his role as Mike Hammer in the 1955 film noir Kiss Me Deadly, that was genuinely romantic. “He took me dancing every Friday and to restaurants,” she recalls. “We took a carriage ride in the park.” Yvette recalls being part of the “beat generation. She says, “It was ‘beat,’ not ‘beatnik,” because most of those hanging out, as she often did, in beat clubs disliked that word. Yvette and her compatriots had health interests of which “health food” was one part. She believes she possessed a “joy of life” or, as it is often called, a “joie de vivre.”
Coming from a family of jazz musicians, it is hardly surprising that she also had musical talent. She discusses a period when she was “concentrating on music” and a “cabaret show” as well as putting out a CD. “I had discipline,” she asserts. “I worked hard and I played hard.”
Yvette acknowledges a special flair for male company. “I’m a man’s woman and unashamed of it.”
In the voice messages she left for O’Dowd, her upbeat and optimistic attitude comes through strongly as she encourages him on putting the book together. O’Dowd comments that the voice messages are “bittersweet” for him because they are evidence of the “love, kindness, and support” of a “true friend.”
O’Dowd tells us that Yvette loved animals throughout her life and had many pets. She had a special love for a dog she named Greta Garbo but usually called Garbo. “She thought of Garbo as her soulmate,” O’Dowd explains. There is a special poignancy in the voice messages we hear Yvette leave about Garbo: “There’s a crisis . . . growths on her underbelly. She isn’t active like she used to be.” Then, finally, she says, “Garbo didn’t make it.”
It is often believed that Yvette turned “paranoid” in her final years. She talked of suspicious characters hanging around and hang-up calls. However, her fears may not entirely have been in her imagination. O’Dowd tells us he heard a strange and threatening type of voice message left on her answering machine. Perhaps her withdrawal from society was not just because of paranoia but genuine menaces.
Regardless of the precise reasons leading to her death, it is Yvette Vickers active and accomplished life for which she should be remembered. This audiobook is a powerful tribute to that life.