As I mentioned in the above story, “In June 1992, Montgomery and Dick Sargent, were Grand Marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.”
Was any of the cast of Bewitched gay? Yes.
On National Coming Out Day in 1991, Dick Sargent took step out of the closet. Unknown to all but those closest to him, Dick Sargent had also been battling prostate cancer since being diagnosed in 1989. Despite radiation as well as a myriad of other treatments, Dick Sargent died on July 9, 1994.
Paul Lynde was gay. He never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, although he was widely known to be gay in Hollywood. According to Elizabeth Montgomery, Paul Lynde was specifically cast in Bewitched to be her gay uncle. In 1965, Lynde was involved in an accident where his lover, a young actor, fell to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel. The two had been drinking for hours before 24-year-old, James "Bing" Davidson, slipped and fell eight stories. The event witnessed by two policemen.
In 1978, he was arrested in Salt Lake City outside a gay bar resulting in his being dropped as a regular guest on the Donny & Marie show. It was his second arrest.
Why did Dick York leave the show?
A back injury he had suffered on the set of “They Came to Cordura” caused him increasing pain. In some of his final episodes on the show, the script was written around his being in bed or on the couch for the entire episode because of his back problems. During the fifth season, he collapsed on the set and was rushed to a hospital. In the hospital, he resigned from the show to devote himself to recovery.
How many of you folks out there remember Pandora Spocks?
(click here for a hint)
Scott Viets tells us that “Pandora Spocks was born in Los Angeles on April 15, 1933. A very distant (and sometimes disputed) relative of famous baby doctor, Benjamin Spock, Pandora legally added the "s" to her surname when she joined the Screen Actors Guild after appearing in her first television drama, "Top Ramen" for the TV program, "The Bobby Monty Show."
A graduate of the East River School for Girls in New York City, Pandora appeared on Broadway in "Late Love" where she had the serendiptious fortune of being cast as Elizabeth Montgomery's understudy due to her uncanny resemblance to the up and coming starlet. Hollywood soon beckoned when once again Pandora was asked to "shadow" Miss Montgomery in several TV & Movie appearances. The remarkable likeness between the raven haired Pandora and blonde Elizabeth came to the attention of William Asher in 1963 while the two ladies were filming "Johnny Cool."
Two years, two children and a husband later, Pandora found herself at an open casting call with 1,500 other actresses auditioning for the role of Serena. Initially losing the role to first choice, Melody Thomas, Pandora inherited the part only after Miss Thomas abruptly decided to concentrate her film work solely on the more lucrative and challenging technique of "Back Acting."
After "Bewitched" Pandora went on to make many TV Movies. "Out of Contention" was her first, followed by "Mrs. Moonshine," "A Case of Beer," "The Legend of the Dairy Borden Cow," and the mini series, "Pioneer Women Don't Need Make-up." Even today one of her most famous TV Movies, "Face to Face with the Sins of the Murder-Minded Black Widow Corpse" has become a favorite holiday classic.
Though she passed away in 1995, Miss Spocks continues to sing and dance her way into the hearts of audiences around the world with her wonderfully kooky, mod, sultry, delightful and ever-changing portrayal of Serena, fun-loving cousin to Samantha, forever blowing kisses in the wind.”
The Truth is, as some of you might have guessed by now, Pandora Spocks is a joke. Elizabeth Montgomery came up with the idea to credit her performance as Serena, to the fictional Pandora Spocks. The name was “a play on words” involving the mythological story of Pandora’s Box.
Hope you enjoy this small offering of some of the background of the cast of Bewitched. Catch you later!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon your blog while looking up information on Pandora Spocks.
Apparently, you and I have conflicting (mis)information. According to Sitcoms: The 100 Greatest TV Comedies of all Time (2007, Bloom&Vlastnik, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers), Pandora Spocks was born Sadie Feldman to Methodist missionaries in the Belgian Congo. Running away at 16, Feldman found her way to Encino, CA, where she worked as a checkout girl at an Alpha-Beta Supermarket. It was there that an ABC casting director spotted her, and the rest, as is said in showbiz, is Hollywood History.
Sure, it reads like something a Hollywood publisher whipped up to add glamour to a rising star's allure, but wouldn't it be mind-blowing if it were true?
Pandora Spocks was George Spelvin's sister! Another sibling, known simply as "Mrs. Fletcher", spent her youth in the Queens, NY neighborhood of Astoria, and is best known for her memoir of growing up there, titled "Fletcher's Astoria".
ReplyDelete